United Ukrainian Ballet Company | |
---|---|
General information | |
Name | United Ukrainian Ballet Company |
Year founded | 2022 |
Closed | 2024 |
Founders | Igone de Jongh |
Founding choreographers | Alexei Ratmansky |
Website | unitedukrainianballet |
The United Ukrainian Ballet Company, or simply the United Ukrainian Ballet, was a Ukrainian ballet company. Founded in 2022 by Igone de Jongh, the troupe consisted of dancers in exile due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The troupe was based in The Hague, the Netherlands.
The company made its debut in August 2022, with a Dutch tour of Giselle , staged by Alexei Ratmansky, followed by appearances in the UK, Singapore, Australia and the United States. In January 2024, the troupe announced it would disband due to financial constraint. [1]
In February 2022, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, former Dutch National Ballet principal dancer Igone de Jongh was on tour with two Ukrainian dancers. [2] De Jongh then decided to form a company for the exiled dancers, to give them a safe space and opportunities to continue to dance. [3]
De Jongh and her impresario Matthijs Bongertman, who has a theatre management and production company, sought out help from the officials in The Hague and local businesses to establish a ballet company for the exiled Ukrainian dancers. [2] [4] [5] The troupe was offered the Royal Conservatory of The Hague's former building, which was set to be demolished, as its home base. The building was renamed Dutch Center for Ukrainian Dancers. In addition to rehearsal spaces, classrooms were also converted into dorm rooms for the dancers, their families and 200 other Ukrainian refugees. [4] [6] [7] The center was opened on 31 May by Jan van Zanen, the mayor of the Hague, and Maksym Kononenko, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the Netherlands. [2]
The news of the company was spread across the Ukrainian ballet world through social media. [4] The first group of dancers, about fifteen women, arrived in March. [8] Initially, the company only consisted of women, as men of military age were not allowed to leave Ukraine. [9] However, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture provided temporary permits for male dancers to leave, as the company promotes Ukrainian culture abroad. [9] The company grew to 70 dancers as of October 2022. [10] De Jongh also brought in choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, whom she had worked with, soon after she became aware of his staunch opposition to the invasion. Ratmansky, who has a Ukrainian and Russian background, immediately agreed to work with the company and donated his time. [4]
For its debut, the company decided to perform Giselle , in a new production staged by Ratmansky. Giselle was selected because the dancers were familiar with it, it required a large number of dancers, and it was not a Russian ballet. [4] Ratmansky, who arrived at the Hague in June to rehearse Giselle, adapted from his 2019 reconstruction of Giselle for the Bolshoi Ballet, which used archival documents such as dance notation from the 19th-century. The production used sets and costumes borrowed from the Birmingham Royal Ballet, including a forest backdrop originally made for another ballet, Ashton's The Dream , now used for the second act of Giselle. [4]
On 13 August 2022, the company began tryout performances of Giselle in Alphen aan den Rijn, followed by appearances in Heerlen and Zwolle, before the production officially premiered in Amsterdam on 22 August, then toured to Rotterdam. [4] [11] In September, the troupe performed Giselle in the London Coliseum. The English National Opera provided its orchestra, with Ukrainian Viktor Oliynyk conducting. [4] [6] The troupe was joined by guest dancers who performed the lead roles, including Christine Shevchenko, Alexandr Trusch and Katja Khaniukova, all Ukrainians with positions at other ballet companies, as well as Alina Cojocaru, who is Romanian but was based in Ukraine during her training and early career. [12] [13] The proceeds went to the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal and the United Ukrainian Ballet Foundation. [14]
In October 2022, the troupe performed Swan Lake , staged by Elena Glurjidze and assisted by Sara Knight, in Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, Australia. [15] [16] [17] In February 2023, the troupe performed Giselle at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Shevchenko returned as a guest artist. [18]
In March 2023, the company embarked on a Dutch tour for the mixed bill Dancing in Defiance, consisted of Wartime Elergy by Ratmansky, Falling Angels by Jiří Kylián, Step Lightly by Paul Lightfoot and Sol León, and Hopak, a Ukrainian folk dance, with choreography by Pavlo Virsky. [19] In December 2023, the company toured the gala programme Ukraine 4 Ever, consisted of excerpts and new creations, in the Netherlands. [20]
In January 2024, the troupe announced it would cease touring and disband due to financial constraints. [21]
Front Row, a documentary about the United Ukrainian Ballet directed by Dutch filmmaker Miriam Guttmann, is slated to be released in 2024. [22]
The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies. In the early 20th century, it came to international prominence as Moscow became the capital of Soviet Russia. The Bolshoi has been recognised as one of the foremost ballet companies in the world. It has a branch at the Bolshoi Ballet Theater School in Joinville, Brazil.
