Auditorium Theatre proudly
presents Kyiv City Ballet of Ukraine
IN ITS FIRST-EVER CHICAGO VISIT
 
BALLET COMPANY SHOWCASES RESILIENCE & ARTISTRY
IN TWO PERFORMANCES ONLY, SEPTEMBER 24 & 25, 2022.
This rare engagement opens the Auditorium Theatre’s 2022-23 Season.
Timely new work, Tribute to Peace, among trio of works to be performed.

Photo Credit: Annette Dixon

Photos, courtesy of Kyiv City Ballet: (from left) Olga Posternak, Kristina Kadashevych Photos, courtesy of Kyiv City Ballet

Photos, courtesy of Kyiv City Ballet

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  At the Auditorium Theater, Chicago the featured  performance of the Kylv City Ballet is only for Saturday and Sunday  at 7:30 pm. Prior to the Ballet a trio was performing. 

   The Auditorium Theatre (Chicago’s landmark stage at 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive) proudly 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.

Performance schedule and tickets
    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.
Special thanks
    The Auditorium Theatre is grateful for the support of the 2022-23 Season Global and Chicago Dance Sponsor, The Florian Fund, and the Presenting Sponsors of the Kyiv City Ballet, The Polsky Foundation and Invenergy with additional support from the Illinois Arts Council.
    The Auditorium Theatre 2022-23 Season is made possible in part with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Illinois Arts Council Agency. The Auditorium’s official hotel partner is the Palmer House Hilton.