Ukrainian choreographer Viktoriya (Vika) Medviedieva has found in Bucharest a refuge from the war that rages in her country and has already organized dance workshops in her new home city, in the AREAL studio behind the Romanian Athenaeum.

According to the artist, before the dawn of February 24 war was a remote and highly unlikely prospect, but now she wants Ukrainians to be believed when they relate about the aggressions taking place in her country.

She came to Bucharest after spending 40 days in her home city of Kyiv, where she tried to help as much as she could. On Friday she will leave for western Ukraine to meet with friends and family for the Easter holidays.

"Now I think that Kyiv, where I live, is much more dangerous, because there's the second phase of the war going on there and there are bombings all over Ukraine. I decided to take a break, because ever since the outbreak of the war I tried to help people and troops as a volunteer," Medviedieva told AGERPRES.

At the beginning of the Russian invasion she hosted people from eastern Ukraine. "Bucha, Irpin, the sites of the most appalling horrors, are right near my home. I could see all this from my window and I decided I couldn't stay in Ukraine for a while. But I want to go back and I'm going to the west on Friday...Then I'll return here," says the choreographer who also acknowledges the help she received in Romania from many fellow artists and who is impressed by everybody's desire to lend a helping hand.

Prior to the start of the war, the Ukrainians didn't believe the armed incursion will really take place. "We all knew, but in a modern world you can't believe it will happen. We were living in a European country and war seemed impossible. This was about Russia. As a matter of fact, I have many Russian friends and some helped me even here. We didn't think [war] would really start and we carried on with our lives. Then, at 5 o'clock in the morning we were woken by explosions and realized it was war. We swapped messages, many tried to flee Kyiv," Vika recalls.

She didn't leave in the first moment because she did not want to abandon her country and because she hoped that the armed attack would end soon.

"I didn't want to leave my country. We were all hoping it would end soon, that the world will know, and as such it won't last that long. The world is trying to help us, but there is something off... 'We help you if you come here, but we cannot come to you','' the choreographer remarks.

Because she holds a Red Cross certificate, in the first month and a half she tried offering help in Kyiv but shudders as she recalls having seen "too much death, too much suffering."

"I understood that I am not ready for that. No one is ready for that," she confesses, noting that it is important that the world is in the know about what is happening. In early June she will make an address at the invitation of the National Dance Center. "I'm glad that at least I can share with the people what's going on. (...) I want to send a message about the war," Vika says.

She considers art to be a great power. "Many Russian artists are silent now. I think they're afraid, they don't know what to do, because as an artist you don't get involved in politics. But now we all need to talk about it," she underscores, voicing her hope that art will prevent such aggressions from happening again. "When you create something, a performance, people will remember it. Maybe people will try to forget the war, but we will still have our art as a reminder that such things are not allowed to ever happen again," says Viktoriya Medviedieva.

As for her possible return to Ukraine, Vika says that "there is no safe place" in her homeland. Her parents live in northern Ukraine and she hopes they can make it to Kyiv. "But I don't know what a safe place means. The government tells us there is no safe place in Ukraine. (...) I don't know where such a place in Ukraine would be," she says.

The money from the workshops will be donated to her homeland. "It's hard with my profession and I'm glad I can work here in the artistic area and speak up," says the choreographer.

When asked about the help Ukraine needs, beyond stopping the war, she pleads: "At least believe us, because the Russian propaganda claims nothing is happening there, that we turned the weapons on ourselves. And all we want is just to live our lives."

AREAL artistic co-director Alexandra Balasoiu remembers that her meeting with Vika was a happy occurrence, a "serendipity", as she calls it.

"Vika wrote to a friend in Romania that she needed a place to dance. I told her, 'Come here!' And she came to train. She has physical training practice. She's a hardworking dancer. When she arrived, we gradually attempted to introduce her to the world behind the AREAL project," Alexandra Balasoiu declared for AGERPRES.

Viktoriya Medviedieva studied choreography at the Dragomanov National Pedagogical University of Ukraine. She earned a degree in modern choreography from the Totem Dance School in Kyiv and has participated as a dancer and choreographer in a variety of commercial projects and television shows in Ukraine. She is a member of the Pro Contemporary Kyiv, Holovy Dance group and also an Honored Worker of Variety Arts of Ukraine. She collaborates with h.dance group Minsk and Totem Dance Theater and is a choreographer in the Kult Prosvet creative association.

In March last year, the AREAL choreographic development space opened in Bucharest to offer direct support to the projects initiated by its founders, and as a means of increasing the cohesion of the choreographic sector, developing and attracting new audiences for contemporary dance. Since 2021 AREAL's activity is coordinated by an artistic collective made of choreographers Alexandra Balasoiu, Cristina Lilienfeld, Cosmin Manolescu and Valentina De Piante. AGERPRES (RO - author: Oana Ghita, editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Adina Panaitescu)