Part American, part Russian, Veronika Selivanova’s training included the Minsk Choreographic College and the renowned Vaganova Academy in St.Petersburg, where she was in the class of Maria Gribanova. Selivanova has also been part of the international trainee program of the San Francisco Ballet School from 2013–15 under direction of Patrick Armand. Selivanova joined the Norwegian National Ballet in 2022. She was previously a dancer with The Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and the Ekaterinburg Academic Opera and Ballet.Her repertoire includes a variety of roles in Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, La Bayadère, Raymonda, Le Corsaire, Paquita, Spartacus, La Sylphide, Sylvia, Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Romeo and Juliet, Chopiniana, Nijinsky’s Rite of Spring, Petrouchka and Firebird, Ratmanky’s Cinderella, Anna Karenina and The Humphback Horse, Leningrad Symphony, Grigorovich’s Legend of Love and The Stone Flower, Twyla Tharp’s Push Come to Shove, Fokine’s Dying Swan and Sheherezade, Balanchine’s Symphony in C and Midsummer Nights Dream, Hans Van Manens 5 Tangos, Ekman’s Swan Lake, Varnava’s Daphnis et Chloe, The Nutcracker, and La Bayadere, among many others “I was on tour in Moscow when the war came. I remember the day very well, and we were all very down and scared and confused. We didn’t know what to do, but we went on anyway. I cried on stage.
I left Russia a week later-it was very hard to concentrate on anything else. It was just something we had to do. My husband is Russian-only Russian-and I had had notification from the U.S. embassy to leave. We got out to Norway, via Uzbekistan. We were welcomed in Norway but we were so homesick. St.Petersburg was home. We had friends, family, dogs, cats-a whole life. And, of course, our beloved theatre. The Mariinsky had been a dream. It was a community and our second home. We have so many people who are dear to us. It comes in waves: sometimes I am happy because we have been so welcomed in Norway, and then we get very homesick sometimes. We have felt so helpless, but "Reunited in Dance" is a big part of why we are together—so we can say something, do something, through art. We are trying to use the arts to unite people, raise awareness, and help people think about peace instead of war. I hope that this will be a successful mission. I can’t wait to see everyone again—scattered as we are all over the world. But here, in some ways, we get to feel at home.’’
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