She became a part of the National Theatre ballet ensemble in the autumn of 2004, first as a demisoloist, since the season 2006/2007 she has been a soloist. During her career she has portrayed many roles in the mostly classical repertoire of Kiev National Opera and in ballets by John Cranko with the famous Stuttgart Ballett ensemble. Prague audiences have an opportunity to see her on the boards at the National Theatre this season particularly as Tatiana in Cranko's Onegin and Sylphide in the eponymous ballet by August Bournonville. We met on a January afternoon to arrange an interview regarding not only these two roles, but also chance (or fate?), travelling and hard work, briefly, an interview about what it is like to be a ballerina.

One of the most significant events of last ballet season at the National Theatre was the premiere of La Sylphide by August Bournonville, a production in which you perform both Effy and the lead role. What does Sylphide mean to you, do you find the role special?
In ballet there are very few roles where the age is not precisely given. Sylphide is one of them. She may be a young girl, but also a charming woman. Here in Prague I've danced in this role with two different partners - with young and gifted Matěj Urban and with more mature Saša Katsapov and because of that, my Sylphide was also slightly different with either of them. The role is also specific due to Bournonville's technique, which is a necessary, but as they say, not the only prerequisite required here. Sylphide is also special to me for one more reason - years ago, back in Kiev I was to perform this role on stage, but shortly before that I had left my hometown and the ensemble. Still, for all those years I desired to dance this role on stage. However, Frank Andersen made it clear from the very beginning that he wished to have only two casts. Obviously, I really wanted to dance the role of Sylphide this time, but everybody was too busy to rehearse with me, so at first I started on my own, Pavla Hrubešová was very helpful too. You know, in the case of La Sylphide – contrary to many other ballets – one can work like that. I think that my determination helped me to get the role in the end and that Frank was eventually satisfied with my performance; he even sent me to Tallinn to appear as a guest there.

Speaking of specific roles, are there any others that cross your mind?
Definitely Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, ballerina must be really patient with this role as it takes some time to master it. It's not that kind of a role you would shine in on the opening night. Lev Ivanov was really a brilliant choreographer, the very fact that his precise choreography of the second act of Swan Lake has remained virtually intact since his days proves it. Actually, it took me some time to realize that if you stick to his expressive plastics, emotions just come along. As for other roles, Juliet from Romeo and Juliet and Tatiana from Onegin are special to me as well, mostly because of the immense transition from a young girl to a mature woman they go through on the stage.

Which role has been physically the most demanding for you?
Back in Kiev I danced Shirin in the Legend of Love. And I really wonder if it was just because of my youth – I was only eighteen then – or the actual strenuousness of the role, but I was really exhausted both physically and psychologically. Moreover, in Kiev there is a large stage, so you have to cover a huge space when performing the role. In addition, dancers in Legend do not dance on lino, but on fabric, which sort of creates an effect of waste land, however, it makes the whole performance even more arduous for them.

You just mentioned Kiev, who or what actually drove you in 1996 from Kiev to Ústí nad Labem? The transition from a large metropolis and the most prestigious scene in the country with fifteen pieces of classical ballet in the repertoire to a provincial Czech theatre – that had to be a bit of a shock ...
Actually, my coming to the Czech Republic was more or less a coincidence. We've had a really hard time back then, both in the theatre and in Ukraine in general. Either we didn't get any salary at all, or we got so little that we couldn't make both ends meet. Sometimes I even didn't have enough money to buy a subway ticket. And all of a sudden, Ondrej Šoth, then the artistic director of the ballet ensemble in Ústí came to Kiev and proposed a contract to me and two other colleagues. I had never heard of Ústí before, but I simply went. And this town with a really nice theatre has grown on me since then. During those three years I spent there I met several people who have become my good friends. Moreover, there is also a very beautiful countryside around Ústí.

However, after three years in Ústí nad Labem you signed up for the world famous Stuttgart Ballett ensemble that earned their fame especially in the sixties under the direction of John Cranko. Why right there?
Well, I think you have just answered your question. Stuttgart Ballett is a very prestigious company with amazingly diverse repertoire and an excellent level of both corps de ballet and soloists.

