Australian born and raised, Jasmine Sophie Henry was halfway through her first season at the Mariinsky Theatre when the war began. “The news was shocking. I remember reading about it in the Mariinsky dormitory with my friends from the theatre, and immediately called my parents, who couldn’t believe it either. From that point on, everything changed,” she recalled. Henry began her classical training at a school in Perth, Australia with the Russian ballet master Sergey Pevnev who set her on the path to the world famous Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg just four years ago at the age of 15. During her time there, Henry studied under Maria Gribanova and Sofia Gumerova. Among her highlights of her time in Russia, she remembers her first time performing on the Mariinsky stage as a snowflake in The Nutcracker during her first year at Vaganova Ballet Academy. Henry went on to a soloist role in the ballet Conservatory by August Bournonville for her graduation performance at Mariinsky Theatre, performed the full Satanella Pas De Deux in Vaganova Ballet Academy’s International Student Gala in 2021, and was selected by Zhanna Ayupova, co-director the Academy, as one of only six other girls in her year level to take part in professor Irina Trafimova’s 2019 training seminar.
“The war has impacted my existence in every way, as it forced me to give up the life I had been focused on and working towards relentlessly these last years. It made me question my values, and who and what I wanted to stand for. When I made the decision to leave, it almost felt like I was leaving an entirely different person behind in Russia. There was a lot of grief. For the next six months I was in Australia, trying to find work, but simultaneously I was in mourning; for my life—the life I had to leave behind in Russia. I felt I lost a huge part of my identity—as a ballet dancer, as a person— when I left Russia, and the opportunity to be a part of such an inspiring collective of dancers, dancers with whom I’ve worked, dancers I’ve admired, dancers who share a common dance language—has made me remember what it feels like to be a part of something greater than myself,” she recalled. Like many of the dancers in Reunited in Dance, since leaving Russia, Henry has had to find a new pathway back to ballet and to a new approach to dance. The Russian classicism does not suit all career paths. “I faced a lot of rejection from companies when I tried to audition, and it made me re-evaluate my dancing. I am now dancing, and also re-training in effect, at the European School of Ballet’s Classical Trainee Program,” she said
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