During our work on the film about Pavlo Virsky, we planned to record a conversation with Virsky Ensemble dancer Leonid Voronov — about his years in the ensemble, about rehearsals, about the inner life of the collective. We intended to do this — but he refused.
Leonid is no longer with us.
Yet this situation — and the reactions to his death — have become a painful reflection of today’s reality. A reality in which Ukrainians are fighting for their country under attacks by Shahed drones and ballistic missiles, without heat or electricity, losing their best sons and daughters.
And still, these shots from the film Birth of the Dance remain:
A rehearsal. Pavlo Virsky is showing something to Leonid Voronov — calmly, precisely, through movement. And off screen we hear Virsky’s voice — words about what it means to him to be part of the Ukrainian people. In these words there is no slogan, but the deep conviction of a person for whom art and identity were inseparable.
Leonid Voronov joined the ensemble in the final years of Virsky’s life, demonstrating rare virtuoso technique.
These images are not merely chronicle footage. They are a moment of transmission — a dialogue between master and artist, without explanations, but filled with precision, trust, and a shared understanding of what Ukrainian dance exists for.
In these shots, Virsky himself remains: his voice, his hopak, his Ukraine.
Note. These images are a fragment of the film Birth of the Dance, shot in 1975 in Kyiv at the Dovzhenko Film Studio. The film was directed by Pavlo Virsky and Alla Surikova. The fragment featuring Leonid Voronov was taken from a copy available in open access on YouTube.
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