Australian Ballet: Ukraine-born Valerie Tereshchenko in Anna Karenina
Love and loss collide on stage and off when Ukraine-born ballerina Valerie Tereshchenko steps into the tragic role of classic Russian ballet Anna Karenina.
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Whenever Australian Ballet star Valerie Tereshchenko dances the classic Russian masterpiece Anna Karenina, something stirs deep inside her.
Tereshchenko left her native Ukraine at the age of six for our shores but there is something about the music, the movements and the powerful story of raw passion and profound tragedy that brings memories of her homeland pouring back.
“I feel this ballet so strongly, and I don’t really know why,” says Tereshchenko, who’s now preparing to play the title role for the ballet’s season in Sydney.
“I find the style of this ballet more evocative than any other, and the music and some moments in the traditional folk songs … We talk a lot these days about culture and identity and, while I can’t really explain it as I came to Australia so early in my life, there’s somewhere deep within me that feels the emotional pull and the mystique of this ballet.”
Born in Kyiv, it’s perhaps little wonder that Tereshchenko, now 32, feels such an affinity with this latest adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel about love and loss. The choreography is by fellow Ukrainian Yuri Possokhov, and she adores everything about it.
“I think it’s something in our blood,” she says.
Neither is the irony of the timing of the Russian work Anna Karenina – opening in Sydney on April 5 – lost on anyone at the Australian Ballet. It has declared it supported the recent lighting up of its venue, the Sydney Opera House, in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, and now has a statement on its website.
“The Australian Ballet opens our hearts to the victims of the unprovoked war in Ukraine. All people deserve the right to live in peace and we extend our deepest sympathies to all those impacted, displaced and suffering as a result of this horrific situation,” it reads.
“Art has the unique power to connect communities during the darkest of times and … with productions such as this beloved classic, Anna Karenina, we propose a symbol of hope for the future.”
For Tereshchenko, who last visited Ukraine in 2012, such a stand is terribly moving, but she’s determined not to let her feelings about the Russian invasion distract her from her task of bringing another tragedy to life.
“It’s really sad but it’s also really difficult being so far away,” she says.
“You feel so helpless. But I have found all the support quite surprising. Often, you used to feel like you didn’t even know if people have heard of your country. But now … it’s quite incredible to me.”
Tereshchenko is one of four revolving principal dancers playing the role of Anna Karenina in Sydney – after the first two productions were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic – and also played the role in Melbourne and Adelaide.
She will take the stage the evening after the opening night.
The part is one of the most physically and mentally exhausting in the world of ballet, with the central character meeting a handsome young officer, falling deeply in love with him and leaving her conservative husband and son for him, with disastrous consequences.
Quite apart from all the angst, the dancer is on stage almost constantly with any time offstage taken up with numerous costume changes. No fewer than three dressers help with one change of outfit, shoes, hair and headpiece that has to take place in less than 60 seconds.
“It’s such a huge role for ballerinas as you have to live her story, and a whole life is condensed into two hours,” says Tereshchenko, who won the 2017 Telstra Award to foster young dancers and was promoted to soloist and then senior artist shortly afterwards.
“You couldn’t possibly do it every night.
“This is my first leading title character role in a full-length ballet, and it’s so demanding both physically and emotionally. I love these dramatic stories as they’re so rich and you can delve into the characters and the novel so deeply but after each show, I end up so wired, I can never sleep.
“Now I embrace it and read a book or just chill and know I’ll be able to sleep the next night instead.”
Australian ballet has long had links with both Russian and Ukrainian ballet too.
One of the pioneers of Australian dance was Ukrainian dancer and cabinet-maker Mischa Burlakov who founded the First Australian Ballet company with Melburnian Louise Lightfoot in the late 1920s. They staged a performance of Coppelia in 1931, the first Australian production of a complete Russian ballet. In his spare time, Burlakov also made many of the sets.
Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova toured Australia in the 1920s, and the Ballet Russes visited a number of times in the 1930s, sparking the popularity of ballet and influencing the development of the art form here.
Dance historian Valerie Lawson, the author of Dancing Under The Southern Skies, says dancers from Russia had a huge impact on the art form here, especially when some decided to stay on. Among them was Czech Edouard Borovansky from The Royal Covent Garden Russian Ballet.
“He set up the Melbourne Academy of Russian Ballet which was all very new and exciting for Australia, and he brought out Russian people to the company,” says Lawson.
“Australian ballet evolved from that. While ballet started in Italy and France, the attention shifted around to Russia with its wonderful technique.”
As for Valerie Tereshchenko, she just hopes that ballet, at some point in the future, will become as valued in Australia as it is in Ukraine and Russia.
“Ballet is such an important part of our culture there,” she says.
“To us, it’s as vital as football is to Australia. One day …”
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