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The star of the Moscow Bolshoi Ballet announced on Wednesday that she has left the company and joined the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. With her resignation, Olga Smirnova becomes one of the highest-profile Russian cultural figures to leave the country since her invasion of Ukraine.
“I must be honest and say that I am against the war with all the fibers of my soul,” Smirnova wrote in the telegram, according to the Dutch National Ballet. Smirnova’s grandfather is Ukrainian, she explained, and she now feels ashamed of her native Russia for the unfolding catastrophe.
“We can not remain indifferent,” she added.
Ballerina, 30, grew up in St. Petersburg and attended the Bolshoi Ballet in 2011. She was promoted to lead soloist in 2016, a role she held until her resignation this week. Last week, two other Bolshoi members – Brazilian soloist David Motta Soares and Italian lead dancer Jacopo Tissi – announced their resignation. However, Smirnova is the highest profile Russian ballerina to leave the country.
The Bolshoi Theater has long-standing ties with the Russian government. “It’s a kind of playground for the petrol-ruble mousse in the way that oligarchs now control so much of the culture in Russia, much of it eroded and popularized entertainment,” said Professor Simon Morris, author of Bolshoi Confidential: Mysteries of the Russian Ballet of the Tsarist Reign to the Present, explained to Princeton University News.
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Leila Guchmazova, a Russian dance critic, praised him new York Times dat Smirnova’s decision to leave rocked the Russian ballet world. Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Guchmazova has declared: “Dancers have left the Bolshoi to find new skills and better positions.” But Smirnova had the best position – and left her moral objections to the war.
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“Olga Smirnova is an exceptional dancer who I admire very much. I have followed her career with great interest for many years. It is a privilege to dance with her in our company in the Netherlands – even if the circumstances that drove this movement , are incredibly sad, “said Ted Brandsen, director of the Dutch National Ballet, in a statement. “Nevertheless, we as a society are delighted to have such an inspiring dancer with us at the Dutch National Ballet.”
Smirnova will make her debut with the Dutch National Ballet next month, playing the title role in Russian ballet Raymonda.
Read Olga Smirnova’s full statement:
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I must be honest and say that I am against war with all the fibers of my soul. It’s not just about any other Russian maybe family members or friends who live in Ukraine, or about my grandfather who is Ukrainian and we are quarters Ukrainians.
It is that we continue to live as if this were the 20th century, even though we are formally in the 21st. Century moved. In a modern and enlightened world, I expect civilized societies to resolve political issues only through peaceful negotiations.
I never thought I would be ashamed of Russia, I was always proud of talented Russian people, of our cultural and sporting achievements. But now I think a line has been drawn that separates before and after.
It hurts when people die that people lose the roof over their heads or are forced to give up their homes. And who would have thought a few weeks ago that this would all happen? We can not be at the epicenter of the military conflict, but we can not remain indifferent to this global catastrophe.
The Dutch National Ballet is a good fit for me and a great place to continue my career as a ballerina. I’ve been thinking about this kind of movement for a long time – it’s just that the current circumstances have accelerated this process.
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