00:03Final preparations before these ballerinas take to the stage.
00:07Some of them were in this production of Adolphe Adon's Giselle
00:10the last time it was performed in Kharkiv, on the 23rd of February, 2022.
00:16Hours later, Russian rockets rained down on the city
00:19and the opera house had to close.
00:21But it has reopened, in the same building, but underground.
00:24A bomb shelter transformed into a theatre.
00:32This is a safe place.
00:34We don't have to interrupt or cancel performances here.
00:37They continue from beginning to end,
00:39even when the sirens are going off across the city.
00:42We don't have to go anywhere, because a shelter is a shelter.
00:49Many of these dancers left Kharkiv at the start of the Russian invasion.
00:53Some went abroad and performed on other stages.
00:57But they chose to return.
00:59After all, they say, the war is with them, wherever they are.
01:09Every day, we think of those who are on the front line.
01:12But at the same time, we have a job to do.
01:16And we tried to give 100, 200, even 300 percent.
01:21For the sake of all those who aren't with us here and now,
01:25and for those who will never come back.
01:32Our troops are defending our rear, our land, our country.
01:36Our mission is to defend our soul, our culture.
01:41When I was living abroad, I constantly wanted to go home.
01:44I'm not happy anywhere but here.
01:47I don't care how close the aggressor is.
01:49We are resilient, and we will withstand this.
01:56Everyone here hopes that the day will soon come when the security situation will allow the performers
02:01to return to this, the main stage, at the Kharkiv Opera House with a capacity of 1,500 people.
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