Make no doubt about it. This 20-performance, 10-city tour by the Kyiv-based National Ballet of Ukraine is a charitable one. They want your money.
All proceeds are going to the Olena Zelenska Foundation which Ukraine’s first lady established in September, 2022, and to HUMANITE Canada, a non-profit which works in conflict zones. The main recipients are Ukrainian families, with the goal being to restore and improve their lives.
The tour is called Nadiya Ukraine, nadiya being the Ukrainian word for hope. The company will have already performed in Quebec City, Montreal and Ottawa, before arriving at Toronto’s CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, Jan. 24 to 27.
The company’s repertoire for the Nadiya tour includes classical showpieces, contemporary ballets featuring Ukrainian composers, and traditional folk dances. In fact, the finale is the exciting hopak. The performers include 10 principal dancers, and 13 corps de ballet members.
At full strength, the company has 150 dancers, and is based at Kyiv’s prestigious Taras Shevchenko National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. Not only is the National Ballet of Ukraine acclaimed universally for its artistry, the Kyiv State Ballet College at the Shevchenko Theatre has produced a coterie of famous dancers who populate companies worldwide. It is known for developing talent.
To that end, we spoke to Marc McMurrin, President and CEO of the Ginsburg Family Foundation, who was the prime mover in organizing the Canadian tour, and what a fascinating tale that is.
To capture an artist’s point of view, we talked with principal dancer Mykyta Sukhorukov, 33, who tells us about being a functioning artist in a war zone.
Marc McMurrin: The Interview
I’ve never heard of the Ginsburg Family Foundation. Can you tell me something about it?
We’re based in Winter Park, Florida, near Orlando, and we give away around $10 million dollars a year. Alan Ginsburg is 85 now. He made his money as a real estate developer. The purpose of the foundation is to create a philanthropic legacy for his children and grandchildren.
When he hired me, he told me he had enough money, and now doing good works was his main concern. Our focus is health care, education, refugees, and human rights.
So, how does a charity based in Florida end up sponsoring performances of a Ukrainian Ballet Company?
I’m actually the connection. I have roots in Ukraine, and I talked to Alan about doing fundraising for the Ukrainian cause, and he agreed. We both believe that we have a responsibility to stop Putin. Ukraine is fighting for the whole world.
In August, 2022, through my Ukrainian contacts, we held a concert by the National Ballet of Ukraine in Orlando that raised over a million dollars. It was always meant to be a one-shot deal, and never a tour, but no good deed goes unpunished. Because of this success, the Shevchenko Theatre asked me, where do we perform next?
Incidentally, we filmed the Orlando concert and PBS aired it. It’s available on YouTube. In a really wild circumstance, the performance was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Special Event Coverage—Edited, and it won.
So the Canadian tour is the follow-up to the Orlando concert?
In thinking about what to do next, Canada was a logical place because of the large Ukrainian diaspora there. The last time the company performed in Canada was 2018, so it was time to come again.
Was setting up the Canadian tour difficult?
Orlando was so successful, that I was really apprehensive about doing a follow-up, but I found great partners in Canada — the right people like HUMANITE, who were willing to come on board. I also reached out to first lady Olena Zelenska, and it was wonderful that her foundation became a part of it.
We’re just not raising funds for today. We’re also raising funds for the rebuilding.
The next obvious question is, what are your roots in the Ukraine?
My father is the conductor Roger McMurrin. When the Iron Curtain fell, he went to the Ukraine in 1991 to conduct works that had been forbidden by the Soviets, like Bach and Handel. He and my mother fell in love with the Ukrainian people and moved there, living in a three-room Soviet flat. My father later founded the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.
In organizing the Orlando concert, I was also thinking about my parents’ 25-year legacy of working and living in Ukraine. I was also very aware of the personal messages I was getting from friends on the front line.
Does the company still perform regularly in Kyiv?
They still perform, but only to an audience of 400 people, because that’s all that can fit into the bomb shelter. Sometimes the sirens go off in the middle of the performance. Everyone goes to the bomb shelter, and after the all-clear, the performance continues.
The point is, the company is providing an escape from the war through art.
Mykyta Sukhorukov: The Interview
First of all, tell me about your background.
I was born in Donetsk.
