Ballet Schools

During the week of Kyiv City Ballet in North Dorset they have been bringing their grace and resilience to local schools, giving local children and Ukrainian guests an opportunity to identify with these superlative Ukrainian dancers.

On Tuesday they visited Shaftesbury Primary and met children from 4 other local schools who were there by the invitation of Ben Smiley and the school.

The first was a workshop session where Ukrainian children and their close friends learnt the basic steps of ballet and how these are used to support different styles of dance.

The children, and their teachers, joined in enthusiastically, keeping good time, and quickly learning a number of steps in sequence.

Kristina Kadashevych and Olesia Tymchyshyn proved the flexibity and strength needed to be a ballerina and Ivan and Katya explained how this is achieved through training that can start as early as age 3 and the exercises that the dancers demonstrated.

Mykhailo Shcherbakov, demonstrated a pirouette and brought a moment of awe as this feat could be maintained for 5 turns with perfect balance.

Yevhenii Sheremet, Jack, showed us how these basic steps are different in style in the folk dance repertoire, contrasted with the steps from classical ballet shown by Kristina.

As well as a workshop the dancers took an assembly with the three oldest year groups and there was a very lively response to something unique.

The clothing, footwear and costumes were of great interest to the children and they had a chance to ask questions and meet the dancers personally.

One child was keen to show his own choreography and to demonstrate the steps and moves needed to fulfil it and, kindly, the dancers took his lead for a short time.

Jack then came into view, surprising us all by appearing in full costume and by leaping, pirouetting and posturing grandly in a very short routine from The Corsair. There was a moment of complete silence, real wonder at the apparently superhuman abilities Jack had developed over many years of hard work, good coaching and practice. Then a huge and spontaneous wave of applause.

Workshops took place later in the day in Sturminster Newton, where the dancers had lunch with Ukrainian children, their friends and students interested in dance.

After a drive through the beautiful downland of the Blackmore Vale we arrived at Clayesmore where a talk was followed by Supper with the staff and children.

On Thursday the dancers and directors visited Shaftesbury School and Gillingham School.

All our local schools have responded superbly to meet the needs of children displaced to our area.

In turn the children have integrated well and their English is now outstripping that of their parents. This gap is something to celebrate because it shows the progress children are making and yet it concerns parents that their child may be losing the link with the language and culture of their birth, in this case Ukraine.

It is for this reason that Kyiv City Ballet came to North Dorset to provide a much needed link to an important aspect of the children’s identity. It has been a chance for Ukrainian children to use their bilingual abilities and identify with their country and its rich heritage and quality that Kyiv City Ballet represent.

Our thanks to the organisations who made the week possible .

All photos on this page copyright Randallphotos.

Used with the permission of Jamie Randall.