[ Sept.2018 ] On the second day of our holiday in Kiev in Ukraine, we visited Kiev National Academic Theatre of Operetta.
This theatre was founded in 1934 and it hosts performances such as “Die Fledermaus” by Johan Strauss and “Barbe-bleue” by Jacques Offenbach, as well as original Ukrainian operettas.
Because they were doing renovation work, it was a shame that we could not see the stage.
The brand new toilet was decorated in such a way that it looked like a night club.
By the way, the reason why we came here was to have a ballet lesson, only for me, not my husband.
Our Ukrainian friend, Alina, knows the director of this theatre well and through that, she arranged a private lesson for me by Angela, who teaches the professional dancers of this theatre.
This was a once in a life-time experience.
What Angela told me was translated by Alina, who is a dance teacher herself.
The real pianist played the music for me.
My husband was watching, so I was extremely nervous, but Angela chose easier choreography according to my ability, so I enjoyed this hour very much.
After my lesson, we watched the lesson for the professional dancers.
This was another precious experience.
Everyone was beautiful with their legs rising high, stretching well and so on, but it was clear which people danced better than others.
One girl and one boy in particular were outstanding.
The interesting thing was that everyone came to the studio with a lot of clothes on, as well as the soft short boots on their feet.
When they were getting warm, they took them off gradually.
Some of them were doing stretches as they liked, regardless of the exercises Angela gave them.
I wish I could see them dance on the stage one day.
After taking photos with Angela for our memory, and thanking her, we went to the restaurant opposite of the theatre for lunch.
The name
of the restaurant is “Varenichnaya Katyusha”.
The interior was very interesting because it was pretending to be a residential house during the Soviet era.
Alina picked up one ornament and said “We had this at my home, too”.
One child who came later said the same thing about the same object, too.
There were many photographs of the heroes in those days, such as athletes and astronauts, including my husband’s favourite, Sergey Bubka.
I had thought he was Russian, but in fact, he was Ukrainian.
About the food, which is most important, this restaurant was specialised in Vareniki, the Ukrainian dumplings.
Russian Pelmeni and Georgian Khinkali are similar but it seems the smallest ones are Pelmeni, the largest ones are Khinkali and Vareniki are in the middle.
They also had some fried Vareniki and the one we had for dessert with strawberries was particularly nice.
