JRL NEWSWATCH: “Dispatch From Kyiv: Ballet in a Time of War” – The Nation/ Carol Schaeffer
“While Ukraine’s capital has mostly returned to normal, reminders of the brutal fighting are everywhere.”
“We sat in red velvet seats under the Kyiv opera house’s soaring dome … with baroque flourishes of black and gold … wait[ing] for a ballet adaptation of one of Ukraine’s most celebrated literary works …. [On] the eve of the first anniversary of the invasion … I was not surprised that much of the building was empty. … [I]n the event of an air raid … the ballet would pause, and the cast and audience … would head to the bomb shelter below … to wait it out. … Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian soldiers have looted and destroyed cultural institutions. … [When] Russians bombed the Mariupol opera house[,] [a]s many as 1,200 civilians hid in its air-raid shelter. … “CHILDREN” had been written on the pavement outside …. [T]otal … deaths [are] still unknown, … some sources estimating … as many as 600 …. Russia looted the Kherson art museum after a collaborator revealed the secret location of thousands of stored artifacts. UNESCO estimates … 253 cultural institutions have been damaged or destroyed … more than 15,000 items … looted. …”