The survival of the Russian ballet tradition in Lviv (98 images)

View: 100 | All
  • Don Quixote

  • As the final curtain falls there is an undignified stampede for the exit. It is late and the ballerinas are under pressure to return their "pachki" - their tutus - to the costumes department fast to let staff get home on time.

  • Serguei Najenko as Don Quixote is deft at applying his own makeup. Smoking is a popular vice among the dancers

  • Practising a move during workshops

  • Serguei Kachura, balleron and soloist, who is married to ballerina Anna Sapunkova. Their daughter is also a budding ballerina.

  • Polish ties are still strong. The ballet received a major boost including a major renovation and new state of the art scene management systems, during a visit of the Polish born Pope Jean Paul II.

  • Swan Lake

  • Serguei Najenko as Don Quixote is deft at applying his own makeup. Smoking is a popular vice among the dancers

  • Swan Lake, the evergreen Russian classic, is also the ballet's bread and butter. The hall is always full when it is played, and it is especially popular with the streams of Polish tourists who visit Lviv in the summer. Many of the Polish tourists have come to seek their roots, after their families were driven out of Ukraine by nationalist anti-Polish pogroms that followed the last world war.

  • Backstage during Don Quixote

  • Physical contact with pupils, viewed as problematic in some western countries, is an essential part of the normal teaching process here. ..The pupils seems to thrive on and respond to the challenge of the discipline. The school's name describes itself as a Russian - rather than Ukrainian

  • Don Quixote

  • Backstage during Don Quixote

  • Backstage during Don Quixote

  • Watching backstage between shifts onstage

  • Don Quixote

  • Being strapped in - ballerina's preparations for Swan Lake

  • Backstage during Don Quixote

  • Lviv State Ballet School prepares a future supply of ballerinas and ballerons (the Russian word for male ballet dancers) for the Lviv National Ballet


  • Backstage during Don Quixote - practising her moves before entering stage


  • Lviv State Ballet School prepares a future supply of ballerinas and ballerons (the Russian word for male ballet dancers) for the Lviv National Ballet


  • Classical ballet classes for younger children at Lviv State Ballet School. Pupils learn to dance 'pointe' - on their toes - earlier than is considered normal in western Europe.

  • Nataliya Vassilievna Slobodyan was one of the greatest ballerinas produced by the Soviet Union. Now 86, she still teaches ballet everyday at the National Lvov Ballet. Her father was a journalist, of Russian nationality, her mother a Polish opera singer at the Moscow Conservatory. Irrepressibly jolly, she has seen a lot in her eventful life. She graduated as a ballerina in Kiev in 1942 at the height of the Nazi occupation, during which 50% of Kiev's civilian population died. Her father was one of those taken and executed by the Gestapo. At one point members of the audience were blown on to the stage during a performance by the impact of a bomb that landed in the front row. Fortunately it did not explode, but many were killed by the impact. She was a witness to the gathering of jews for the infamous execution at Babi Yar. There she met her ballet teacher and his wife, who were debating whether she should accompany him. ..

  • Ballerina's preparations for Swan Lake

  • Backstage during Don Quixote

  • "Pachki" - a tutu, being prepared for Swan Lake


  • Preparing for the final Act


  • While their origins is in the core skills of classical ballet, the dancers are fascinated by and keen to experiment with modern dance.

  • Swan Lake, the evergreen Russian classic, is also the ballet's bread and butter. The hall is always full when it is played, and it is especially popular with the streams of Polish tourists who visit Lviv in the summer. Many of the Polish tourists have come to seek their roots, after their families were driven out of Ukraine by nationalist anti-Polish pogroms that followed the last world war.

  • After a series of accidents at the Ballet, most recently where a colleague slipped on ice in the street, banged his head, and died, the dancers call in a Russian Orthodox priest to carry out services of blessing in rooms around the Opera building.

