世界的バレエダンサーら、ウクライナ支援のチャリティー公演　英ロンドン

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】戦禍のウクライナを支援し、平和のメッセージを届けようと、ロシアとウクライナを含む世界の著名バレエダンサーによるチャリティー公演が１９日、英ロンドンのコリセウム劇場で行われた。（写真は英ロンドンのコリセウム劇場で行われたウクライナを支援するバレエ・チャリティー公演リハーサルで踊る水谷実喜さん）
　「ウクライナのための舞踏」と銘打った公演の呼び掛け人の一人で、ウクライナ人ダンサー兼プロデューサーのイワン・プトロフ氏によると、１０万ポンド（約１６００万円）の支援金集めを目標に掲げたが、開演前にすでに１４万ポンド（約２２００万円）が集まった。
　満席となった劇場で、ルーマニア出身のバレリーナ、アリーナ・コジョカルさんは「民主主義を守り、自由と尊い命のために立ち上がった」と語った。
　出演したのは英ロイヤル・バレエ団に所属するロシアのナタリア・オシポワさん、アルゼンチン出身のマリアネラ・ヌニェスさん、日本の金子扶生さん、フランスのパリ・オペラ座バレエ団のマチュー・ガニオさんら。その他、ウクライナや米国、スペイン、キューバのダンサーも参加した。
　公演はウクライナ国歌で開幕し、ロシア人作曲家アレクサンドル・グラズノフのバレエ組曲「ライモンダ」の「愛の勝利」で幕を閉じた。
　ピョートル・チャイコフスキーやセルゲイ・ラフマニノフといったロシア人作曲家の作品も演じられた。
　「ロシア文化はウラジーミル・プーチン大統領とは無関係で、それと同様にプーチン氏もロシア文化とは関係がない」とプトロフ氏。
　プトロフ氏は、メッセージを届けたいのは欧米諸国やウクライナの人々だけでなく、ロシアの人々も含まれるとし、「私たちアーティストは自らが持つ才能を通じて、自らの信条を発信しなければならない。アートには声があり、その声を使うことがアートなのだ」と語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/03/22-11:28）

World famous ballet dancers from Russia and Ukraine, Argentina, Cuba, France and Japan came together on Saturday for a gala to raise funds for Ukraine and send a message of peace.
The yellow and blue flag of Ukraine flew outside the London Coliseum for the show, which aimed to raise more than £100,000 ($130,000, 120,000 euros) for the UK Disasters Emergency Committee collective of leading charities.
But one of the organisers, Ukrainian dancer and producer Ivan Putrov, told the packed audience before the Dance for Ukraine event started that £140,000 had already been donated.
Please don't stop your support, he told them.
Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, was given a standing ovation, while Putrov's fellow organiser, Romanian ballerina Alina Cojacaru, said the show was about democracy, standing for freedom and human values.
Both Putrov and Cojacaru trained in Kyiv and decided to mobilise the world of ballet for what they said was a humanitarian appeal in the face of Russia's invasion.
The team of world-leading dancers performing included Russia's Natalia Osipova, Argentina's Marianela Nunez and Japan's Fumi Kaneko, all from the Royal Ballet, and France's Mathieu Ganio from the Paris Opera.
Ukraine's Katja Khaniukova, Spain's Aitor Arrieta and the United States' Emma Hawes of the English National Ballet also took to the stage.
Putrov, who was a principal dancer with London's Royal Ballet from 2002-2010, said before the show that they intended to send a message to the West, those in Ukraine but also Russia.
Some Russians will hear us and will raise their voice... because what's happening is outrageous, he told AFP.
We as artists have talent and we need to use this talent to say what we believe in. Art has a voice and is the voice that we use.
Is art appropriate in such a horrible circumstance? Of course it is, because it gives hope, it gives inspiration to people.
- Loaded with symbolism -
The evening opened with the Urainian national anthem and closed with The Triumph of Love from the ballet Raymonda, with music by Russia's Alexander Glazunov.
The 13 symbolism-laden choreographies in between included No Man's Land by Liam Scarlett, Lacrimosa by Gyula Pandi and Ashes by Jason Kittelberger.
Russian composers including Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff also featured.
Russian culture doesn't have anything to do with (President Vladimir) Putin, and equally Putin has nothing to do with Russian culture, said Putrov.
Osipova, one of the most famous Russian dancers outside her country, declined to be interviewed.
But her presence signifies that Russia doesn't equal aggression, said Putrov.
Cuba's Javier Torres of the Northern Ballet performed The Death of a Swan by Camille Saint-Saens.
The piece is about a paraplegic who loses one of his limbs and represents fighting for what you have lost, Torres told AFP.
It talks about fighting to the end and that's how I wanted to interpret it, he said, thinking of people who try to resist what happens to them, like the Ukrainians mired in war or the Cubans who have suffered under decades of US sanctions and embargoes, and even by the Russians in Soviet times.
I have that pain, I have that anguish that every Cuban who lives outside of Cuba has, because we know the needs that are experienced there, he said.
He said he has not previously mixed art with politics, but Saturday's gala was a humanitarian duty as a dancer, as a human rights defender, first as a person and then as an artist.