In April, the half-Ukrainian dancer left Moscow and her position as the Stanislavsky Theatre as her family hunkered down in Mariupol. Ahead of a performance in Sydney, she talks about her future
Fernandez, who was born in Switzerland, had a cousin, two uncles and her maternal grandfather still living in the south-eastern Ukrainian city when Vladimir Putin’s war began. Her bedridden grandfather died one week before the invasion of Mariupol, which fell to Russian forces on 16 May.“I’m glad he didn’t see any of this, and it would have been impossible to evacuate him,” Fernandez says of her grandfather.
Fernandez is now working as a principal dancer at the State Ballet of Georgia. On 16 and 17 July, she will join an international lineup of principal dancers and soloists from as far afield as Berlin and San Francisco, for theFernandez has spent the past six weeks settling into her new role and recovering her health. The stress and worry of the past three months had affected her eyesight. She had become dangerously thin.
“I worked really hard to get to this position and I thought I might have to start over from the beginning if I moved to,” she says. “I am trained in the classical Russian style – we don’t have that contemporary repertoire, so I have no modern experience, which is expected in companies in Europe.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Home Office offers asylum seekers choice between war zones they fled and RwandaHigh number of first 100 people to be sent to Rwanda are from Sudan, despite being small number of those crossing the Channel
Read more »
Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921 by Antony Beevor review – butchery of the BolsheviksPersonal testimonies humanise the Stalingrad author’s mesmerising study of the bloody battle for power after the collapse of the tsarist regime
Read more »
Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 103 of the invasionPutin warns that Moscow will hit new targets if west supplies Ukraine with long-range missiles as Kyiv reels from first attack in more than a month
Read more »
Russia-Ukraine war latest: Putin warns of new targets; Zelenskiy visits troops on eastern front – livePutin says Russia will respond if Ukraine is supplied with longer-range missiles; the frontline creeps closer in Donbas as Sievierodonetsk sees heaviest battles
Read more »
Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 103 of the invasionPutin warns that Moscow will hit new targets if west supplies Ukraine with long-range missiles as Kyiv reels from first attack in more than a month
Read more »
Putin issues new attack warning to the West over supplying Ukraine aidThe Russian President has issued a new warning to the West as Ukraine's capital came under attack again after Moscow forces turned their attention to the eastern region.
Read more »