En pointe, demi-pointe, entrechat — for Jotaro Kanazasi and Haruka Takemi, two Japanese dancers based in the historic Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod, life revolves entirely around their art, even as the war in Ukraine occasionally interrupts their daily routine.
Jotaro Kanazasi, 32, chose to settle in Russia 14 years ago, the country known for Moscow’s Bolshoi and St Petersburg’s Mariinsky theaters, to fulfil himself “fully as a dancer,” as he puts it in halting Russian.
Some foreign dancers chose to leave Russia after it sent troops to Ukraine in 2022, but Kanazasi decided to stay. The villainous sorcerer Rothbart in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Albrecht in Adolphe Adam’s Giselle, Kanazasi moves from role to role as a principal dancer at the Nizhny Novgorod Opera and Ballet Theatre, about 400km east of Moscow.
Photo: AFP
“I love Russian ballet and always wanted to become a dancer, but there is no national ballet school in Japan, so I chose Russia,” said his compatriot Haruka Takemi, 20, who has lived in Russia for six years.
Absorbed in their lives as professional dancers, Takemi and Kanazasi admit they follow the news only loosely, including the war Moscow has been waging in Ukraine since February 2022.
“My mother constantly sends me articles about Russia, about current events, about what is happening here, so that I stay informed,” Takemi said.
Photo: AFP
Russia has introduced huge censorship, unseen since Soviet times, during its military campaign. Her home country Japan has backed Ukraine since the start of the Russian offensive and joined Western sanctions against Moscow.
“I am either at the theater or at home, then back at the theater again. I work all the time and concentrate only on ballet,” she said, adding that it is her family who “worries” about her.
In response to near-daily Russian bombardments, Ukraine regularly strikes Russian territory, saying it hits military and energy sites to degrade Moscow’s capacity to fund its offensive.
Nizhny Novgorod — more than 800km from Ukraine — has not been spared. A nearby refinery of Russian energy giant Lukoil in Kstovo has been targeted by Ukrainian strikes in recent weeks.
“There are also difficulties with the Internet — you have to use a VPN as apps are sometimes blocked. But I need to stay in touch with my family so they know I am safe,” Takemi added.
Russia has imposed sweeping digital restrictions in the past few months, limiting access to mobile Internet in particular.
“There are quite a few Japanese dancers in Russia, who are graduates of the most prestigious Russian schools such as the Moscow State Academy of Choreography, the Vaganova Academy in St Petersburg and the Perm school,” said Valeri Konkov, director of the Nizhny Novgorod ballet company.
Making a career as a classical dancer in Japan is difficult, the dancers said — and, despite difficulties linked to the war, Kanazasi is determined to stay, saying: “As long as I can dance, I will stay here.”
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