We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katya Denisova a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Katya, thanks for joining us today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

Thank you for inviting me to do an interview for Voyage again. Last time we talked about my journey of becoming a director of a traditional Russian and Eastern European dance group in Baltimore. I appreciated your curiosity about Kalinka Dance Ensemble’s history and the type of dances that we do. Back in 2021, we were discussing challenges associated with the pandemic, including our orders of folk dance shoes that were stuck on the border for ten months and our dancers’ feet had outgrown them by the time the shoes finally arrived in the US. Other challenges of the COVID closures was the loss of a large percentage of dancers, as well as the need to change dance studios, as artistic organizations that hosted us were continuing to go out of business. However, no one could imagine that in 2022, the year when Kalinka celebrated our 20th anniversary, the war between Russia and Ukraine would dictate that we had to pivot our artistic direction. But we did not.

Since February 2022, when the Russian president declared invasion of Ukraine, many have been expressing negative feelings against anything Russian. New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington DC have canceled their Russian festivals. Conversations about canceling the ‘Nutcracker‘ productions and Tchaikovsky’s symphony performances became a new societal norm. Many Russian folk musicians and dancers had to rebrand themselves to survive. Kalinka dancers issued a message on our website: “Kalinka dancers represent over 20 different nationalities and ethnicities. We are united by our passion for Russian and Eastern European dance as a form of traditional art. As American citizens, we operate by the principles of inclusion, acceptance, and appreciation of ethnic and linguistic differences as expressed through folk choreography. We believe that culture transcends politics and outlives political trends and regimes. …We believe in the mission of arts to uplift and unite people around the world, preserve cultural identities, and promote peace. “ We decided not to give into the “Cancel Culture” trend and have been organizing dance programs as fundraisers to support humanitarian needs of Ukraine.

Russian culture is where we are: we saw our mission to serve as hub of the Russian folk tradition, the cradle of our traditional heritage in the US. We received an overwhelming support from audiences and other organizations focusing on preservation and dissemination of Slavic cultures in the US. We produced several events celebrating cultures of Russian and Eastern European heritage communities of Maryland. In the spring 2022 our persistence and deep belief in the need for our work resulted in Kalinka receiving an award from the Maryland State Arts Council to support collaboration with Russian ethnographers. Contrary to what others saw as a pause in the development and enrichment of Russian culture on the American soil, we are experiencing a heightened societal interest towards the history and ethnography of our dances. This pushes us to continue developing cultural outreach programs and offer educational events at schools, universities, and various cultural organizations.

Katya, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I came to Baltimore to teach Physics at City Schools in 2002. Since then my professional journey as an urban public educator has taken me from a classroom at Walbrook HS, Assistant Principal at Western HS, to various district-level academic leadership positions. Teaching folk dance is my second love and my second professional identity. I started the “Kalinka Russian Dance Ensemble of Baltimore” just ten months after arriving to US- initially it was a small group of Eastern European dance enthusiasts. With time, the group grew in size (from eight to about 30 adult dancers) and “Russian” was dropped from our title in 2011, as our repertoire of Polish, Ukrainian, Jewish, Belorussian, Moldovan, Tatar, Finnish, and even Greek dances was getting richer and richer by the year. However, every September as we recruit new members, we find that majority of these young dancers’ parents are representatives of the Russian-speaking diaspora of the Greater Baltimore-Washington region. These parents are asking to teach classes in Russian and offer opportunities of cultural immersion for their children by incorporating authentic choreography, music, storytelling, and costuming. Clearly, these parents, who grew up in various Russian speaking Soviet and post-Soviet regions of Eastern Europe and Asia, see Kalinka as a way to preserve Russian linguistic and cultural roots in their new American families. My current challenge is to make Kalinka classes accessible and engaging for all students, including those who do not have any family ties to Russian culture and Russian language. Bi-lingual skills come handy!

