Learning this simple truth, another youngster dons her toe shoes and approaches the bar for the first time... From this very moment, if she has enough will and desire, she will start shaping her body several hours a day... Years will pass and one day she will emerge before the admiring eyes of spectators under the stage lights and give a performance of the most sophisticated and efficient of instruments - a solo of the human body.
   The career of Olena Filip'eva, the prima ballerina of the Kyiv National Opera House has been marvellous, indeed, and tells much like a fairytale. At just 23 years old and already holding the title of People's Artist of Ukraine., she performs the leading role in all ballets staged in the Kyiv Opera House. She has also won top prizes at international ballet contests in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nagoya (Japan), in addition to completing numerous tours at home and abroad, which have attracted widespread international recognition.
    Born in the mining town of Dniprorudny (Zaporizhzhya region) to a family of sportsmen, Olena fell in love with dancing in her early childhood. The family knew little about the local ballet, but sent her to a children's dancing club. It wasn't long before the teacher noticed young Olena's extraordinary talents and advised that she be sent to a ballet school in the capital.
Every May, the Kyiv Ballet School is a scene of heartbreaking emotions as a seemingly infinite line of hopeful enrollers and their parents stretches from the doors of the school back into an adjacent park; some are already crying for having failed an admittance audition, while the more fortunate young dancers proudly carry their heads high, ignoring their former contenders... Upon successfully passing all three of her auditions (there are as many as 22 candidates per each place in this elite school!) in 1980, Olena was admitted to the Kyiv Ballet School. This meant a radical change in her life. She had to live apart from her parents for the first time, residing and studying at the school site, devoting virtually all her waking hours to ballet. This meant eight years of voluntary "confinement" in a suburb of Kyiv in two adjacent buildings - the school and the boarding house. - It was difficult, indeed. I missed home and my parents, suffered from the snobbish attitude of the students residing in Kyiv who treated "those from the boarding house" as a lower class. When I came home for the holidays I cried. My mother said: stay with us, forget about Kyiv. But I returned, time and again. Where did all this stubbornness comes from, I wonder?
Olena watched, memorized and learned. Many times she tested and reconfirmed the long known adage: that which does not kill you makes you stronger.
   - Generally speaking, I am grateful to the boarding house: I quickly became self-dependent. My mother was not with me and I had to look after myself - sewed, washed, pressed. All this helped me in future. Her first ballet Olena watched in Kyiv - and felt "like in the paradise".
Already as a four-grader Olena together with her class-mates participated in the ballets: The Sleeping Beauty, The Song of the Woods and The Wasteful Warning.
- All of us were fascinated by the art of ballet, the Opera House seemed like something divine and out of reach; for us the ballet dancers were angels living in heaven. Unfortunately, you seldom find such an attitude in today's students: they might pass you by and not even say "hello", treating well-known ballet stars with total indifference.
Olena Filip'eva was one of the best in the commencement exercises at school and was almost immediately offered work in the Kyiv Opera House. In those days, such a promotion was next to impossible for a graduate without a Kyiv residence permit and connections in high places. Still, it took some doing. In order for the Opera House to avoid paying a large sum for her Kyiv residence permit, Olena was told to sign on with one of the provincial theaters and work there for a period. She promptly refused. Instead, she literally barged into the Opera House and quickly earned the top position among the dancers. Of course, a little good fortune intervened on her part. Some touring soloists couldn't make the performance and the head choreographer had to find substitutes. He asked Olena to "rescue" the performance and she agreed without hesitation. Just three days after graduation from ballet school she was already dancing a solo in Giselle on the first ballet stage of Ukraine! Leading roles, victories at international contests and numerous tours soon followed...along with the envy of her fellow performers.
   - It's a typical situation for any big collective body, especially in a theater. I'm sure there is enough room for everybody. Each actor is a unique and incomparable phenomenon, bringing something of his or her own. The theater changed me, hardened my character, developed willpower, cultivated persistence and even stubbornness. I'm reserved and cool by nature but here I learned to demand what is due (say, heating in a cold training hall), learned to ignore something that's not really very important and achieve what's really worth achieving by all available means.
And an achiever she is. Her awards include: third place at the Sixth international Contest of Ballet Dancers (1989), Honored Artist of Ukraine (1992), People's Artist of Ukraine (1993), first place at the Maya International Contest in St. Petersburg (1994), second place at the international contest in Nagoya, Japan (1996 and 1998). Olena Filip'eva loves all her roles and even misses them should too much time pass without performing them.
