The garlands are still hanging in the ballet studio and the ‘Happy Birthday Dear Alexis’ echoes in the corridors of the former Royal Conservatory in The Hague. This vacant building, known as a ‘bunker’ among former students, has been made suitable for the reception of 250 Ukrainian refugees. Blue-yellow welcome paper with hearts and house rules dominates the entrance.
Most striking, however, is the first floor in the left wing. It is reserved for fifty Ukrainian dancers. Twenty-two people are already walking through the corridors, with that typical spring-like dancer’s stride. All but three women, waiting for men. They still have to get permission from above to flee to the Netherlands.
Dancers in bomb shelters
The idea for a temporary dance center for Ukrainian dancers started with ballet great Igone de Jongh (42). With her impresario Matthijs Bongertman (director Senf Theaterpartners) and Ukrainian colleagues Alexis Tutunnique (the job’s birthday, who just turned 28) and Stanislav Olshanskyi (29) she stood at the cradle of the plan to bring a large group of ballet dancers to safety in The Hague and unite them in a company to help keep Ukrainian dance culture visible and rescue it from oppression.
In February, Tutunnique and Olshanskyi, two soloists of the National Opera in Kyiv, toured Dutch theaters alongside the most famous ballet dancer in the Netherlands for the performance. I – Igone† When Russia invaded Ukraine, both dancers were suddenly unable to go home. Their apartments, colleagues and family came under fire.
‘Matthijs and I saw all those videos pouring in on their phones, of dancers hiding in metro stations and air-raid shelters. We wanted to do something to make our solidarity concrete’, says De Jongh, while the dancers behind her follow the daily ballet lesson of dance coach Rinus Sprong. ‘We set up a foundation and tapped into all our contacts. Alex made a list of dancers who wanted to leave. I called Femke Halsema to see how we could quickly meet with the mayor of The Hague Jan van Zanen and the Ukrainian ambassador Maksym Kononenko. And as an impresario, Matthijs has used his network with opera and ballet companies in Charkiv, Kyiv and Odesa.’
For example, a Dutch Center for Ukrainian Dancers has been realized in The Hague with joint efforts. It will be opened by the mayor and the ambassador on Tuesday 31 May. De Jongh takes on the artistic direction of the new company: the United Ukrainian Ballet Company. She even managed to get acclaimed ballet choreographer Alexei Ratmansky to personally perform his award-winning ballet classic in June. Giselle (made at the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow) to come and study. Costumes and sets may be borrowed from the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Ratmansky, born in Russia but with family ties in Kyiv, canceled all his assignments at the Bolshoy immediately after the invasion, where he was artistic director for many years.
But if the Ukrainian dancers really want to interpret the struggle of the peasant girl Giselle, cheated by Count Albrecht, male ballet dancers are essential for the famous pas de deux. A premiere with a live orchestra is already planned at the end of this summer in the Coliseum in London. At the beginning of September, this Ukrainian Giselle in Amare in The Hague and in Carré in Amsterdam.
Russian mentality
Diplomatic pressure is now being exerted at the highest level: even the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky seems to be interfering. But it turns out not to be easy to get permission to bring the men to the Netherlands. ‘Not just because they can be called up to arms’, Tutunnique explains. “Artistic leaders fear that some may not come back.”
According to him unfounded. He is lucky to have been able to bring his mother to The Hague, but they are determined to return as soon as theaters and companies can function again. The Ukrainian soloist can hardly suppress his annoyance at the Russian mentality that, according to him, still often prevails at the top of opera and ballet companies in his native country. “Some ballet masters have rescued themselves and family members but forbid my friends to cross the border.”
As long as there are no men yet, the women don’t have to sit still. None other than the Czech-born choreographer Jíří Kylián (75) and his Kylián Foundation generously supported the project, under the motto ‘bed, bread & ballet’, a nod to the ‘bed-bath-bread arrangement’ whereby government and private individuals provide basic emergency shelter for those who have exhausted all legal remedies.
This afternoon Kylián is in the reception center in The Hague for the first time to see one of his few women’s pieces, Falling Angels (1989), to study with them. His Australian assistant Roslyn Anderson, his right-hand man at the Nederlands Dans Theater for many years, has already taught the dancers the steps. The grandmaster works on details, intention and energy. ‘You have to dance like it’s happening to you. Your shrugged shoulders are startled. As if a swarm of wasps is approaching. What is wasp in Ukrainian?’
Dancers have to dance
Kylián speaks Russian fluently, just like the dancers, but he tries to avoid that loaded language as much as possible. ‘As a young dancer, I was able to catch the last train from Prague to West Germany in 1968, before Russian tanks invaded Czechoslovakia. I had a valid visa because choreographer John Cranko offered me a contract with the Stuttgart Ballet.’
Kylián still remembers his hasty departure after participating in a protest demonstration: ‘It was terrible. It rained. Everyone cried. I was sure I could never return.” Dancers have to dance, he emphasizes. ‘War is terrible for everyone. But for dancers it is a catastrophe. Their career is already very short.’
Then De Jongh comes to say hello to Kylián. The two greats from Dutch dance will only meet live for the first time today. She has news. Not about the men. The Ukrainian choreographer Ksenia Zvereva lends her male duet for Alexis and Stanislav and also turns a Ukrainian fairy tale into a Christmas performance for a tour of Dutch theaters. Or her group Kyliáns Falling Angels may also bring to the public, the choreographer will decide next month.