Ballet company with a reputation like that certainly had a busy touring schedule ...
Yes, there were some big, wonderful tours, the whole ballet company was out of Stuttgart for like a month. The only sad experience for all of those years was a tour to New York shortly after September 11, 2001, when we eventually had to cancel two weeks of performances, because people naturally did not feel like going to a ballet performance at all. Otherwise, New Yorkers have been very fond of Stuttgart Ballett and we have always been given a warm welcome.

What do Cranko's choreographies in Stuttgart look like these days? How much are his former assistants true to his original choreographies today? Taking Onegin for instance, are there any differences in the way it is mounted in Stuttgart and, say, here in Prague?
Well, it's not that it would be mounted in a completely different way, but there are some differences of course. First of all, in Stuttgart there are still people who had worked with Cranko personally and who over time acquired a similar way of thinking with him. These people naturally enjoy more freedom in mounting his choreographies, because they know how far they can go and, on contrary, what Cranko would have never approved. Which means that generally there is more freedom with mounting his ballets in Stuttgart than outside Stuttgart.

So his ballets mounted outside Stuttgart more or less stick to some sort of given form.
Yes, and I understand why. In order to make sure it is still Cranko, it's better to stick to a some given form ... although there are different approaches too, for instance when we worked on Cranko's Onegin with Ivan Cavallari, he was very open minded, he really tried to find an optimal attitude for every particular dancer.

How do you like Cranko's ballets, what does he mean to you as a choreographer?
I like his ballets very much. He has got a specific, exceptionally rich choreographical style, he invented many unique lifts and you can express yourself in his ballets as an actor too. For instance Tatiana in Onegin, the role I really feel priviledged to have danced, is beautiful also because of the transition from a young girl to an adult woman she experiences on the stage.

Anyway, after five years you eventually decided to leave Stuttgart. Did you feel sort of tired of Cranko's repertoire back then?
Well, I don't think so. It is true that the repertoire of Stuttgart Ballett company is based on Cranko's pieces in the first place, but there are several premieres every season and the repertoire thus changes over time, so that was not the reason. It was rather that I became somehow tired of Stuttgart as a place to live. I mean, at first sight it is a very nice town, but after few years you realize that you can do very little but work there. I wanted to work in a city where I would like to settle in the future too, where I could enjoy other things than just a prestigious ballet scene. Back then, I was hesitating between two cities, Amsterdam and Prague. Eventually, I ended up in a city where I was offered a contract, which is Prague.

Was it difficult to get used to living in the Czech Republic – and of course to working at the National Theatre – after five years in Germany?
I do not think that it was different from my engagements with other ensembles. I mean, it's always like when you first become a part of a ballet company, there are already dancers trained for particular roles, so you have either to wait for new roles to come or work hard to alternate with fellow dancers. Anyway, it always takes some time. But that was my fourth engagement with a ballet ensemble already, so I didn't feel uneasy about it at all, I knew that opportunities to dance some beautiful roles would surely come.  

Let's go back in time now – who or what was your inspiration to become a professional dancer, to actually dance in the roles we've just mentioned?
Well, when I was a child I never dreamed of becoming a ballerina. It was my parents who drove me to it. Moreover, my mother herself was a ballerina.

So it was, more or less, because of your family background...
Yes, that was one part of it, the other was that in a totalitarian regime ballet was one of the few opportunities how to get abroad, to travel all around the world. Moreover, at seventeen when young people usually decide what career they would pursue in the future, you've got your profession already. This is how people speculated back then and my parents were no different, they naturally wished me the best. Still the beginnings were a bit tough for me. At first I didn't feel like becoming a professional dancer at all, moreover, my first instructor couldn't find a way to make dance more appealing to me. But, you know, it's very difficult to work with ten years old children. What child at that age wants to work hard every day? None. Still, in ballet, it's right there, at that point that their future careers really start. It's a huge responsibility - imagine that not only you have to recognize the potential in a child of ten, but also make him or her really keen so that he or she starts to work hard and does not waste his or her potential in the end. Fortunately, at fourteen I met an excellent instructor, Ms. Kuznetsova, under whose direction I started to love dance.

You studied at the Russian Ballet Academy in Moscow. Is the training of professional dancers in Russia different from other countries?
Well, first of all there is a huge tradition dance benefits from. There are so many children willing to become professional dancers that at conservatoires there are like twenty or twenty five applicants for one spot, thus only the most talented ones with the biggest potential for the future career are chosen. The scope of courses is broad, apart from classical dance we were also taught folk dance, partnering, historical dance, but there were also acting courses – these were taught by Ms. Romadina, an actress from the famous Moscow theatre MCHAT.

