The big news is that Russian prima ballerina Olga Smirnova is making her UK debut since sensationally quitting the Bolshoi Ballet and leaving her country in protest over the invasion of Ukraine.
Olga will perform this Sunday at the London Palladium for Ukrainian ballet legend Ivan Putrov’s glittering Dance For Ukraine II gala. She will be joined by a host of international stars, alongside principals from the Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and English National Ballet including Marianela Nuñez, Lauren Cuthbertson, Matthew Ball, William Bracewell and Sangeun Lee.
Just look at the full list below – it really is a breathtaking array of the best the world has to offer, many of them rarely, if ever, seen in the UK.
Ivan himself told The Express about the inspiration for the fundraiser and how he carefully chose the pieces that will be performed.
Buy tickets HERE Dance for Ukraine II at the London Palladium
Ivan said: “For the gala, Olga is performing Carmen with a Ukrainian dancer Denis Matvyenko, and the Dying Swan, made famous by Anna Pavolva. You know, history repeats itself. Anna Pavlova left Russia. And why did they both leave? Because they did not like what was happening.
“Olga left everything behind in Russia in protest to the war. She said she is ashamed of what Russia is doing now. Her grandfather is Ukrainian. She could have sat quietly somewhere and not done anything and just avoid all trouble. But no, she’s taken all she can and she’s using it for good cause. And that’s exactly what we’re doing.
“I don’t care if she’s from Mars, I don’t care if she’s from Russia, I don’t care if she’s from anywhere. She is our friend. And her stance must be celebrated.
“There are other Russians who are also our friends. Putin is not Russia. We don’t hate like that. There are Russians who are showing to the world that their values are different to the Russians now who are attacking Ukraine and trying to kill and impose their own way. It doesn’t matter whether you’re Russian, English, Ukrainian. It matters what your beliefs are.”
Ivan said: “The programme is mainly classical and neoclassical, with only very few modern pieces. I myself will be performing in a duet by Russell Malefant, Two times Two, and I think it’s a masterpiece. The light becomes another player on stage. So there is a relation between the light and the movement. It’s almost like, this is my personal view, the flying bullets, the rockets. The absolute insanity of these fast little objects appearing and disappearing out of light.
“The Ukrainian National Ballet is represented by Olga Golytsia, Volodymyr Kutuzov and Vladyslav Bosenko. So there will be some Gopa, the Ukrainian and Cossack dance.
“The gala finishes in a very sombre way with Gloria, the masterpiece by Sir Kenneth Macmillan about the First World War.”
The gala will raise funds to support young aspiring dancers in Ukraine and to mount a production of Sir Frederick Ashton’s classic comedic romantic ballet La Fille mal gardée at Kyiv’s National Opera of Ukraine, which has valiantly continued to put on performances during the invasion.
Ivan said: “It is a ballet about joy and love. Everybody in Kyiv is already excited about working on this and a pair from the Latvian National Ballet will perform an excerpt for us. This gala also means there’ll be a kid who will get the pointe shoes they need or watch their first ballet.
“We still need the armaments, we still need all the help, food, everything, financial support. But we also need inspiration, we need to know what we’re living for. If we don’t have a reason to live, then what are we fighting for? And for a lot of people in Ukraine, the reason is art. These are the ways that we want to live, and Ukrainians are now fighting for it.”
Ivan lost his cousin Dima in the frontline fighting, his mother made a “terrifying journey” to London and his father remains in Kyiv, “his heart pounding” at the bombardments. He has friends there who tell him of a building next to their daughters’ school exploding and he knows that many fellow performers enlisted.
“All those dancers that went to fight right away, they perished,” he says. “I would have taken a gun. But there is something else that I know how to do, and I do better. I know how to dance, I know how the dance world works, and I feel that my efforts in the field will be more effective and more helpful for my homeland.
“I want to help those in Ukraine who suffer to see that they are not alone, that there are people who care for them. So, yes, I want to celebrate life.
“And I want to thank the UK, who I believe are the greatest supporters of Ukraine. And also I must say thank you to the Palladium team and LW Theatres. It’s wonderful to see that commercial world recognize the need to help others too. It is so telling I think of British society that you could be commercial, but at the same time you could be giving.
“So, you know, it gives me hope that humanity, after all, is not lost.”
