The Bucharest Opera House comes to the rescue of seven Ukrainian dancers

Marcel Gascon Bucharest, 15 Mar The Bucharest National Opera Ballet has come to the rescue of seven dancers who have had their careers and lives cut short by the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, where they worked until now. Since Russian bombings began to devastate Ukrainian cities, six dancers from the Academic Ballet and Opera Theatre in the city of Dnipro and a dancer from the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre have found refuge and an opportunity to continue their careers in the Romanian capital. “It is vital for us to be able to continue rehearsing and dancing at a professional level so as not to lose shape,” Bogdana Alekseeva, a Ukrainian dancer from the Odessa Opera who has just joined the Bucharest Opera, tells Efe during one of the rehearsals. Born in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, 21 years ago, Alekseeva lost her father in 2014 in the Donbas war between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian Army. In the face of the closure of the Odessa theater where she worked, the young dancer wrote to several European centers asking for help. “The one in Bucharest responded and is giving us this great opportunity,” says Alekseeva as she fixes her shoes on a break. DEBUT WITH “GISELLE” The seven dancers, including four boys and three girls, have been hired until the end of this season by the ballet of the Bucharest Opera, with which they will debut this Saturday in “Giselle”. “It was an immense joy for us to be able to help them,” says the director of the Bucharest Opera Ballet, Laura Blica-Toader, who explains that she didn't know any of the Ukrainian dancers when she received her message online. RETURN TO THE ROOTS Among the dancers who have fled Ukraine and who now reinforce the Bucharest Opera Ballet is also Lara Paraschiv, a Canadian of Romanian parents who until now worked at the Dnipro Academic Ballet and Opera Theatre. Paraschiv returned to Eastern Europe left behind by his parents to study at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow. “Then I worked at the State Theatre in Astrakhan,” he says, referring to that city in southern Russia, near the Caspian Sea. From there, Paraschiv landed at the Dnipro theater in Ukraine, from where he fled to find refuge and an opportunity to continue dancing in the country from which his parents emigrated. She arrived in Romania after leaving Ukraine via Moldova along with two dancers from Kyrgyzstan, whom she met when they were dancing together in Astrakhan, and two others from Moldova itself. All of them are now part of the Bucharest National Opera Ballet, in which some hope to stay. ROMANIAN SOLIDARITY Both Alekseeva and Paraschiv are deeply grateful to Romanian guests who have offered them accommodation, a salary and continuous donations to cover all their needs after their hasty departure from Ukraine. “It has helped us a lot not to lose shape and they are giving us food, clothes and everything we need,” says Paraschiv, who hopes to be able to stay in Bucharest, where he has relatives, and with whom his colleagues were already in Astrakhan. “Neither I nor my mother had ever thought it would end up in Romania,” says the 23-year-old with a smile before returning to rehearsal with her classmates. CHIEF mg/jk/acm (photo)