PROVO — A Provo native is helping to highlight Ukrainians’ fight for freedom through a documentary about ballet dancers who are preserving art and culture during war.
“Ballet, and art in general, isn’t just a way to show joy and hope during this war; it is a way to fight back, directly,” said director Jonathan Maricle.
In the fall of 2022, the National Ballet of Ukraine performed “Nadiya Ukraine,” a celebration of Ukrainian culture and resilience, during a benefit concert in Orlando to raise funds for the Russia-Ukraine war.
The company Adrenaline Films was asked to record that performance on video. Then, producer Julie Meyer met with the dancers, who began telling their stories of rehearsing and performing during war.
“He (the stage director) was showing her photos of himself and one of the other ballerinas in fatigues, and being like, ‘This is my reality now.’ And Julie just was so struck by the choices that these people have been forced to make,” co-producer Abi Nielson said.
After completing the performance film, Adrenaline Films decided to pursue a documentary about how the war was affecting the artists and culture of Ukraine. Nielson was brought on to help with the development and distribution of “The Sky Was on Fire: Ballet and War in Ukraine” onto the project shortly after that decision.
For two years, the team worked on creating the documentary, a process that included two trips to Ukraine where they had to fly to a neighboring country and take a train into Ukraine to interview various dancers and artists in Kyiv.
They live to make and experience art. They have been forced to make a choice to stay and perform under rocket fire, or have to go down into bomb shelters in the middle of performances, or to flee abroad and try to start over,” Nielson said.
Some of the artists have decided to pick up arms and join the front lines. Many of the ballet company’s continued performances aim to bring awareness to Ukraine’s situation and raise money for the war effort, Nielson said.
“I had to tell the stories of these brave dancers literally fighting for Ukraine’s freedom — both on the stage and on the front lines,” Maricle said.
Through the destruction of more than 475 cultural sites, Russia has been actively trying to erase Ukrainian heritage, Maricle said, but ballet as an art form is being used to resist.
“Ballet is one of Ukraine’s secret weapons in the war, occupying a central role in articulating the voice of Ukrainian freedom and culture across the globe, in direct contrast to Russia’s crumbling control over the art form they’ve always dominated,” he said.
The documentary aims to amplify the artists’ voices and celebrate their courage in preserving their heritage, he said.
As someone who also lives for art, Nielson said the Ukrainians’ stories deeply resonated with her. She grew up in Utah and went to BYU, but has been based in Orlando for five years now as the creative director of Adrenaline Films.
“I hope that when people see this film they can also connect with and resonate with the effort they are going into to speak and use art as their voice. To empathize with these Ukrainians who care so much and are trying so hard,” she said.
The 95-minute film premiered at its first festival last month and will be shown at more festivals throughout this year. Nielson said the company is pursuing distribution avenues so more people will be able to see “The Sky Was on Fire: Ballet and War in Ukraine.”
“At the Florida Film Festival premiere night, we had two different Ukrainians stand up and thank us and tell us that they felt represented — which is huge as a filmmaker, as a documentarian, to feel like you did them justice. Because of that, I urgently want people to watch it so they can understand and empathize and see what is happening,” Nielson said.
Hailing from Utah, which Nielson said has a rich oral and written history because Utahns care about connecting through stories, she is grateful to be able to continue telling stories through her work. It feels surreal that she gets to do this for a living.
“I feel so lucky to tell such a precious story in a way that I feel can really connect with others. I’m grateful for the Ukrainians who opened up their hearts to us. It’s not easy being a documentary subject, you have to be really vulnerable. They were beyond generous with their time and emotions,” she said.
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