Sort of expected question now – how about the modern dance?
Actually, now it's taught there too, but it wasn't when I was a student, there was no subject or course focused like that. However, we've got to see some recordings of pieces of modern dance performed behind the Iron Curtain thanks to our instructor in ballet history courses and those performances made us willing to dance in productions like that in the future too.

Do you think your former "teachers" have been some sort of inspiration for you to eventually become an instructor yourself? Can you remeber your first experience with teaching?
Well, when I was studying in Moscow we were mounting a school performance once. Unfortunately, just shortly before the event was to take place, our instructor fell ill. So, all of a sudden, there were four girls supposed to perform a piece that was still not finished and the event was drawing nearer. So it seemed the whole performance would be cancelled, but I persuaded the other girls to go on and I did my best to finish the performance with them. And when our instructor came just shortly before the event back to school, we performed the finished piece for her. She liked it and praised me for that, which meant a lot to me then. In fact it still does. (she smiles)

Eventually, you finished your degree in dance pedagogy in Kiev. Why there and not in Prague at the Academy of Performing Arts for instance?
To be honest, it was easier for me to take up distance courses in Kiev as they are more tolerant to your needs and your daily schedule there. In Prague, it's almost impossible for a busy professional dancer to agree on some schedule with them. Actually, I also passed courses in dance pedagogy back in Stuttgart, those were really interesting. John Cranko established them along with courses in choreography that he led personally. All those courses started early in the morning in the theatre and from there we went directly to the studio to work again, but the experience was definitely worth it. There were like fourteen of us in the course, each of us from a different country and each of us claimed he or she was doing Vaganova School – you cannot imagine how different it was.

What is certainly different is the support ballet companies are given in every country and wider public awareness of ballet in general. Could you, from this point of view, compare the situation in individual countries you have lived in?
Unfortunately, here in the Czech Republic there is still a lot to work on. You know, I still meet people who ask me questions such as ”Oh, ballerina at the National Theatre ... and what is your full-time profession?“ Or ”Ballerina? And you are paid for that?“ Can you imagine how little some people here know about ballet?

I think I can. If you say "ballet" around here, most people would just recall Mr. Vlastimil Harapes, some of them have also heard of Swan Lake.
So it's something at least…

Unfortunately, that's about it. Anyway, you have spent quite some time in the Czech Republic already, have you noticed any change in this respect?
I don't know, it's hard to say. Once again we are getting back to the question of tradition and this is something you cannot change overnight, it takes some time. In my country virtually every little girl either learns to play the piano or she attends some ballet courses. Dance also profits from great coverage in the media. For example, in Russia it is almost every day that in TV there is a programme dedicated to ballet or at least ballet is mentioned there. It's unthinkable not to review the performance the day following the opening night, or not to mention ballet in TV news. This is what I still miss here, first of all it is necessary to get people more exposed to dance, to "educate" them. It's not that there would be no ground at all, all that's needed is time, patience, a lot of enthusiastic people and work with the public. It's necessary to promote not only ballet companies and performances, but also to focus on teaching ballet and dance in general. For example, there are very few children performances, which would grip the youngest generation. This is where it has to start. Once more children take up ballet courses, there will be more talented dancers and choreographers to choose from at the conservatories then. This will increase the quality of performances in theatres, which in turn will make people more interested in dance and make even more children interested in ballet ...

Do you see any differences between the audience here and for example in Germany or Ukraine?
Of course, there are differences between the German and Ukrainian audiences as well, but compared to Czech audiences, people in those two countries are generally more informed about ballet, they often go to see particular cast or dancer perform in the theatre, after a performance you get flowers and you don't know who sent them. Here people come to see the performance, but usually they don't know anything about individual dancers – except for when these are friends or acquaintances, of course. But perhaps it's moving forward and in time dance will enjoy the same respect and prestige as it does abroad ... anyway, recently I've had a very pleasant surprise happen to me – you know, me and Michal Štípa, we teach public ballet courses at Dance Station. And last time I danced in Balett Mania, I got flowers afterwards with a dedication ”from a student of ballet“ (she smiles). That was really nice.

Translation: Tomáš Valníček