  • Limbering up

  • Young ballerina at rehearsals in Lviv Ballet

  • Physical contact with pupils, viewed as problematic in some western countries, is an essential part of the normal teaching process here. ..The pupils seems to thrive on and respond to the challenge of the discipline. The school's name describes itself as a Russian - rather than Ukrainian

  • Lviv State Ballet School prepares a future supply of ballerinas and ballerons (the Russian word for male ballet dancers) for the Lviv National Ballet


  • Don Quixote


  • Lviv State Ballet School prepares a future supply of ballerinas and ballerons (the Russian word for male ballet dancers) for the Lviv National Ballet



  • Lviv State Ballet School prepares a future supply of ballerinas and ballerons (the Russian word for male ballet dancers) for the Lviv National Ballet



  • During week in between performances there is a gruelling programme of practise sessions for dancers of the Lviv National Ballet.


  • Oksana is the head of the costume design department - the Ballet is well known for its beautiful costumes, custom designed and made for each production, some of which can be seen in Don Quixote. The costume design goes hand-in-hand with the scenography - Lviv was known as having perhaps the most beautiful scenography of any company in the former Soviet Union. It is therefore fitting that Oksana's husband until his death was the great scenographer Yevgeny Lysyk.


  • Ballerina's preparations for Swan Lake

  • Ballerina's preparations for Swan Lake




  • Ballerina's preparations for Swan Lake

  • Ballerina's preparations for Swan Lake



  • Swan Lake, the evergreen Russian classic, is also the ballet's bread and butter. The hall is always full when it is played, and it is especially popular with the streams of Polish tourists who visit Lviv in the summer. Many of the Polish tourists have come to seek their roots, after their families were driven out of Ukraine by nationalist anti-Polish pogroms that followed the last world war.



  • Backstage during Don Quixote



  • Controlling the lighting

  • Swan Lake

  • Swan Lake

  • Ballerina's preparations for Swan Lake

  • Swan Lake


  • Serguei Najenko, balleron, lead soloist and teacher at the Lviv Ballet preparing for his role as Don Quixote - he is deft at applying his own makeup.

  • Backstage during Don Quixote

  • Don Quixote


  • After a series of accidents at the Ballet, most recently where a colleague slipped on ice in the street, banged his head, and died, the dancers call in a Russian Orthodox priest to carry out services of blessing in rooms around the Opera building.


  • The Ballet's main practice hall





  • Lviv State Ballet School prepares a future supply of ballerinas and ballerons (the Russian word for male ballet dancers) for the Lviv National Ballet

  • Galina Alexandrivna Kleshchova is an ethnic Russian teaching at Lviv state ballet school. She decided to stay in Ukraine when she fell in love with the spectacular sets designed by legendary scenographer Yevgeny Lysyk. Today she is unhappy that her pupils have lost form over the holiday period and puts them through a gruelling session, berating them with a fire worthy of a Sergeant Major in the Guards. The bottle is used to sprinkle water on the floor to keep it sticky.

  • "Pachki" - a tutu, being prepared for Swan Lake

  • The ballet's resident masseur receives an impromptu shoulder massage from a ballerina during Swan Lake.

  • Swan Lake, the evergreen Russian classic, is also the ballet's bread and butter. The hall is always full when it is played, and it is especially popular with the streams of Polish tourists who visit Lviv in the summer. Many of the Polish tourists have come to seek their roots, after their families were driven out of Ukraine by nationalist anti-Polish pogroms that followed the last world war.



  • The control panel - written at the top of the notebook are the words "Swan Lake" in Russian

  • Backstage during Swan Lake

  • Exiting as the curtain closes


  • Swan Lake

  • Swan Lake

  • Preparing for the final Act - the curtain about to rise

'Ukraine' means 'on the edge', or 'Borderland', and Lviv, Lvov, Lwow or Lemberg - depending on whether you are Russian, Ukrainian, Polish or German - is right at the Borderland's most western border. The city's Opera, where the Ukrainian State Ballet of Lviv have their home, is one of the most elegant opera buildings in Europe. A gem in the crown of the Habsburg Empire, and part of Poland before it was handed to Ukraine at the end of World War II, the Russian ballet tradition meets the...
more »
Add to Cart
Slideshow
View: 100 | All