Press release from Theatre Royal Bath:
KYIV CITY BALLET brings A Tribute to Peace to Bath’s Theatre Royal
The Theatre Royal welcomes Kyiv City Ballet on Sunday 16th April as they visit Bath to perform A Tribute to Peace on their first ever tour of the UK. With two gala performances at 3pm and 7.30pm, the celebrated company will present a varied programme of excerpts from some of their favourite classical ballets, including Swan Lake, La Bayadère and Le Corsaire, along with folk and modern dance. All profits from the performances will be donated to charity.
Kyiv City Ballet’s exceptional dancers were on tour in Paris last February, preparing to perform The Nutcracker as part of a much-anticipated two-week tour of France, when Russia invaded their homeland. They have been unable to return since, after the full-scale war in Ukraine left the company stranded. Making the best of a difficult situation, the company spent the rest of 2022 performing throughout Europe, the United States and the Middle East, spreading a message of peace, hope and resilience to enthusiastic audiences.
With extraordinary resilience, Kyiv City Ballet has gone from strength to strength. Over a year on, and with no end to the war in sight, the company remains in exile and plans to continue touring throughout 2023.
Kyiv City Ballet was founded in 2012 by Ivan Kozlov, the company’s current General Director. Over the past decade, the company has performed on four continents and built a reputation as Ukraine’s finest ballet company. Kyiv City Ballet has over 25 ballets in its repertoire, including some of the best-known classical ballets like Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet and The Nutcracker, as well as neoclassical pieces including Tribute to Peace.
After graduating in Kyiv, Ivan Kozlov performed leading parts in nearly the entire classical ballet repertoire, as well as in numerous gala concerts. He is a former leading principal dancer of the Mariinsky Theater, the National Opera of Ukraine, The St. Petersburg Eifman Ballet and International Ballet Theater. A laureate of many ballet competitions, after finishing his performance career, Kozlov founded the Kyiv City Ballet, where he creates performances of the highest calibre. From 2020 to 2021, Ivan was a Professor of Dance at the Belgrade Dance Institute and a Guest Ballet Master at the National Theater of Serbia.
Kyiv City Ballet brings A Tribute to Peace to the Theatre Royal Bath on Sunday 16th April. To purchase tickets contact the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 or book online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk