People's Artists of Ukraine Katerina Kokhar and Oleksandr Stoyanov. (Kiev Grand Ballet)
At 5 a.m. on February 24, 2022, Katerina Kokhar and her nanny Oleksandr Stoyanov called crying. Russia has invaded Ukraine, she told the terrified parents of two children.
The husband-and-wife principal dancers of the Grand Kyiv Ballet were touring France when they learned their young children were under siege 1,500 miles away. The couple was about to return home, but instead found themselves embroiled in a frantic effort to extract their children from the war zone.
It was a shock to us. We couldn't talk, we couldn't eat, we couldn't sleep. “It was the most horrific day of our lives,” Kokhar told the Daily News recently from the family's temporary home in Seattle.
Two years later, war breaks out, and while some of the dancers in their troupe return to Ukraine, most are scattered around the world. Kokhar and Stoyanov, performers with the National Opera and Ballet of Ukraine, are keeping their art alive — along with their culture — in the United States. Next weekend, they'll be bringing it to New York and the Tristate area with a group performing “Giselle.”
Stoyanov is the director of Grand Kyiv Ballet, a touring company he founded in 2014, and spends his days overseeing operations and directing artistic direction. Kokhar heads the Kyiv State Ballet College (KSBC), which allows young students to study and travel back and forth to Ukraine.
“During the first month of the war, my focus was only on saving people,” Kokhar said. “I hardly danced, and I even thought I might never return to the stage. Being invited to dance in a charity show forced me to get back in shape.
Shortly after the outbreak of war, the Grand Ballet performed in France, raising more than $300,000 for Ukrainian nonprofits for dancers, the military, troops and hospitals, Stoyanov and Kokhar said. They went to Scandinavia, where they raised money for Ukrainian children through Save the Children. It was a turning point for Kochhar.
“Definitely, when I went on stage for the first time a month after the war, I was terrified,” Kokhar said. “I wanted to cry during the performance, and every movement felt like a silent scream. But at the same time, a new meaning of life appeared on the stage. Thus began our struggle and our diplomatic mission around the world for victory.
Since that emotional first day, Kokhar and Stoyanov have worked hard to keep the ballet and its dancers at their best. All of the dancers experienced the disruption that war brought to their training schedules, compounded by the trauma of their country being attacked, the loss of friends and family, or being separated from loved ones. They didn't think it would last this long.
“Everyone thought that maybe after a few months everything would stop and we would go home,” Kokhar said.
But this did not happen. So, when friends in Seattle who owned a ballet school invited the couple out West, the two jumped at the chance to settle down with a place to live, a car, “a safe place for our kids, and a school,” Kochhar said.
Stoyanov said the ballet has established a new headquarters in Poland, less than 20 miles from the Ukrainian border. He mostly runs from afar.
“All of our base is in Poland, and all our costumes, props, props, everything we have is in Poland now,” he told the Daily News. “It's a safe place for our artists.”
Among these artists are 35 dancers hailing from Kiev, Kharkiv, and Odessa, touring the world to keep themselves, and their art, alive even as their country is under occupation. They have captivated audiences at the Opera National in Paris, the Bunka Kaikan Opera in Tokyo, the Oslo National Opera, and will soon be performing in New York City.
Royals, politicians, celebrities and other notable figures are among those who flock to see the powerful dancers move across the stage. Adding to the international flavor are dancers from other countries who have joined the troupe. Keeping this diaspora connected while its heartland remains under attack is their way of resisting the invasion, Stoyanov and Kokhar said.
“We now have two different tours in Europe: one in France and the other in the Czech Republic,” Stoyanov said.
Their first US dates are this weekend in Boston. And on Friday, March 1, they will be at the Oceana Theater in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, followed by shows in Trenton, Wayne and Englewood, New Jersey. The following weekend, they will return to New York City to dance at the King's Theater in Flatbush on March 9 and on March 10 at the Tribeca Center for the Performing Arts in Manhattan.
While such a schedule may seem exhausting, it is much less stressful compared to recent performances in Ukraine.
Kokhar periodically returns home to dance, see the family, and help supervise the school. She recalled one particular incident as particularly stressful. Twenty minutes into the premiere of a show in Kiev, the air raid alarm went off, and “everyone had to go to the shelter,” she said, including the entire orchestra and artists, where they waited more than an hour before returning to finish the show. . “It was a terrible day.”
But it is evolving into the new norm.
“Despite the war, students and pupils continue their studies, participate in international competitions, and even perform on the main stage in the country,” Kokhar said. “They have parties in the winter and summer. Life goes on despite the war.”
With news wire services
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