Ukrainian Ballet Coming to Lafayette

Lafayette is getting a pretty big show.

It was announced that the Kyiv City Ballet will be making a stop in Lafayette.

The Kyiv City Ballet has been on tour since the day before the war between Ukraine and Russia started in February. The company started out the tour in France and decided to not return home once the war started.

“Touring the States for the first time with a range of ballets makes an important global statement. It demonstrates the resilience of the Ukrainian people,” Kyiv City Ballet artistic director Ivan Kozlov said in a statement.

The company’s tour in the United States will kick off on September 16, 2022, and will stop in 12 cities. Lafayette is one of the cities that will be lucky enough to host this ballet. The performance is set for October 23 and 24 at the Heymann Performing Arts Center. There will be a Sunday evening performance and a daytime performance on Monday for local school children.

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According to the press release, the Kyiv City Ballet will include performances of a full-length “Swan Lake” and a mixed repertory program featuring three ballets: “Thoughts,” “Tribute to Peace,” and “Men of Kyiv,” a Ukrainian folk dance. The tour will include the company’s principal dancer, Vsevolod Maevskiy, as well as two of Ukraine’s prima ballerinas, Krystina Kadashevych and Oksana Bondarenko.

The stop in Lafayette is being supported by PASA and Jackie Lyle, PASA executive director, told the Acadiana Advocate, that bringing Kyiv City Ballet to Lafayette reflects PASA’s mission to build the community’s understanding of the broader world and increase access to the arts by bringing nationally and internationally recognized performing artists to Lafayette.

“We know that the performing arts drive important conversations. The current situation in Ukraine demands the attention of the world, and if we can help build that attention and build some understanding and showcase another culture — we will,” Lyle said.

Tickets will go on sale by the end of July and will be available through Ticketmaster, PASA’s website, and the box office at the Heymann Center.

Here is a French interview with some of the Kyiv City Ballet Members: