‘Love will save the world’: Ukrainian ballet group carries on after trailer theft in southern Colorado

PUEBLO, Colo. (KKTV) – Ahead of their show over the weekend, a Ukrainian ballet group had to deal with a major set-back.

The Grand Kyiv Ballet had been passing through Colorado, performing shows and enjoying the mountains.

“Colorado is kind of a new adventure,” said Natan Lubow, a performer from Washington who joined the group. “The mountains are beautiful. The people seem very nice, that we’ve met.”

On Sunday, the group had been preparing to perform in Pueblo at the Memorial Hall after having a day off Saturday. They were set to perform the Nutcracker.

Before the performance, though, the group made a startling discovery.

“We came here for rehearsal,” said Lubow, “and that’s when we were into some of our own issues, with the [trailer] stolen. It was a big surprise for us.”

One of their two trailers was missing. The trailer in question was props and costumes for their production of the Snow Queen, as well as the belongings of many of the performers, including Lubow.

“That’s some serious aggravation, of course, because, you know, we’re constantly moving, and it’s hard to find time to do these things,” said Lubow, referring to the process of finding replacements for what was missing.

11 News reached out to Grand Kyiv Ballet’s founder and artistic director, Oleksandr Stoianov, after getting a tip about the missing trailer. He said that trailer had about $20,000 worth of equipment.

Soon after the phone call, Stoianov shared a Facebook post with 11 News. It was from someone claiming to have found a missing trailer. Just a little later, with help from police, he said they found the missing trailer.

But as they went through it, they found a lot of what was inside had been stolen.

This included clothing for dancers and pointe shoes, something the Grand Kyiv Ballet describes as essential in a ballerina’s performance.

Performer Marta Kalyandruk described this as a major setback.

“How much are pointe shoes?” Lubow asked Kalyandruk while speaking to 11 News.

“Like, $100,” Kalyandruk responded.

“$100 and even more,” Lubow said. He confirmed another performer lost three pairs of these shoes in the theft.

The group is working to move on after this loss, but that comes with tremendous pressure, they said.

“I’m burning that midnight oil, you know,” said Lubow. “That I’m rolling up my sleeves and getting getting some serious jobs done. I mean, we all are. Everyone’s pulling a lot of of weights.”

The group is performing as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues. Kalyandruk said things back in Ukraine are in turmoil, bringing extra pressure for groups like Grand Kyiv Ballet to bring positive representation from their country to the world.

“My friends, especially for working in national group Ukraine, at another theaters of Ukraine, they are really very tired about it every day,” she said.

“There’s a lot on our shoulders, lot of expectations. We want to fill those seats,” Lubow said.

Through ballet, they said, they can bring that positive representation for Ukrainian culture to people around the world.

“Yes, love will save the world, they say. Right?” Lubow said.

“Yes, exactly,” Kalyandruk confirmed.

More so, they both said they want to carve a name for themselves in the world of theater and ballet, saying it can be hard as an international group to become well-known.

They added how crippling it is to lose a trailer full of their things, but said the show will go on, nonetheless.

“It’s not a one man job, you know, it’s like, it takes all hands on deck, you know,” Lubow said. “It takes people talking about it. It takes efforts of of people wanting to convey their own expression of what they experienced in the arts to somebody else, like their neighbor or something like that.”

If you would like to donate to the group, you can do so here.

You can also donate to their cause for restoring the main ballet college of Ukraine, the Kyiv State Choreographic College, here.

You can find more on the group and their performances here.

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