How Bellevue became home to Ukraine's ballet diaspora

This holiday season, the Grand Kyiv Ballet will perform “Snow White” at Seattle's Paramount Theater, but this Ukraine-based ballet company’s connection to the Pacific Northwest goes much deeper than this production.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Oleksandr Stoianov and his wife Katerina Kukhar needed to flee the country with their children. Stoianoy is the founder, artistic director, and principal dancer of the Grand Kyiv Ballet. Kukhar is principal dancer of the National Opera of Ukraine and the Grand Kyiv Ballet.

Kukhar was out of the country for a performance when she found out about the erupting war.

“Five o'clock in the morning, our babysitter called us,” Kukhar said. “She was crying, and she said the war started. Our airport was bombed.”

Half a world away, Vera Altunina, the founder and artistic director of the International Ballet Academy, immediately knew she had to do something. She had invited Oleksandr and Katerina to perform in Bellevue many times over the years, and had formed a relationship that extended beyond performances.

“We get so worried about them, because we definitely treat them like our family, not just artistic, but our family,” Altunina said. “So we invited them to come stay with us, in a more peaceful and very safe environment. And since that moment, we've been together, living together, creating together, dancing together, and breathing together.”

The International Ballet Academy is housed in a nondescript building in Bellevue, right next to I-405. The Academy has an illustrious reputation for developing talented performers who have earned scholarships to some of the most prestigious dance academies in the world, and moved into careers as professional performers.

And now, the Ballet Academy, and the community itself, are home to two world-renowned dancers. Both Stoianov and Kukhar studied at the legendary Kyiv State Choreographic College, which is known for producing ballet stars. Kuhkar is currently its director.

For Stoianov and Kukhar, the move from Kyiv to the east side of King County, has been a major shift in their lifestyle.

“Before the war, we had a very interesting life,” Stoianov said, adding that Kukhar’s fame back home led to lots of parties and public appearances, and left limited time for home life.

“I had a media life,” Kukhar said. “You know, it's parties and photo shoots everyday.”

The couple says back home, there were times they would only see their children when saying “good morning” and “good night.”

But once they left Ukraine, the changes in their responsibilities were sudden. For Stoianov, he was now running an international ballet company full of dancers who have been displaced by the war. Because the performers have had to flee their homeland, Stoianov is coordinating a ballet diaspora.

“It's a lot of responsibility. And I don't have a choice,” Stoianov said. “Because if I stop, all my people, all my artists will be without work, without the opportunity to survive.”

Many of those artists are supporting their families back in Ukraine. Stoianov said he often has to wire the money his performers earn back to Ukraine because they send their earnings directly to their families.

For Kukhar, the adjustment was leaving behind the glamorous life in Ukraine, to enter the suburban pace of Bellevue.

“The first time I woke up in the morning,” Kukhar said as she recalled the day after leaving Ukraine. “ [With] two children without a babysitter, granny, without anybody. And they asked me to cook for them. It was really challenging because I never did it before.”

She has leaned into the opportunity to spend more time with her children. She finds joy in taking her daughter to school and preparing meals and her ability to balance those responsibilities, while still maintaining her career as a world-class performer.

Even though Stoianov and Kukhar now have a home in America, they still perform back in Ukraine. But things back home have changed. Before the war, the Opera house in Ukraine had about 1,300 seats. Now, only 300 people can attend performances to ensure the bomb shelter underneath the building has enough capacity for everyone in attendance. When rockets are in the area, patrons and performers are required to enter the shelter.

The idea of performing while knowing that at any moment the show can be stopped due to rockets and bombshells is a harsh reality, but for now, it’s life in Ukraine. And for Stoianov, attempting to keep the arts alive in this moment of turmoil is important.

“Our country must try to live a normal life,” Stoianov said. "You can’t just sit at home waiting. That's why all theaters try to work and all businesses try to work. [Performers] try to show us everything is OK by dancing with the rockets and going to restaurants and try to live our normal lives.”

But Stoianov has hope for the future.

“We still have a plan to go back to Ukraine,” he said. “I am not sure about our whole life, because already we have two homes, one in America and one in Ukraine. But we have a cultural plan.”

The plan is to rebuild the infrastructure for ballet in Ukraine. But for now, The Grand Kyiv Ballet is operated from Bellevue.