People’s Artist of Ukraine Katerina Kuhar and Oleksandr Stoianov. (Kyiv University Ballet)
At 5 a.m. on February 24, 2022, Katerina Kukhar and Oleksandr Stoianov’s nanny called them crying. Russia had invaded Ukraine, she told the frightened parents of her two children.
A principal dancer and his wife from the Grand Kyiv Ballet were on tour in France when they learned their young children were under siege 1,500 miles away. The couple was about to fly home but found themselves caught up in a desperate effort to get their children out of the war zone.
“It was a shock for us. We couldn’t speak, we couldn’t eat, we couldn’t sleep. Those were the most miserable days of our lives,” Kukar said recently. He spoke to the Daily News from his family’s temporary home in Seattle.
Two years later, the war has escalated and some of the troupe’s dancers have returned to Ukraine, but most are scattered around the world. Kuhar and Stoianov, performers with the Ukrainian National Opera and Ballet, keep their art, along with their culture, alive in the United States. Next weekend, he plans to bring the performance to New York and the tri-state area with a group performing “Giselle.”
Stoianov is the director of Grand Kyiv Ballet, a touring troupe he founded in 2014, and spends his days overseeing its operations and guiding its artistic direction. Kukar heads the Kyiv State Ballet College (KSBC), which allows young students to study and travel to and from Ukraine.
“During the first month of the war, I was only focused on saving people,” Kukar said. “I hardly danced and even thought I might never be able to go back on stage. I was invited to dance at a charity performance, so I had to get back in shape.”
Immediately after the outbreak of war, the Grand Ballet performed in France and raised more than $300,000 to support nonprofit organizations for dancers, the army, the armed forces and hospitals in Ukraine, Stoianov and Kuhar said. . They headed to Scandinavia to raise money for children in Ukraine through Save the Children. It was a turning point for Kukar.
“It is true that I felt terrible when I stepped on stage for the first time after a month of war,” Kukar said. “During the performance, I wanted to cry. Every movement felt like a silent cry. But at the same time, a new meaning of life appeared on the stage. Our struggle and diplomatic mission has begun.”
Since that emotional opening day, Kuhar and Stoianov have worked hard to keep the ballet and dancers in top condition. The dancers all suffered from the disruption of their training schedules due to the war, compounded by the trauma of having their homeland attacked, losing friends and family, and being separated from loved ones. They didn’t expect it to last this long.
“Everyone thought that in a few months everything would stop and we would be able to go home,” Kukar said.
But that didn’t happen. So when a Seattle friend who runs a ballet school invited the couple out West, they jumped at the chance for a stable place to live, a car and “a safe place for their kids and a school,” Kuhar said. .
Stoianov said the company has established a new headquarters in Poland, just less than 32 miles from the Ukrainian border. He mainly manages from a distance.
“All of our bases are in Poland, costumes, decorations, props, everything else is currently in Poland,” he told the Daily News. “This is a safe place for artists.”
These artists include 35 dancers from Kiev, Kharkiv, and Odessa who are touring the world to protect themselves and their art despite their homeland being under occupation. Masu. They have captivated audiences at the Opéra National in Paris, the Cultural Center in Tokyo, the Staatsoper in Oslo, and will soon perform in New York.
Royalty, politicians, celebrities, and other notables also flock to watch the powerful dancers fly across the stage. The presence of dancers from other countries in the troupe also adds to the international atmosphere. Stoianov and Kuhal said that while the heart of this diaspora is under attack, maintaining the connections of this diaspora is a way to resist invasion.
“Currently, we have two different tours in Europe: one in France and one in the Czech Republic,” Stoianov said.
Their first U.S. date will take place this weekend in Boston. Performances will begin on Friday, March 1st at the Oceana Theater in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, followed by performances in Trenton, Wayne, and Inglewood, New Jersey. Next weekend, they will return to New York City to perform at the King’s Theater in Flatbush on March 9th and at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in Manhattan on March 10th.
Although such a schedule may seem demanding, it is far less stressful than his recent performance in Ukraine.
Kukar returns home regularly to dance, visit family, and help with school supervision. She recalled one incident as particularly stressful. She said an airstrike siren went off 20 minutes into the first act of one performance in Kiev, forcing everyone, including the entire orchestra and artists, to seek shelter and waiting for more than an hour before the performance ended. . . “It’s been a terrible day.”
But it is evolving into a new normal.
“Despite the war, students and students continue to study, participate in international competitions and appear in productions in the country’s major theaters,” Kukar said. “We have recitals in winter and summer. Life goes on even when there is war.”
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