The show must go on

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, March 27th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Ballet. It’s a cherished part of Ukrainian culture. But when Russia invaded in 2022, it turned the lives and careers of many dancers upside down. Still, for some, the show goes on, even far from home. WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson has their story.

SOUND: [Crowd noise]

KIM HENDERSON: It’s Saturday night at the Dothan, Alabama, Civic Center. Director Clay Dempsey is watching ticket holders pour into the auditorium.

DEMPSEY: First time the professional ballet has ever been at the Dothan Civic Center in its 50 year history…

This is the State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine.

DEMPSEY: We try to do a lot of things to shift the culture here. And this is definitely something different. I mean, honestly didn't know how it would go over, but it's going over well enough that they’re coming back January 6.

So a second performance is scheduled for next year.

But for tonight’s grand event, the State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine has brought 55 internationally renowned dancers to Dothan. They’re performing Swan Lake.

SOUND: [Curtain opening music]

The company is on tour until May with 140 shows spread across 36 states in the U.S. and Canada. William Ward is just glad they came to Alabama.

WARD: We're just really interested in the ballet. We drove down from Birmingham. Wanted to see the Ukrainian ballet in particular.

Ward says he’s not surprised a Ukrainian ballet company is touring during the war.

WARD: I don’t know. It kind of gets them out of the country, doesn't it, and it preserves that. After it's over, they can go back.

Samatha Walden brought her two granddaughters to see the performance.

GRANDMOTHER: Always make memories. They won't remember what you bought them for Christmas, but they'll remember this.

She’s probably right. It’s quite a production.

SOUND: [Ballet music]

Two hundred costumes. Hand-painted sets. The dancing, so “on point.”

Christina Hardy is here with 12 of her students from an area dance studio. Hardy says the Ukrainian ballerinas have matchless style and expression. She believes that’s due in part to the war raging in their home country.

HARDY: I feel that it actually helps entice art… how to express what's happening.

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During intermission, a ballerina comes to the lobby and poses—for a price—with admirers.

SOUND: [Camera clicking]

The ballet company’s photographer snaps away. Her name is Anastasia, and she’s Ukrainian. She describes their tour schedule.

ANASTASIA: We have three months from November to January, then we have, like, three weeks at home, and now we’re back and have three months more.

I ask whether the ballet company is touring her about the ballet company.

ANASTASIA: It's not since the war. I think it's like already 10 years, 10 anniversary of the touring.

But she’s not very talkative when pressed about the war. No one in the company is.

KIM HENDERSON: Has the war changed anything as far as the company?

ANASTASIA: Hard question for me.

SOUND: [Ballet music]

Ballet dancers have not escaped the ravages of the war. Leading Ukrainian dancer Artem Datsyshyn died after being injured in Russian shelling in Kyiv. Another, Oleksandr Shapoval, died while fighting with the military in the Donetsk region.

Still, despite Russian missile attacks, ballet performances have continued in Kyiv at the National Opera House in the theater's bomb shelter.

History underscores the unbreakable spirit of the arts. Here’s Ted Brandsen, director of the Dutch National Ballet, in an interview with 60 Minutes.

BRANDSEN: Dances will go on, choreographers will go on. The work will continue. Theaters, ballet companies, they have survived worse. They have survived famines, revolutions, two world wars. I think they will survive.

SOUND: [Ballet music]

Back in Dothan, the ballet is drawing to an end. Prince Siegfried and the lovely swan princess Odette are center stage.

It’s ironic that Swan Lake is the work of a Russian composer—Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The storyline is based on Russian folk tales.

But as Jose Gonzalez watched the Ukrainian dancers perform Swan Lake, he decided the choice makes perfect sense.

GONZALEZ: They're showing hope. They're showing that there's hope. You know, and it's beautiful what they're doing.

SOUND: [Ballet music]

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Dothan, Alabama.

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