Superfloor for future dancing stars

The building of the legendary Kyiv Choreography School was constructed in the 1960s (the architect even received Taras Shevchenko Prize), major renovation was done about 30 years ago and at the present moment it all looks pretty sad.

It seems like the time has frozen here. Worn off wallpaper and leaky roof catch an eye of a random visitor and the dance room has the wooden flooring, which served well for the grandmothers of present students (with gaps and nails, which can be pretty dangerous). Some windows are nailed up tight and there fresh air does not get in. The building does not have regular heating, therefore, children often are freezing.

 And this is the condition of the “ballet foundry.” Many of its graduates became the stars of the world class: Ivan Putrov, Vadym Pysariev, Valerii Mykhailovsky, Svitlana Zakharova, and Denys Matvienko. This list could go on much longer. Famous impresario and directors of world’s leading theaters come to Kyiv for young talents and they are greatly surprised at the poor conditions in which the dancers have to train. Recently Kyiv Choreography School received help not from the state but from the Charity Foundation “Nova Kraina” and the organizers of the “Pushkin Ball in Kyiv,” who raised money from the lottery (which was held at the First Charity Pushkin Ball in Kyiv in 2011).

 “We were guided by the desire to budge things in the sphere of art and culture – the most vulnerable sector in our country, for which the state hasn’t had time and money for many decades,” said Viktoria SYROTINA, head of the Charity Foundation “Nova Kraina.” “The flooring of the dancing hall in the Kyiv Choreography School (about 200 square meters) has been long worn off and deep gaps has formed near bars. The general look of the flooring resembles the sea waves. The walls and the ceiling are covered with fungus and streaks, plaster has fallen off. During the summer contractors performed some reparation works: walls and ceiling were repaired, the wood flooring in the dancing hall was polished. And the new pride of the dancing hall is the new special flooring (manufactured by Hungarian Company Grabo Broadway – one of the world’s best manufacturers of flooring for dancing halls), which we purchased directly from the manufacturer.” For example, the cost of the floor repairing (only in one dancing hall) was nearly 150,000 hryvnias. According to Syrotina, the next “ball” will be held in October and she hopes to raise a significantly larger amount of money to improve the training and living conditions of the students of Kyiv Choreography School and help them reach the world top standards.