NPR: The Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) is a big deal in the dance world. Dancers audition for scholarships to attend prestigious schools. For ballet companies, it's a kind of pipeline as they look for the next generation of professional dancers. Competitions are held in cities around the world. When Russians invaded Ukraine, the Kiev competition was cancelled.
3 comments:
This article is truly so inspiring. Witnessing a seventeen year old be so dedicated and passionate to a form of expression is wonderful, and slightly scary. The sacrifice and effect of this in the big picture of their life is enormous. Not only do they have to leave their nation and home, they also have to abandon any other aspect of their life; community, family, friends, and all sense of familiarity. That takes an insane amount of courage and strength. However, YAGP and the other institutions that are supporting these dedicated young dancers can help mitigate the pain with their resources and reach. These artists deserve refuge and in times of darkness art endures, and expression can help people cope. Creating art in such a difficult time can be very emotionally taxing, as this dancer so vulnerably discusses, especially as a young person who has a lot of growing ahead of them.
I can’t imagine having to go through that many life changes at just the age of 17. Just the amount of traveling that the article described is stressful enough, but the fact that Karol was mostly alone and that he had to leave behind his family in an unsafe area is just devastating. Also the fact that these teenagers still have this passion to follow their art and become better in their craft at a time like that is really incredible. That level of stress could cause anyone to lose passion even for something that they love that much. It’s so cool to see that even after everything, Bondarenko says that it is her dream to be a professional ballerina. Also it seems like these teens have found a great sense of community in ballet. The willingness of these foreign ballet companies to take in these young dancers is great to see. So while they are leaving behind so much in Ukrainian they still have some sort of universal community in dance.
It’s still hard to wrap around my head that a war is happening right now, and we are just watching it unfold from afar. There are too many living through it right now. As much of the destruction that I have seen happening, I don’t remember the last time that this amount of people were united for a cause – in this case supporting Ukraine in whatever way they can. I am still amazed at the humanity this has been able to bring up. So much has been lost, but the fact that there are loads of people willing to make room for these dancers specifically, to welcome them the best way they can so they can pursue their careers, simply leaves me with no words. It may feel a little “extra” to someone not involved in the industry the importance of this gesture, but for dancers specifically who already have short careers, this is massive.
Post a Comment