for decades now russians have known the
drill
when there's bad news brewing such as
the death of a leader or a convulsive
event such as the chernobyl disaster
state tv switches its programming and
begins airing tchaikovsky's ballet swan
lake
nothing to see here folks
but also note the choice of distraction
ballet is centrally important to russian
society and to russian image
dancers slicing through the air and
challenging laws of physics and gravity
represents civility and grace but after
february 24th when russian military
troops invaded ukraine russian ballet
troops had their western tourists
cancelled and just last week moscow's
bolshoi theater abruptly canceled shows
by directors critical of putin's
military campaign
and so it is the brutal war plays out on
the most delicate of fronts leaving
ballet in exile
the story will continue in a moment
when ballet dancers are described as
god's athletes well you could offer up
olga smirnova as supporting evidence she
treads on air coming in on little cat
feet
she's a russian prima ballerina one of
the world's leading dancers
but days after russia invaded ukraine
smirnova pirouetted and stepped off her
stage at the renowned bolshoi theater
with dramatic flourish
she took to social media to express her
outrage and then fled the country the
modern day version of nuria for
barishnikov defecting when you sat down
to write that social media post
what did you want to communicate what
did you want to say
i just
couldn't keep it inside i was so ashamed
of russia and this is the truth i'm not
ashamed that i'm russian
but i'm ashamed
because of russia started this action i
wonder read what you wrote you said you
were against this war with every fiber
of your being but i now feel that a line
has been drawn that separates the before
and the after it's how i felt
24th of february this was the line
because it's
all changed
all changed the reputation of russia and
russians people
even
if you are not a soldier
you're just russian it
it's so it's
still
make a shadow on you being russian being
russian and it's really painful
predictably smirnova's post went viral
she was after all a leading light at
moscow's bolshoi ballet
from the russian word for big bolshoi is
the world's largest ballet company and
the most prestigious
the theater is physically close to the
kremlin a short walk away and also
aligned inextricably with the russian
government
czars loved the bolshoi
for decades communist leaders used the
bolshoi theater for political stage
craft holding rallies and giving
national addresses there this is
something that celebrates russia
every
important guest who would visit the
soviet union would be invited to the
ball show see the performance and
there was a pride of of russia at any
time
alexei radmonsky trained at the bolshoi
school and was for a time its artistic
director
he was born in russia but grew up in
kiev where his parents still live
[Music]
at the time of the invasion he was in
russia choreographing two ballets he
left the country immediately unwilling
to continue working in a world so tied
to the putin regime
as i was going in a taxi to the airport
i felt this chew
cut sand castles falling apart
uh
behind my back
the sand castles were the work the work
you had done yes yes yes
it was an agony it was a very hard day
and of course a catastrophic day for
ukraine
indiscriminate bombings and missile
strikes raining down upon the country
crushing lives and dreams
not least those of an ascendant
ballerina from kiev paulina chepic age
17. you wanted to be a ballerina for
years and years what was it like when
suddenly you couldn't couldn't go to
school couldn't dance
i was shocked and i like oh my god and
first about what i'm thinking that i
left my point shoes in college it was
your first thought
you left your point shoes at school
i left everything actually
war didn't stop her in her footsteps
she resumed dancing at home using
whatever she could as a bar
but after a few days her parents both
former dancers focused on getting
paulina out
they called on a famously well-connected
figure in the tight-knit ballet
community new jersey-based larissa
savliev
you're getting this
barrage of emails from from parents and
from dancers what are they what are they
telling you what are they asking you
uh
please help
that was get us out of here
they're willing to give up everything
else but they have to dance and the
parents were
you know it doesn't matter what we do
they have to dance this was their their
lifeline this is it they just they
they could not imagine not dance
in the 1990s she founded youth america
grand prix
a ballet competition and scholarship
program pairing aspiring dancers with
ballet schools worldwide well no they
want to see her for full year but you
have to come for the summer first now in
a humanitarian crisis she in the
international ballet community scramble
to action
savvlyev tapped her vast network
relocating more than a hundred young
ukrainian dancers to new schools and
host families
we give each child a number
