The Kyiv City Ballet was performing in France when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. The dancers tell Madeline Schwartz of their plans to keep performing.
The art of ballet comes from concentration, discipline, and consistency: the same movements, repeated at the bar and across the floor; a language of pliés, relevés, jetés that has remained stable for hundreds of years.
But the rehearsal of the Kiev City Ballet on March 16 was unusual in almost every way. The dancers practiced in a small room crowded with reporters taking photos and videos. There was too little space at the bar for all the dancers, so some used chairs or the side of a piano as they did their exercises. As they leaped across the floor in small groups, one dancer’s stride was too wide for the room, and he bounced out the door. Another fell awkwardly on his feet; he seemed to have hurt his ankle.
Ekaterina Kozlova, who runs the company with her husband Ivan Kozlov, alternated between supervising her charges and watching the journalists, some of whom had been upsetting the dancers with their questions...Keep reading on National Geographic.
The art of ballet comes from concentration, discipline, and consistency: the same movements, repeated at the bar and across the floor; a language of pliés, relevés, jetés that has remained stable for hundreds of years.
But the rehearsal of the Kiev City Ballet on March 16 was unusual in almost every way. The dancers practiced in a small room crowded with reporters taking photos and videos. There was too little space at the bar for all the dancers, so some used chairs or the side of a piano as they did their exercises. As they leaped across the floor in small groups, one dancer’s stride was too wide for the room, and he bounced out the door. Another fell awkwardly on his feet; he seemed to have hurt his ankle.
Ekaterina Kozlova, who runs the company with her husband Ivan Kozlov, alternated between supervising her charges and watching the journalists, some of whom had been upsetting the dancers with their questions...Keep reading on National Geographic.