Premier of the Past | Present | Future

We’re still catching our breath.

There are moments in an artist’s life when time stretches — the curtain falls, applause rings out, and suddenly everything feels timeless. Past | Present | Future wasn’t just a title for us. It became a commitment.

After the curtain closed, we stood together in a circle backstage — all of us, the full crew. Sweaty. Happy. Grateful. Not because it was perfect. But because we did it. Together. And the audience felt it.

Every piece in this triptych held a link to the Netherlands — a kind of choreography of belonging.

• In The Past, two men dance an electric dialogue between Piet Mondrian and Alexandra Exter — artists of geometry, exile, and rebellion. The dance was wild, full of sharp turns and sudden interruptions. But somehow, they kept lifting each other up.
• The Present, by Marne van Opstal was a small ode to friendship, that both challenges and loves.

That stimulates and supports. Sometimes a difficult mirror to face but allows you to grow. It ebbs and flows with the knowing that this love will always exists.

• The Future dropped us in a post-apocalyptic world, where three women — not just dancers, but the leaders of UIB — searched for harmony in the ruins. It was raw. Unpolished. And weirdly human. Our set, designed by Dutch ex-dancer Rob Sjouke, stood between harmony and chaos like a landscape that remembers.

If it felt like Ukrainian contemporary dance had teleported into Dutch soil — that’s because it kind of did.

And something is growing.

Roots, new roots:)

We don’t know what the future looks like. But we know how it moves.

And we’ll keep moving.

To dance on foreign soil, with our feet rooted in memory and our eyes fixed ahead — this is not easy. But it’s real. It’s ours. We didn’t want to perform safety. We wanted to show what it feels like to be alive in this moment — conflicted, complex, brave. Sometimes barefoot. Sometimes with tears under stage light.

Alongside the stage, another layer of the evening quietly unfolded. In the lobby, our audience could explore a visual display — a series of glimpses into the lives of artists like Ilya Repin, Kazimir Malevich, Marie Bashkirtseff, Alexandra Exter and others. Often labeled as Russian, these figures carry deep Ukrainian roots. The display didn’t shout. It spoke clearly — of context, of nuance, of identity not as a flag but as a texture. For us, this was not a footnote to the performance, but a continuation of the same conversation. Another kind of choreography — one made of frames, facts, and long-overlooked truths.

To dance on foreign soil, with our feet rooted in memory and our eyes fixed ahead — this is not easy. But it’s real. It’s ours. We didn’t want to perform safety. We wanted to show what it feels like to be alive in this moment — conflicted, complex, brave. Sometimes barefoot. Sometimes with tears under stage light.

Thank you, Den Haag, for holding us gently.

Thank you to the full house who came, leaned in, and stayed with us — even when things got raw, weird, or wild.

Thank you to the choreographers who trusted us with their language. And to the audience who spoke back with silence, claps, and eyes that shimmered.

We are still learning how to carry beauty and grief in the same breath.

Still figuring out how to rebuild with tenderness, not just technique.

But we’re here. And this is only the beginning.

To all who shared their hands, hearts, and hopes with us — we thank you more than words can carry…

Head Dream-Maker:

UUB Foundation – United Ukrainian Ballet Foundation

Partners:

• Zhembrovskyy Ballet Dance and Ballet School;
• TASHA events;
• Nijmegen4Ukraine;
• Vesela Pani
• Radio Ukraine the Netherlands 
• Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap
• -DE DUTCH DON’T DANCE DIVISION 
• 7Sprong

Informational partners:

• Embassy of Ukraine in the Kingdom of the Netherlands
• VATAHA foundation 
• Dobrodiy 

Choreographers: Vladyslav Detiuchenko, Marne van Opstal, Dmytro Borodai

Dancers: Dmytro Borodai, Dmytro Tkachenko, Ève-Marie Dalcourt, Toon Lobach, Iryna Khutorianska, Vladyslava Kovalenko, Kseniia Novikova

Videographers: Serhii Kastornykh, Oleksii Korotych, Vitalii Zharinov, Saskia Heberman, Charlie Skuy

Photographers: Kim Vos, Marcel Krijgsman, Valentina Gaevskaya, Marius Hutanu 

Stage Decorations: Dmytro Tikhonov, Rob Sjouke, Jedida Sjouke, Iris Sjouke, Joel Sjouke, Minny Dekker, Ilona Timmer, Catharina Jaggi, Eigenman Juwelen, Ivan Borodai 

Thechician, light: Eric Bloom

Music: John Hope, Danylo Drachov, Nine Inch Nails

Costumes designers: Anastasiia Bailan,  Martine Douma

Informative display (hall): Vladyslava Kovalenko, Gregory Petrovich, Vadym Oryshaka, Anton Kuznetsov, Olena Maiko

Production team: Iryna Khutorianska, Vladyslava Kovalenko, Kseniia Novikova, Dmytro Borodai

Special thank you to: Bart Meuters, Bessel Kok, Matthijs Bongertman, Rinus Sprong, Thom Stuart, Anna Seidl, Sonja and Ivo Holtz, Elena van der Wall, Pauline van Huijstee, Maxim Hodak, Jan van Zanten, Monique Velders, Yuliia Malinovska, Mariia-Katalina Rohovei, Amy Growcott, Britt Arp, and many other amazing people.

With love,
UIB – Ukrainian International Ballet