09/30/2024
Get you tickets now for the Fall National Ballet of Ukraine - US Tour!!! Help Humanite Peace Collective rebuild schools in Ukraine.
Meet Tatiana Lozova!
Tatiana is a prima ballerina of the National Ballet of Ukraine. She's very proud to have been working with the theater for 23 seasons! On tour, she'll be dancing with her husband Yaroslav Tkachuk performing two very different numbers. Hear more about Tatiana's story:
"It has always been a great responsibility for me to represent Ukrainian ballet art overseas. Meanwhile I feel an even greater need to proclaim Ukraine through my dance and hold up Ukrainian culture around the world. Ukrainians are a nation of unconquered people! And we always rise up and look for solutions. These are very difficult times for us as ballet dancers, but no matter what we are doing everything we can to make sure that the theater executes new premiere performances and the repertoire remains rather diverse.
Despite all this, our theatre has no limits on performances. We give more than 20 various performances, operas and ballets monthly. Not every theater can brag of such expanded repertoire. During the war it was a unique phenomenon! It is very hard to plan anything in advance now, because every day might bring new threats or difficulties. The blackouts make our life very complicated, with no electricity I have to walk back home and climb 17th floors, after performance it feels like conquering Hoverla (Ukrainian Mount Everest). Occasionally we feel like heroes from the movie “Mission impossible” when the power goes out, there is no water or heating. Cooking food is not possible, I still have to do homework with my child and walk the dog, meaning going down and up the 17th floors again.
We remain optimistic, but sometimes it gets very scary. Recently, the sirens and shelling have been going on for many hours in a row. Often the bomb shelling lasts all night and we spend sleepless nights hiding in basements and shelters. There is not a single family in Ukraine that has not suffered from Russian terrorism. I don't know how to explain to my child why in the 21st century one country wants to destroy another. Our country has its own way and no one has the right to tell us how to live. That summer, an enemy drone flew into a neighboring house, fortunately no one died, but many people were taken to the hospital and the house was partially destroyed. The impact and consequences are still visible; the holes and craters at the yard and in the pavement are still there. Every day, walking through the yard, I realize how fragile and precious life is. A missile destroyed 5 floors of the block building where my relatives lived, they still cannot get into their apartment.
There were victims, many people lost their homes and property. People had to work hard for that and it is no longer there. My job is the only positive distraction for me now! Creativity keeps me away from despair and desperately anticipating help. We realize how difficult and at same time how important our work is now. When people come to the theater to see the performance, they could be distracted by the missile attack threat siren for a couple hours and after they seem to be peaceful and return to their seats, like in old happy times. Obviously very often the performance is interrupted by the siren, and we must go down to the bomb shelter along with the audience and hide until the siren stops.
On New Year's holidays, we usually give performances that are more focused on the younger generation. When the siren sounded and explosions were heard, my colleagues and I went to the children's bomb shelters to distract them from the terrible noise from bombs and missile detonations.
Surely, we are very much looking forward to going on a tour to the United States of America, but on the other hand, we are leaving our children and relatives at home. Hearing another siren notification on our phone, making us go through with more fear, knowing that my family is not with me and you are not able to help them.
I am aware that going on tour I am going to be doing a great thing, bring awareness and deep understanding of Ukrainian culture and the spirit of our people.
Doing so, I help my country in its fight against the terrorist country. Every donation at the concerts will go to a good cause, to restore homes and destroyed educational institutions, to rebuild hospitals and to develop an independent democratic state. I am proud to be a Ukrainian."
See Tatiana Lozova perform this October at the National Ballet of Ukraine U.S. Tour!
🔗NationalBalletUkraine.com
