Schools across Europe give shelter and fresh opportunities to Ukraine's young dancers

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/14/ [login to see] /schools-across-europe-give-shelter-and-fresh-opportunities-to-ukraines-young-dan
The Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) is a big deal in the dance world. Dancers audition for scholarships to attend prestigious schools. For ballet companies, it's a kind of pipeline as they look for the next generation of professional dancers. Competitions are held in cities around the world. When Russians invaded Ukraine, the Kiev competition was cancelled.

Now, YAGP organizers are busy trying to find schools that will take in the young Ukrainian dancers who were registered to compete. YAGP's Director of External Affairs Sergey Gordeev rattles off a long list of the schools that are helping, "Munich Ballet Academy, John Cranko Schule School of Stuttgart Ballet, Dutch National Ballet School, European School of Ballet in the Netherlands, Norwegian National Ballet School..."

So far, he says, they've placed more than 60 dancers since the invasion. "These dancers are literally finding themselves at the border, trying to cross into wherever there is peace and to continue their art, which means everything to them," he says.

17-year-old Martin Korol was scheduled to compete in the YAGP. Instead, he fled, with nothing but a backpack and a little money. Along with crowds of other people, he and a dancer friend headed to the Kiev train station. "It was so difficult to leave Kiev. So difficult," he says.