Oh my goodness. That’s in the Donbass where war was first declared by Russian separatists in 2014.
In my childhood, it was a nice place. It was considered the second most modern city in Ukraine.
When did you know you were a gifted dancer? You have an impressive list of dance competition medals.
I didn’t really. It was a teacher at the Donetsk State Choreographic School where I was studying who argued with my parents that I needed to do intensive study because I had real talent. I was thirteen. Finally my parents moved us to Kyiv where I could study dance at the private Kyiv Dance College. It’s very important to get a diploma or you can’t work in a company.
Did you join the National Ballet of Ukraine after you got your diploma?
No. I worked for another company for five years that put on shows for children and youth which I really enjoyed. It was the famous Ukrainian choreographer Aniko Rekhviashvili who brought me to the National. She had set a work on my company and really liked me. In fact, she made several dances for me. I joined the National in 2013 as a soloist, and was promoted to principal dancer two years later.
What was that first day of the Russian invasion like, in February, 2022?
Shock. Looking at the news in disbelief. We were supposed to be performing Bayadère that day, but we didn’t know if we should go to the theatre. We kept getting messages that no one knows what’s happening. That someone would figure it out. Then about an hour later, we heard that the theatre was closed.
Has the performance schedule changed since the war started?
We used to do 16 performances a month. Now, we just perform Thursdays to Sundays. Two ballets and two operas. Before the war, there were performances every day except Monday.
What’s it like when the sirens go off?
I don’t go to the shelter anymore. I know about war from Donetsk. I know the sound of bombing. When it gets loud, it means it’s getting closer. Then I find a shelter. People are pretty relaxed about it now, whereas, in the beginning, everyone was scared, and running to safety. Less and less people are going to shelters.
How do you cope with living in a war zone?
That’s not how I see it. People in the eastern part of Ukraine are in a war zone. That’s where the fighting is.
In the beginning there were shortages because of supply line interruptions. What’s facing everyone all over Ukraine now are rising prices. That’s the really big problem.
In looking at the Canadian program, is there not some irony that some of the repertoire are classics of Russian ballet like Le Corsaire and Don Quixote?
There is not one Russian composer on the program, or any choreography by a Russian. It’s forbidden. The Tchaikovsky ballets are banished. All the works we’re presenting have non-Russian composers. In fact, a good percentage of the program has Ukrainian composers.
You think the composers of the classics are Russian because they worked in Russia, but that’s not so. Take for example Minkus, who wrote the music for Don Quixote and La Bayadère. He was Austrian.
We are over 150 years from the original Russian choreographers and these ballets have been through many hands. They have all been reworked. Anything to do with Russia has been cut off.
Did you think about joining the army?
A lot of dancers are in the army, but I decided to do what I do best, which is dance. This way I can help fundraise for people who are struggling.
Before February 23, 2022, it used to be that politics and art were separate. Now they are not. I dance for the National Ballet of Ukraine. I represent my country. That’s political. It used to be an honour, now it is a necessity. It represents something very important.
Does it worry you that Ukraine may be slipping out of the news?
In a way, it’s not unexpected. Ukraine is a long way away, but it’s not a good feeling knowing that people are getting tired hearing about the war with Russia.
Is that why this Canadian tour is important?
By doing this tour, we can bring to everyone’s attention in Canada, the hardships of the ordinary people. We can remind them of what the Ukrainian people are still having to endure. That’s why the company keeps touring. In the last two years we’ve been in France, Italy, Japan, Slovakia.
And another thing. The rich cultural heritage of Ukraine is under attack, and these performances are helping to preserve it. I thank the Canadian government and the Canadian people for standing with us.
What do you see as the end game?
I think things are going to get worse. We are in a downward direction, and I have no idea how it will end. Many people think that if Putin is gone, that will solve the problem. Yet, do we know who would come after him? Will that person be any better?
Find out more about the National Ballet of Ukraine performance Jan. 24 to 27 here.
After Toronto, the Nadiya Ukraine tour continues to Winnipeg (Jan. 29), Regina (Jan. 31), Saskatoon (Feb. 3), Vancouver (Feb. 5 to 7). Edmonton (Feb. 9 & 10), and Calgary (Feb. 11).
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