just to move faster
and we say okay number 55 is like uh
just get a spot in stuttgart okay number
54 just get a spot in uh dresden cross
it off the list cross it off the list
when a slot opened for paulina she
stuffed leotards and tutus into a
suitcase along with a bottle of her
mom's perfume a reminder of home
and then she headed to keith's train
station and my parents are in a window
of train they said goodbye
i will love you everything will be fine
and i was crying and we were all crying
i was thinking maybe i
need to take my suitcase and go back to
my family because
my heart was broken really how did you
overcome that what what what made you
not get off that train
because it's open door for me it's a
like door for my dream
seventeen-year-old that she is paulina
documented the lonely odyssey on tiktok
trains and buses
five days and twelve hundred miles
keiv to levive poland to berlin finally
to amsterdam where she landed at the
dutch national ballet academy one of the
leading schools in the world
when you got to the new school and
started dancing again
how did that feel
oh i was very happy
yes
i
my mind
uh changed because i was thinking about
my parents all the time for my family
for my sister and when i go to the belly
class the this
world changed for me i have another
world a word of belly her adjustment was
made easier when she found other
ukrainian dance students who thanks to
larissa savliev also found safe harbor
in amsterdam
[Music]
paulina fell into a routine immediately
on the cusp of a professional career she
prepared for final exams
she was jittery beforehand
she emerged relieved triumphant and
eager to report back to mom
what did you tell her
that i was nervous but when i start
i do everything right
if the war has made refugees out of some
ukrainian dancers it's made soldiers out
of others
when the war began alexi podiumkin a
principal dancer with ukraine's national
ballet turned in his tights for military
fatigues
here he is in downtown la vie last week
having just returned from duty as a
medic
what was your life like before the war
before war i must i prepare in new
premier in ballet ukrainian valley
no like real normal life
and just one moment it's like
changes
but i need to do something i can sit
just at home in shelter and watch tv how
my friends die and
everyone do something
what have you seen these last few months
every day it's really scary
they
crashed everything destroyed houses of
civilians people
its brothers
sons
fathers sisters
while he says he's shaken by what he's
seen unfold on the battlefield he's also
appalled by a war taking place on
another front at the bolshoi
like we'll show now it's toxic feature
nobody want to work with you you said
toxic toxic yes in russia art its
politics its
russian government use use it
barely it's like weapon
the weapon was deployed at the bolshoi
as recently as last month when the
theater revived a production of
spartacus in support of the russian
military invasion
unnerving many in the dance world
including longtime head of the dutch
national ballet ted branson well it was
a very
clear statement
that we have to support our boys who are
on a military operation to
save ukraine from the fascists which is
a totally ridiculous concept of course
this allegory spartacus about the the
slave revolt is somehow being co-opted
by
yeah the aggressive superpower
absolutely no it's not it's not it's not
for nothing that this became one of the
signature ballets of the soviet
of the soviet time
[Applause]
abroad the ballet community has staged
benefit concerts to raise funds for
ukraine while russia's famed companies
the bolshoi and saint petersburg's
marinski have had their touring dates
cancelled
i think you need to be a little bit more
excited with your arms with the iron
curtain down artists have to pick a side
alexei radmonsky left moscow for
american ballet theater in new york
where he is artist in residence and
where we spoke with him remotely last
week sounds like you you don't buy this
idea that look individuals shouldn't
bear the responsibility for for the acts
of the state but our artists should just
be artists no i don't think the artists
are
separate from
politics and besides it's not for me
it's not politics it's about humanity
it's about responding to war crimes
responding to the crimes of your
government of your president
it just made things clear which things
are important and which aren't
and you make a choice you decide where
you want to belong
for olga smirnova that choice came
together in a matter of days after she
condemned the war
she left russia and landed on her feet
at the dutch national opera in amsterdam
just around the corner from paulina's
school it must have been
incredibly difficult
to leave the bolshoi
if you make a choice
you have
consequences
but
this is how it works
i had to leave everything
like
my home my theater my repertoire my
partners my parents
sister brother
everything
but i don't have
regrets
no regrets no
because at least i can be honest with
myself