The Ukrainian International Ballet, organised in the Netherlands to continue to support refugee Ukrainian dancers, is making a fresh start, with a sophisticated modern look and with their first show already sold out.
About a dozen dancers with the company perform a programme titled INdependent24 in three separate days. The first show at the Korzo Theater in The Hague on 25th August, a day after the Independence Day of Ukraine, is already sold out.
Audiences still have opportunities to watch the second and third shows on 7th and 14th September in Maassluis and Hoofddorp, respectively.
INdependent24 features two new creations with very personal and somewhat human touches, followed by a Q&A session. The first ballet is Project - Emotions. It is choreographed by young Ukrainian Dmytro Borodai, who danced with the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv before the breakout of the war in Ukraine.
The second is de/het/één by Dutch choreographer Richèl Wieles.
The Ukrainian International Ballet was formed after its predecessor the United Ukrainian Ballet Foundation (UUBF) was closed in March 2024.
The predecessor was founded in 2022 in The Hague as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February the same year. It eventually gathered about 60 dancers, who were among the millions of Ukraine civilians displaced by the invasion and the subsequent war.
The UUBF quickly grabbed media attention as the renowned Russian choreographer Alexei Ratmansky joined the effort to support the company, allowing it to perform his Giselle and he himself rehearsed with the refugee dancers. The UUBF's Giselle premiered in September 2022 and toured internationally during 2022-2034 to receive positive reviews.
Originally, Ratmansky reinterpreted and created his version of Giselle for the Bolshoi Theater in 2019. The theater, however, no longer performs his Giselle. The war in Ukraine is still raging.
Now, reborn as the Ukrainian International Ballet, the company has a new look but on the same mission: to support and showcase Ukrainian dance talents.
"We have big future plans," Kseniia Novikova, the executive director and dancer of the company said to me in an email exchange.
Visit the Ukrainian International Ballet's website for more details.