At a certain point in nearly every little girl’s life, they dream of being a ballerina.
For only a very select few, that dream lasts a lifetime.
That happened for Emma Keyes, a dancer with the Grand Kyiv Ballet. She began when she was only three years old, when her mother enrolled her in ballet because she wanted her to have fun. But her dream didn’t start there. It wasn’t until she was 10 years old that she watched a ballet documentary, and the dream kicked in hard. She knew right then that this was what she wanted to do.
Emma’s story is just one from the 48 members of the two Grand Kyiv Ballet touring companies in the United States. Her East Coast touring troupe recently finished its six-month tour, including a performance of Swan Lake at the Shea Center for Performing Arts here in Wayne.
While audiences see the delicate, sophisticated power of ballet, what goes unseen are the sacrifices they make. These dancers portray beauty flawlessly. Physically, they are truly undercelebrated world-class athletes - their impressively toned physiques are far more apparent when you see them up close.
Backstage, between scenes, they come off stage drained and exhausted, dripping with sweat. And after only a minute or so to regroup and recover, they head back out on stage with no loss of performance. Their art looks effortless and elegant, yet it comes from a determination and dedication that’s beyond words.
This is inner strength. Fortitude. Women who push themselves beyond the best they can be.
It’s a grueling schedule. Six months on the road. Every night, a new city and another performance. An hour after each show, they’re back on the road, traveling sometimes for hours to a new state before settling into yet another hotel for some rest, to be ready to perform again.
“As many hard days as there are. I love what I do. I really do,” Emma admits. “It's a privilege to be on stage every day. Not a lot of dancers get that opportunity, and for those that do, not many of them get this kind of opportunity. It is definitely a gift that I cherish.”
“There is probably a difference between a touring company, like the one that I'm in, and a standard national company. By being part of a touring company, I feel that I’ve learned so much about not only professional life, but touring life, myself, my limits, and how much I can push myself as a dancer. I’ve learned how to stand up for myself and how to not be scared of trying new things. I have to admit that I'm proud of myself, seeing that growth from October to now.”
They perform in intimate, small settings as well as on grand stages. Symphony Hall in Atlanta, where they performed The Nutcracker, Emma says, was massive. The Emerson Colonial Theater in Boston has 1,700 seats. Like most of their performances, Swan Lake was a sellout there. We were lucky enough to be invited backstage with all the dancers during their entire production at William Paterson's Shea Center for Performing Arts.
During their bows in Boston, the emotion of it all hit Emma hard.
“I was ready to cry. I just...I've never performed for so many people. It was just so heartwarming to get a standing ovation in front of so many people. Sometimes you get these kinds of moments where you're thinking, ‘there's no way I'm doing this. This is crazy. How is this happening?’”
“I’ll always remember seeing an elderly couple in the front row of one of our performances.
Everyone had gotten up to give a standing ovation. And these two were struggling to get up.
But they managed to stand up and join the standing ovation. I burst into tears. That was it for me. Elderly people coming to watch our show really touches me on another level.”
Grand Kyiv Ballet is led by General Director and Founder Oleksandr Stoianov and Artistic Director Viktor Tomashek, each being remarkably elite dancers in their own right. Their efforts help rebuild facilities and dormitories for dancers in Kyiv, and also help advance the tradition of ballet globally.
“The company’s roots started with a lot of Ukrainian dancers, but the company has expanded so much that they've considered themselves now an international ballet company,” Emma, Serbian-Canadian by birth, explains. “The dancers come from all over the world.”
These remarkable athletes have come together to become who they were meant to be. They dance for themselves, they dance for each other, they dance for the world. Their time together has made them a close-knit, international family who laughs, cries, and experiences life together.
What they’ve put together is breathtaking - and not just what you see on stage.
To find out more about the Grand Kyiv Ballet, go to their website (grandkyivballet.com.ua/en/) for information about upcoming performance schedules. You can even purchase costumes and set pieces from past performances.