9:33 am: The Bolshoi, deserted by its foreign dancers
If the Brazilian dancer David Motta, soloist at the Bolshoi, explains that he was the first to leave Moscow the day after the invasion of Russia in Ukraine, he assures that “all the foreign dancers” of the Bolshoi ended up following the movement. “It is clear that we had to leave”, out of solidarity with the Ukrainian people. “The only question was how,” he continued.
Fearing a closing of the borders, he drew up his “escape plan” on February 24, immediately booking a flight to Istanbul, from where he joined Brazil, via Milan. After “several sleepless nights, without knowing how to make a new start”, he will join the Staatsballett in Berlin.