I am an American of a proud Russian heritage. My professional expertise lies within traditional dances of Russia. However, my ongoing cooperation with specialists in traditional choreography and ethnography of other European countries turn my work into a rich tapestry of diverse techniques, genres, and dance forms. I truly enjoy learning about regional differences in dances, including their history and influencing cultural blends. It is fascinating how the complexity of a folk dance origin, which is usually very difficult to trace, can be examined through its characteristic music, position of hands, tilt of shoulders and head, costuming elements, and footwork.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Thank you for inviting me to do an interview for Voyage again. Last time we talked about my journey of becoming a director of a traditional Russian and Eastern European dance group in Baltimore. I appreciated your curiosity about Kalinka Dance Ensemble’s history and the type of dances that we do. Back in 2021, we were discussing challenges associated with the pandemic, including our orders of folk dance shoes that were stuck on the boarder for 10 months and our dancers’ kids had outgrown them by the time the shoes finally arrived in the US. Other challenges of the COVID closures was the loss of a large percentage of dancers, as well as the need to change dance studios, as artistic organizations that hosted us were continuing to go out of business. However, noone could imagine that in 2022, the year when Kalinka celebrated our 20th anniversary, the war between Russia and Ukraine would dictate that we had to pivot our artistic direction. But we did not.
Since February 2022, when Russian president declared invasion of Ukraine, many have been expressing negative feelings against anything Russian. New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington DC have canceled their Russian festivals. Conversations about canceling the Nutcracker productions and Tchaikovsky’s symphony performances became a new societal norm. Many Russian folk musicians and dancers had to rebrand themselves to survive. Kalinka dancers issued a message on our website: “Kalinka dancers represent over 20 different nationalities and ethnicities. We are united by our passion for Russian and Eastern European dance as a form of traditional art. As American citizens, we operate by the principles of inclusion, acceptance, and appreciation of ethnic and linguistic differences as expressed through folk choreography. We believe that culture transcends politics and outlives political trends and regimes. …We believe in the mission of arts to uplift and unite people around the world, preserve cultural identities, and promote peace.“ We decided not to give into the “Cancel Culture” trend and have been organizing dance programs featuring dances of Russia, Ukraine, and Poland as fundraisers to support humanitarian needs of Ukraine.
Russian culture is where we are: we saw our mission to serve as hub of the Russian folk tradition, the cradle of our traditional heritage in the US. We received an overwhelming support from audiences and other organizations focusing on preservation and dissemination of Slavic cultures in the US. We produced several events celebrating cultures of Eastern European heritage communities of Maryland. In the spring 2022 our persistence and deep belief in the need for our work resulted in Kalinka receiving an award from the Maryland State Arts Council to support collaboration with Russian ethnographers.
So, I know I did not answer the question you asked, but, rather, illustrated that artists with true mission and responsibility before their audiences sometimes have to be firm, go against the societal flow, and not allow themselves to pivot.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Kalinka Dance Ensemble is a community of dancers (children, and adults), parents, and partners striving to develop and share appreciation of traditional dance as form of folk art. With the mission of preserving and disseminating Russian and Eastern European folk dance traditions in the United States, we study and perform folk dances of Russia and other countries. We create new choreography influenced by our knowledge of historical dances, classical ballet, modern dance styles, and our own creativity. Driven by our passion for learning about members’ individual heritage, our ethnic, linguistic and cultural roots, we work as a collective to engage audiences and communities in folk dance outreach initiatives and cultural enrichment projects. Due to the vast diversity within the group, our repertoire includes dances of almost 10 different countries of Europe and Asia. One dancer reflects: “I was 14 when I joined Kalinka. I was born in the US, and everything seemed wonderful: costumes and music- which bring me back to my parents’ country. It was a unique find, which gave me a new way of experiencing my culture through dance. ‘Kalinka’ has played such a big role in the development of my identity – a Russian, raised in America. I am now 29 teaching classes to new generations of Russian dancers as my way of giving back to this community.’
Diversity and inclusion are our foci: we always welcomed dancers regardless of their personal connections to Russian or Eastern European culture. This makes our art form widely spreadable and accessible, greatly lifts its educational value, and leads to creation of new blended forms of art not pressured by politics, historical controversy, and cultural stereotypes.
Kalinka became a cultural hub for the Russian-speaking immigrant community. Events hosted by Kalinka (sewing parties, fundraising lunches, children festivities, educational outreach) are opportunities for speakers of Russian and other Eastern European languages to meet and become a part of support network within the immigrant community. As Kalinka’s multiple generations immerse into Russian culture, they enable us to create our own living traditions and have impact on the way Russian traditional culture is experienced in the US.
The principle of cultural inclusivity is the grounding condition for folk organizations of immigrant communities to survive on the American soil. This year, when Ukrainian refugees are entering the US, our ethnic and linguistic boundaries started washing off. This summer we welcomed a large number of children and teenage dancers from Ukraine who were displaced by the war. Their families were looking for the sense of normalcy, and an opportunity to preserve language, cultural identity, stay seen, supported, and hopeful. Kalinka’s classes and social events evolved into spaces of community safety and support. We formed new friendships, practiced empathy, support and giving. This, however, has never been our documented mission. It is just a human thing to do.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kalinkabaltimore.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kalinka.danceensemble
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSQupKHIChkYJGx3CKwxrVQ

Image Credits
Alexander Gugel