- It is hard to find one, single role for yourself. Sometimes I want to be brilliant, shocking and a bit sly like in Don Quixote, at others I need to go mad to the point of fainting like in Giselle or experience the strongest of emotions in the eternal love story of Romeo and Juliet. I can forgive a technical error of a dancer, since my highest priority is always the emotional and artistic quality of a dance. I want the ballet to be the ballet and not become a sports competition of who jumps higher or makes more turns. These are just stunts, but our audience wants feelings, wishing a ballet to be an emotional journey.
Maya Plisetskaya once said: "I understood too late that most important in the ballet was the head rather than neck!", and this phrase became famous. The intellectual and emotional quality of her dance makes the dancing style of Olena Filip'eva similar to that of Maya Plisetskaya, a great ballet dancer of the twentieth century. Maya has recognized and highly praised Olena's skills, repeatedly calling her the best young danseuse. After Swan Lake Maya said to Olena: "I have never before seen such a Swan!"
Olena followed Maya's recommendations in dancing with the famous Patric Dupont in Japan and at the festival in a medieval castle of Trakay (Lithuania)... These were unforgettable impressions!
- In my life I danced with many brilliant dancers. Today my permanent stage partner is my husband Denis Matviyenko. It's a general tendency of our time to be partners in life and on stage. Just look at the duet of Ekaterina Maksimova and Vladimir Vasilyev. We, Denis and I, also thank ballet for our union. When he came to the Opera House I noticed how open and friendly he was. As for Denis it was interesting to be a partner of a famous danseuse, then already a People's Artist. We felt sympathy for one another. For me it's very important to dance with a close one - all technical aspects of our dance have already become automatic. It gives us an opportunity to pay more attention to the essence of the parts we perform. Olena's favorite statement is "let it pass through your heart". Working on a new role she reads its emotional script like others read the libretto.
- According to her, this approach is simple enough: certain gestures and postures - "words" are added to become a narration or a dialogue. All you need is to under stand the character you dance: her feelings, her desires... Getting prepared for a performance Olena reads a lot and watches videos of performances, especially those of Makarova, Plisetskaya, Evdokimova and Baryshnikov.
- It's unbelievable - in the Sylphide Evdokimova is virtually hanging in the air! It's very important for me to watch and study various performances, though it's hardly possible to repeat the findings and manner of other dancers. Every dancer is unique and, of course, I'll dance the way I feel. I just like to watch the rehearsals of my colleagues: I think, borrow some things, reject others, and generally learn "from the contrasts".
However, when I work on a role, the most important for me is the music. Regardless of my mood before the performance, hearing the first notes of the orchestra, I immediately adjust myself to the character and "nerve" of my role.
Speaking about her profession, Olena also mentioned the "seamy" side of it. - - It's another facet of our profession: sitting with tattered, bandaged legs not knowing what more to do to stay fit for the next performance - whether to continue dieting or to eat more... You won't find any ballet dancer without an ailment. My displaced knee-cap periodically disturbs me as there are problems with the joint where the bone is splitting. When they were filming pictures for Japan I had a serious injury. They somehow numbed my leg and administered pain killers, but when I danced for the camera I still had to restrain myself from crying.
Ukrainian ballet dancers risk their health, having no insurance or other guarantee against disability. That is why they accept almost any offer for work, trying to save something for a rainy day. Many of them emigrate looking for stability and better opportunities for their art. Olena Filip'eva stays in the Kyiv Opera House for she loves her city, her theater and her audience.
- I'm happy that people in the streets recognize me, ask about my next performance, call the theater asking "when Filip'eva is dancing". All these, however, are more the exception than the rule. Unfortunately, they do not value the ballet and the dancers in Ukraine. I travel a great deal and can compare how the public receives us, say, in the States or Japan and here. There the audience cries and laughs, reacts to every look or gesture. After Giselle people approach me to say how impressed they are, to express their gratitude, and to ask for an autograph. They applaud freely and are generous with flowers!
Just think: what great public attention is paid to, say, the Bolshoy or Mariinsky Theater. A TV show about the classic art called The Tsar's Box is extremely popular in St. Petersburg. If only a fraction of this attention was paid to the Kyiv Opera House by the mass media, the public and officials! Improving the state of our theatre depends on many things: we need advertising, producers, and choreographers with new ideas. The provincial approach is what hinders our development. We are virtually ordered to stage only Ukrainian ballets in which the choreography is outdated and is interesting neither to the dancers nor to the public - it's just a waste of money, that's all! What I wish so much is an experiment, new roles, modern dancers! We badly need to grow!
Tonight Olena filip'eva appears on the stage of Kiev National Opera. She will offer you her vigor, her charm, her intellect. When words fail, the music, the look, the gesture have their say. Olena Filip'eva's dance begins.

Meridian , the inflight magazine of AeroSvit Airlines
Copyright Meridian