Dance for Justice is a newly formed global coalition of performing artists, cultural institutions, public organizations, businesses and principled individuals who are the fabric, backbone and guardians of our free society. With diverse social and political views, we are united by our love for art and culture, and our unwavering commitment to preserving and protecting the dignity, integrity, compassion and freedom of artistic expression.
Our precious values and principles face a great challenge. Tyrannical regimes of our adversaries are increasingly using our cultural institutions as powerful propaganda weapons to conceal and legitimize their terror, corruption, repression and discrimination. Under the cover of inclusiveness and equal access, they send "cultural ambassadors" to take part in our cultural events. By bonding and connecting through art with our audiences and artistic community, they humanize the barbaric brutality of their masters, erode our support for their victims and weaken our resolve in opposing their aggression.
Nothing illustrates this more than the recent surge of state-sponsored Russian ballet, opera and ballroom dance executives and star performers at key art and entertainment venues thought the world. Following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the ban on Russia's participation in most major international cultural events has severely reduced its access to the free world, limiting its ability to influence our public opinion. This prompted Putin's regime to adopt the new strategy of using individual performers from his arsenal of loyal supporters as "cultural emissaries" to promote Russia's image and regain its influence abroad.
The vast majority of these individuals are active supporters of Putin's fascist regime and its occupation of Ukraine. As collaborators who chose to betray human values for Putin's recognition and rewards, these members of Kremlin's cultural elite are willing participants in Russia's propaganda war. As such, they are complicit in torture, rape, murder and suffering of millions of Ukrainians.
Russian ballet star Maria Khoreva can help her soldiers take Sasha Pascal's leg, but not her dreams!
What can be more powerful than the breathtaking dance performance of an innocent child on the world stage? Russian Mariinsky ballet star Maria Khoreva has been captivating audiences and millions of her followers throughout the world. Causing many to question, how can the country with such God-given talent be so deprived of God? How can this epitome of innocence be complicit in the murder of thousands of Ukrainian kids and the genocide of a nation? The truth is, Khoreva and most of other Russian cultural elites works directly for Putin's fascist regime, promoting its legitimacy and trying to restore Russia's image at home and abroad.
Actively performing for Mariinsky Ballet, including in occupied Ukrainian territories, Khoreva and her colleagues from Mariinsky and Bolshoi help recruit Russian soldiers to kill Ukrainians and raise money for the Russian war machine that severely injured an 8-year-old gymnast Sasha Pascal, and killed or wounded over 2,000 other Ukrainian kids.
Iconic Russian institutions, both Mariinsky and Bolshoi are now run by Putin's close ally and supporter Valery Gergiev, recently appointed to purge the decent and implement Kremlin's new wartime propaganda strategy. That's why we cannot allow performers, producers or administrators affiliated with criminal state-run Russian enterprises to participate in our cultural events.
Mariupol Theatre Before and After Russian Attack
Nothing better illustrates Russia's barbaric weaponization of its culture than the site of the infamous Drama Theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Used as a civilian bomb shelter by mostly women and children, close to 600 of them perished there in a targeted Russian air strike. On its ruins, Russia is now building a Russian Performing Arts Center where the "cultural cleansing" of the remaining Mariupol's residents will take place. There, "reformed" Ukrainians will be forced to dance to the Russian music literally on the graves of their neighbors, relatives, and friends.
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