The Balletistan Gala: A Night to Remember

1 September 2020

Since the beginning of quarantine, the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet has remained temporarily closed and ballet audiences have sorely missed the impressions of beauty, harmony, and soulfulness associated with a ballet performance, while the dancers themselves have been yearning for the chance to perform. Theatres across the world are undergoing the same situation, however a Turkish Impresario, Sinan Ertemel and his Associate Artistic Director Sergiy Iefanov, have brought ballet back to Kyiv, including the artists of the theatre in a gala performance through their larger project Balletistan.

Balletistan’s mission is to produce ballet performances and make both ballet dancers and the artform accessible to the public. Ertemel and Iefanov host regular Wednesday talks engaging with international dancers, discussing their life histories, inspirations and goals. One of Balletistan’s first producing projects brought a group of Ukrainian dancers to Turkey for a gala performance “From Kyiv to Istanbul” in April 2019. While hoping to repeat this performance in 2020, they managed to expand their scope in spite COVID-19; on 29 August, through an online gala, they presented “From Kyiv to the World.”

This gala proved an overwhelming success and a reprieve of beauty in our weary world. The dancers should be proud for returning to the stage; they offered exquisitely beautiful performances. The gala opened with Elena Filipyeva and her husband Vitaliy Netrunenko in a contemporary duet from Carmen. Anna Muromtseva, an ethereal and lyrical ballerina, performed two excerpts from The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake dancing opposite premiere dancers Alexis Tutunnique and Serhii Kryvokon. The astonishing pas de deux from Don Quixote was performed by virtuoso Stanislav Olshanskyi, and rising star Anastasia Gurskaya was accompanied by demi-soloists Elizaveta Gogidze and Inga Matskeva. Veronika Gordina and Andrij Gavryshkiv danced the seldom staged Harlequinade. An especially moving adagio from The Snow Queen was performed by Yaroslav Tkachuk and Tetyana Lozova.