Kyiv-born 25-year-old Vsevolod Maevsky likes to describe himself not only as Ukrainian but as a “citizen of the whole world.” Maevsky’s relationship with dance began at the age of 5 with ballroom dancing. A few years later he became the junior ballroom dancing champion of Ukraine. But at the instigation of his mother, Maevsky began to study ballet and at the age of 12 was spotted by V. V. Pryanichnikov of the then-Kyiv State Choreographic School, which led to a year in New York studying at the Ellison Ballet. In 2018 he was accepted into the Mariinsky Theatre company. Maevsky recently took part in the Les Etoiles Gala Concert in Bologna (Italy), a singular honor to be on the same stage with many of the world’s leading ballet stars. He considers the first real highlight of his career as the opportunity to dance Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake when he was just 23 years old. It was an honor accorded to him by the Mariinsky. “At the time, when war came, I hardly had time to notice. I had a very active work schedule—I was helping my partner to learn a new role, and many new solo parts were planned in the repertoire of the Mariinsky Ballet. But that spring, this year, by happenstance I suffered a minor back injury and went to Turkey for rehabilitation, where my brother lives. The war started. After that, I couldn’t go back; I still haven’t been back. Nor can I easily or safely go back to Ukraine. I am a citizen of the world.
Maevsky, whose professional dreams include dancing such quintessentially Russian roles as Eugene Onegin and Count Vronsky in Anna Karenina, remains, despite everything, a lover of Russian dance and culture: “I want to thank Vsevolod Maevsky the teachers of the Mariinsky Theater for my strong ballet base and a varied repertoire,” he says—his career—as a Ukrainian ballet dancer on the international stage—is nevertheless as a Russian-trained, Russian-ballet-loving Ukrainian. “For me, Reunited in Dance is a unique opportunity, not just to meet old colleagues, [but to] exchange our new experiences since we were last together, and create out of that something unique too.
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