Remember Together: Cities of Solidarity

On 22 February 2026, Ukrainian International Ballet was honoured to take part in Remember Together: Cities of Solidarity at Bibliotheek Neude in Utrecht, at the invitation of Vital’nya, Ukrainian House Utrecht, an organisation with whom we are always very happy to collaborate.

The evening marked the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Yet its atmosphere was not built only around grief or remembrance. It was a meeting of people, languages, experiences and generations. Music, dance and conversation came together in one space, creating a fragile but deeply felt bridge between Ukrainians seeking a new beginning in the Netherlands and the Dutch society that continues to listen, welcome and support.

The personal stories shared on stage touched us deeply. Especially moving were the young actors and hosts of the evening: open, warm, full of humour and energy before the programme began, speaking beautiful English, carrying Ukrainian within them, learning Dutch, and yet already holding far too much experience for people of nineteen.

And still, there was no self-pity in them. There was clarity. There was dignity. There was that rare transformation when lived experience does not close a person, but becomes part of their strength.

Ukrainian International Ballet presented an excerpt from INdependent24, a project born from the experience of Ukrainian artists rebuilding their lives in the Netherlands through dance. The fragment reflected one of the essential dialogues within the performance: between Ukrainians and Dutch society, between those who arrived carrying the invisible weight of war and those who created space for them to begin again.

INdependent24 speaks about identity, displacement, resilience and the search for inner freedom. In Utrecht, this dialogue felt especially close to the spirit of the evening: not as a statement from the stage, but as a shared atmosphere in the room.

Because in the end, the journey is not only about where we are going, how long it takes, or how difficult the road becomes. It is also about who we become while walking through it.

Photo: Altin Kaftira