Grand Kyiv Ballet to present ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ at PACSLO
The family-friendly ballet will be performed Sunday in SLO
– The Grand Kyiv Ballet will present Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Performing Arts Center in San Luis Obispo on Sunday, Feb. 1, at 1 p.m.
The family-friendly ballet will be performed one time only at the venue.
The production brings the classic fairy tale to the stage through choreography, costumes, and a full cast. The ballet is inspired by the 1937 animated Disney film and incorporates musical themes by Polish composer Bogdan Pavlovsky.
Costuming and set design draw heavily from the original animated work, an approach intended to appeal to both children and adults familiar with the story.
The Snow White ballet debuted in 1975 at the Kyiv Opera and follows the story of a young woman fleeing her jealous stepmother before finding refuge with a group of companions, blending dramatic and comedic elements.
The Grand Kyiv Ballet was founded by Oleksandr Stoianov, a principal dancer with the National Opera of Ukraine, after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea left him displaced from his home. As fighting spread in eastern Ukraine, dancers from regions including Donetsk and Luhansk were forced to flee, prompting Stoianov to establish the company as a way to provide work for displaced artists and preserve Ukrainian ballet traditions.
Stoianov later founded four ballet companies internationally to support Ukrainian dancers and expand the reach of Ukrainian classical dance. The company continues to tour globally as the war in Ukraine persists, amid ongoing infrastructure damage and humanitarian strain in Kyiv.