The Sergeyev Collection is an assemblage of materials that document the repertory of the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg as it existed at the turn-of-the 20th century. The collection consists primarily of choreographic notation and music for many of the notated works. Also included are designs for stage décor and costumes, photos, and theatre programmes for performances of the Imperial Ballet at the turn-of-the 20th century. The choreographic notations of the Sergeyev Collection record—in varying degrees of detail—the original works and revivals of the choreographer Marius Petipa, who served as Premier Maître de ballet of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres from 1871 until 1903. Also included is notation for choreography by Lev Ivanov, who served as Second Maître de ballet of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres from 1885 until his death in 1901. The dance sections of several operas are also among the notated choreographies of the Sergeyev Collection, the majority of which are the work of Petipa and Ivanov, respectively.
Bella Figura is a contemporary ballet choreographed by Jiří Kylián to music by Lukas Foss, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Alessandro Marcello, Antonio Vivaldi and Giuseppe Torelli. The ballet was made for the Nederlands Dans Theater, and premiered on 12 October 1995, at AT&T Danstheater, The Hague.
Sarah Lane is an American ballet dancer who was a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre (ABT). She served as a "dance double" for Natalie Portman in the 2010 film Black Swan.
Hildur Isabella Boylston is an American ballet dancer who is currently a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT).
Christine Shevchenko is a Ukrainian-American ballet dancer. She currently performs as a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre.
Alexei Osipovich Ratmansky is a Russian-Ukrainian-American choreographer and former ballet dancer. From 2004 to 2008 he was the director of the Moscow Bolshoi Ballet. He left Russia in 2008. In 2009 he was appointed the artist in residence at the American Ballet Theatre, and as artist in residence at the New York City Ballet from August 2023.
Artem Vyacheslavovich Ovcharenko is a Russian classical ballet dancer. He is a principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet and a guest artist with the Hamburg Ballet.
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Lunkina is a Russian-Canadian ballerina who is a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada.
Igone de Jongh is a Dutch ballerina and a former principal dancer with the Dutch National Ballet. She is featured in the music video for Anouk's song Birds, the official Netherlands entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 2013.
Artem Nikolayevich Yachmennikov is a ballet artist, soloist and premier at leading theaters, including the Bolshoi Theatre and Mariinsky Theatre.
Natalia Matsak is a Ukrainian ballet dancer, prima ballerina in the National Opera House of Ukraine, and an Honored Artist of Ukraine.
Toer van Schayk is a Dutch ballet dancer, choreographer, scenic and costume designer, painter, and sculptor. Along with Rudi van Dantzig and Hans van Manen, he is one of the creative triumvirate that brought the Dutch National Ballet to international prominence in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Stella Abrera is a Filipina-American ballet dancer. She danced as a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre until her retirement in 2020, and is the company's first Filipina principal ballerina. She then became the artistic director of the dance cultural park Kaatsbaan, and in September 2022 took up the role of artistic director of the ABT JKO School. following Cynthia Harvey's departure in May.
Devon Teuscher is an American ballet dancer. She is a principal dancer in the American Ballet Theatre.
Anna Nikulina is a principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, Russia. Her first lead role was Odette-Odile in Swan Lake in 2004 at the age of 19. She has toured both internationally and within Russia. Her répétiteur as of 2021 is Olga Chenchikova, a former Bolshoi principal. In previous years her répétiteurs have been the important Russian dancers Ekaterina Maximova, Nina Semizorova, and Ludmila Semenyaka. She graduated in 2002 with honors from the Moscow State Academy of Choreography.
Artem Viktorovych Datsyshyn was a Ukrainian ballet dancer and soloist with the National Opera of Ukraine, where he performed leading roles in ballets including Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. He achieved prizes in international competitions, and toured in Europe, North America, and Japan. He was killed by Russian artillery fire during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Anna Ol is a Russian ballet dancer. She is a principal dancer in the Dutch National Ballet.
The Grand Kyiv Ballet, also called Kyiv Grand Ballet or Kiev Grand Ballet, is an independent touring ballet company of Ukrainian ballet dancers from Kyiv temporarily operating from the International Ballet Academy in Bellevue, Washington, USA while in refuge from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Stanislav Olshanskyi is a Ukrainian ballet artist, a principal dancer at Miami City Ballet, and former principal dancer of the National Opera of Ukraine (2016–2022).