Brazilian Dance Star's Bolshoi Exodus Brings Him Home

Rio de Janeiro, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th May, 2022 ) :The day Russia invaded Ukraine, Brazilian dancer David Motta, then a leading soloist at the renowned Bolshoi ballet, knew he had to leave the country where he had lived half his life.

It was an "obvious" decision -- his heart went out to the people of Ukraine -- but "the hardest one of my life," he said.

The gracefully lanky 25-year-old had called Russia home for 13 years. The Bolshoi academy had taken him in as a boy and turned him into an international star.

"It was a whirlwind of emotions," Motta said, after wiping the sweat from his face following a recent rehearsal in Rio de Janeiro "I couldn't sleep for days.

I didn't know where I would go or how to start again." Fearing the borders would close, he hatched an "escape plan," flying to Istanbul, then Milan and finally Brazil.

Now back in Rio, Motta will say a symbolic goodbye to Moscow with a limited run of performances of "Swan Lake," the iconic Tchaikovsky ballet that premiered at the Bolshoi in 1877.

It is a short homecoming: Motta, who opens Saturday, will dance the role of Prince Siegfried for just three nights in Rio.

Then, he will turn a page, moving to Berlin to start a new contract with the Staatsballett.