(9 Mar 2022) The Kyiv City Ballet danced to a full house in Paris on Tuesday for the last show of a French tour that has left the company stranded after war broke out in Ukraine.
The young dancers were offered the stage of the Théâtre du Châtelet in the heart of the French capital.
The dance director of the Paris Opera along with some of her company's best joined them for an open class before performing together a medley of ballet classics, with excerpts from Russian composer Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.
Being given the opportunity to train and dance was for many a chance to focus on "something other than the conflict in Ukraine" according to the Kyiv City Ballet's Deputy Director.
"We are both physiclally and emotionnaly exhausted", Ekaterina Kozlova told the Associated Press. "Everyone in the ballet is worried about their families, loved ones, friends, colleagues at home. It's been very difficult."
One of the dancers will be headed to the Ukrainian border in the coming days to pick up her young daughter who was accompanied out of the country.
Only a part of the company was travelling around France performing a shortened version of The Nutcraker for young audiences. Many of the ballet's dancers stayed behind, waiting to join their colleagues after they reached Paris.
"Most of our artists are stuck in Ukraine," Director Ivan Kozlov told the crowd.
The city of Paris and the ballet community have helped find temporary accommodation for the Ukrainian dancers who say they wish to continue dancing in France and elsewhere.
All proceedings will go to NGOs collecting and shipping humanitarian aid to Ukraine and neighbouring countries.
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