Kyiv City Ballet Makes First Chicago Visit At Auditorium Theatre, September 24-25

The Auditorium Theatre (Chicago's landmark stage at 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive) launches its 2022-23 Season with the Chicago debut of the Kyiv City Ballet of Ukraine in two powerful performances only, Saturday September 24 at 7:30pm and Sunday, September 25 at 3pm.

Serving as the original ballet of Ukraine for 10 years, Kyiv City Ballet brings light and joy in the darkness to audiences worldwide with its exemplary ballets. And now, amidst a greater struggle and rising tensions, the company has stood as the "voice of resistance" on a global stage. The day before Ukraine was invaded in February, the Kyiv City Ballet unknowingly took one of the last flights out of Kyiv.

The company flew to Paris to begin a long-planned tour and has not returned home since. The country of France sheltered them, and the company has been performing throughout France, and now Europe, since the invasion began. Kyiv City Ballet starts its first-ever tour of the United States on September 16 in advance of this rare Chicago visit at the Auditorium Theatre; the company will be performing in only 12 markets this Fall.

"We are proud to support Ukraine's most distinguished dance ambassadors for peace, Kyiv City Ballet. The company was forced to flee war-torn Ukraine and have been without a home since then. We knew we had to work with management to schedule an engagement in Chicago; fortunately, it spawned a larger U.S. tour," said Auditorium Theatre CEO Rich Regan. "For one weekend, see the magnificent classically trained dancers and support the artists who are risking it all to bring culture to their communities."

Under the direction of Kyiv City Ballet Artistic Director Ivan Kozlov, formerly of The Ballet at Mariinsky Theatre and the St. Petersburg Eifman Ballet, Chicago audiences can expect to be dazzled by the company's mixed repertoire program, featuring two of the top prima ballerinas of Ukraine: Kristina Kadashevych and Oksana Bondarenko, along with the company's principal dancer Vsevolod Maevskiy, a former soloist of The Ballet at Mariinsky Theatre and Kozlov's former student. Kyiv City Ballet will perform a mixed rep trio in Chicago:

· Thoughts, a contemporary work examining the meaning of human thought, as choreographed by company member Vladyslav Dobshynskyi, to a score by Nils Frahm, Burkhard Dallwitz, Max Richter, and Lisa Gerrard & Patrick Cassidy.

· Tribute to Peace created by Ivan Kozlov and the company's deputy director, Ekaterina Kozlova, especially for the U.S. 2022 tour, to a score by Edward Elgar, that explores what life should be without conflict, anger, or despair.

· Classical Suite showcases the wedding pas de deux from three classical ballets, all set to scores by Ludwig Minkus, yet written in different styles: Paquita, La Bayadere, and Don Quixote. Choreographed by Kozlov (after Marius Petipa), Classical Suite is performed by the principal dancers of Kyiv City Ballet and gives the audience a look at exquisite classical ballet to conclude the program.

Please note program subject to change.

"We are excited to share the beauty of this ballet with the City of Chicago," said Kozlov. "This first United States tour of the Kyiv City Ballet with a range of ballets makes an important global statement. It demonstrates the resilience of the Ukrainian people."

The Kyiv City Ballet U.S. tour, including the Auditorium Theatre engagement, is produced by Rhizome Consulting.

Kyiv City Ballet performs at the Auditorium Theatre Saturday, September 24 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, September 25 at 3 p.m. Tickets start at $40 (inclusive of all fees) and are now available at AuditoriumTheatre.org, by calling 312.341.2300, or at the Box Office at 50 E Ida B Wells Drive in Chicago, IL. Click here for phone and in-person hours. Discounted tickets for groups of 10 or more people are available. The Auditorium Theatre offers $20 student rush tickets to full-time college students and $5 tickets to young people ages 13-19 with Urban Gateways' Teen Arts Pass program. The Auditorium also offers a Student Savings Club for both college and high school students. The Auditorium Theatre's ADMIT ONE program offers complimentary tickets to Chicago-area community groups.

