Ten days after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Olga Smirnova left Russia, after posting a message on Telegram in which she said she “opposed to the war of all [son] soul “. “I never thought I was ashamed of Russia, I have always been proud of the talent of the Russian people, of our cultural and sporting achievements. But today, a line has been crossed…”, she wrote then. Extremely rare in the dance world, since the defections – a word she does not like, because it has a rather pejorative connotation in Russian – of Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov, during the Soviet era, her departure marked the spirits.
Now based in Amsterdam, the 32-year-old ballerina, who works with the Dutch National Ballet, performs, Sunday March 3, at La Seine musicale, in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine), as part of a gala of classical ballet stars, Les Beautés de la danse, in the company of twelve other European dancers. Slender, the perfect incarnation of the dancer with her swan neck, she performs, notably, Raymondthe last great Russian ballet of the 19the century.
When you made the decision to leave Russia after passing through Dubai, were you already concerned, even before the war started, about the situation in Russia?
The life of a ballet dancer takes place in a fairly closed universe. We devote all our time to daily rehearsals and we are absorbed in our job which requires hours and hours of work. But of course the echoes of what was happening outside reached me and I was aware of the growing repression against [Alexeï] Navalny, and demonstrations dispersed by an increasingly police regime. I couldn’t believe, however, that a war would start like this and that things would go this far. Ballet has been my whole life since I was very young. I wasn’t much interested in politics until politics came to you. At that point, you have to make a decision.
When you left, you posted a message on Telegram expressing your opposition to the war, then you kept silent. For what ?
My opinion has not changed and I continue to do what I can, such as raising money for Ukrainian dancers in kyiv who are suffering from this situation. There was no longer any need for me to continue on Telegram, since my arrival in Europe, I do it a little on Instagram for the ballets, but I no longer engage in discussions about the war on the networks social.
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