Summer 2023
Together Again
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The artists of Reunited in Dance have performed with premier ballet companies around the globe, from Norway to Hungary, Germany to Bulgaria. But they share common origins in Ukraine and Russia — all were ballet stars there until the outbreak of the war. Many have harrowing tales of escape, and all spent long months off the stage, separated from their colleagues and friends.
In 2022, Xander Parish, a famed British-born dancer and former principal dancer with the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, brought them together for Reunited in Dance. Parish envisioned the original program, created with Elizabeth Segerstrom and presented at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Orange County, as a one-night event featuring ballet’s greatest hits, an evening of joy and hope. It turned out to be so much more — a standing-room-only performance that received glowing reviews, as much for the spectacular dancing as for its compelling heart and humanity. By popular demand, the program will be recreated at Festival Napa Valley.
“It was very moving,” says Parish, whose own odyssey to safety entailed taking a bus to the Estonian border with his Russian-born wife, dancer Anastasia Demidova, followed by months of visa roadblocks and a winding path through Georgia, Turkey, and the U.K. “The show gave us this sense of normalcy that we hadn’t experienced in seven or eight months. The normalcy of dancing, rehearsing, getting in costume — doing what we know how to do.”
“…we are grateful for opportunities like this so we can continue to dance.”
Reunited in Dance will be presented on the Festival Napa Valley Stage at Charles Krug on July 21. It will feature a lineup of 13 outstanding dancers and a program of classical and contemporary ballet favorites. “It’s jam-packed,” Parish says. “It’s going to be cracking.”
Parish and Demidova will open the evening with the tender White Swan duet from Swan Lake, while Joy Womack and Alexei Tutunik will set off fireworks in the dazzling duet from Flames of Paris. Adrian Blake Mitchell and Andrea Laššková perform After the Rain, a contemporary adagio choreographed by two-time Tony Award winner Christopher Wheeldon. Signature excerpts from Sleeping Beauty, Paquita, and Carnival of Venice are also on the program, along with Parish’s own Ballet 101, a charming send-up of ballet traditions.
The dancers are elated to perform together and share their artistry with the Festival audience, yet the reality of the situation is never far from their minds. “The current situation is tragic. We hope for peace,” says Parish. “In the meantime, we are grateful for opportunities like this so we can continue to dance.”