Kyiv City Ballet ticket buyers are invited to support the Ukrainian war relief via donation to the Chicago-based Operation White Stork, a veteran-led, rapid response, humanitarian organization that takes its name from the national bird of Ukraine. Among its valued services, Operation White Stork evacuates women and children, the elderly, and their pets; provides free temporary housing to evacuees; provides individual first aid kits and personal protective equipment to defense and humanitarian forces; and helps repatriate displaced Ukrainians across Europe back into Ukraine. For more information on White Stork, visit operationwhitestork.org

The Auditorium Theatre is fully committed to the health and safety of our patrons and our staff. We continue to monitor health guidance and appropriately adjust our policies. For current health safety information, please visit AuditoriumTheatre.org/visit/safety.

The Kyiv City Ballet was founded in 2012 by the current Artistic Director Ivan Kozlov. Their mission is to bring joy to audiences through ballet. They strive to bring exemplary artists to theatres around the world. In the past decade, they have successfully worked together with various partners and toured throughout dozens of countries and four continents. Their classical ballets include Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Scheherazade, Giselle, Chopiniana, Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote, Gala Tchaikovsky, Funny Concert, Strauss Evening, and Carmen Suite. In addition are ballets for young spectators and their families, including Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Aibolit and Barmalei, and Coppelia, as well as current works Thoughts, Tribute to Peace, and Classical Suite.

Ex-Premier of the National Opera of Ukraine, The St. Petersburg Eifman Ballet, IBT (Internationale Ballet Theater), and the Mariinsky Theatre; choreographer and teacher, Ivan Anatolievich Kozlov was born December 13, 1982. In 2000, after graduating from the KGHU (Kiyv State Choreographic School), under the tutelage of the Honored Artist of Ukraine, Vladimir Denisenko, Kozlov was invited to join the ballet troupe of the National Opera of Ukraine, and simultaneously to the world-famous troupe of Boris Eifman in St. Petersburg. He worked as an artist in both troupes. During his work in the theater of B. Eifman, Kozlov performed the leading parts in the following repertoire: Red Giselle, Don Quixote, Russian Hamlet, Anna Karenina, and The Brothers Karamazov. In the troupe of the National Opera of Ukraine, he performed the leading parts in the ballets Swan Lake, Giselle, Spartacus, Don Quixote, Viennese Waltz, and many others. Kozlov worked under contract as a leading soloist of the Internationale Ballet Theater in the United States. From 2007 to 2010, he was the premier of the ballet troupe of the Mariinsky Theatre, where he performed the leading parts in nearly the entire repertoire of the theater, as well as in numerous concert numbers.

The Auditorium Theatre, located at 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive at Roosevelt University in Chicago, is an Illinois not-for-profit organization committed to presenting the finest in international, cultural, community, and educational programming to all of Chicago and beyond as The Theatre for the People. The organization also is committed to the continued restoration and preservation of this National Historic Landmark that originally opened in 1889.

This rare engagement by the Kyiv City Ballet kicks off the Auditorium Theatre's 2022-23 performance season featuring a dynamic mix of acclaimed global dance companies (Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Step Afrika!, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, American Ballet Theatre, and the much anticipated annual engagement by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater) while closer to home, beloved Chicago dance companies also take the stage (Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, South Chicago Dance Theatre, and special guest, NY-based Dorrance Dance with Trinity Irish Dance Company and M.A.D.D. Rhythms. In addition, the critically acclaimed National Geographic Live film/speaker series, offering first-hand accounts and expert voices on cultural and environmental issues of the day, returns with three offerings and a lower ticket price. And rounding out the season will be two holiday music concert specials in December: the popular Too Hot to Handel: The Jazz-Gospel Messiah and Celtic Woman. For more information on the Auditorium Theatre and a complete listing of events at the Auditorium Theatre, please visit AuditoriumTheatre.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.