Home » Episodes » The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper: Ukraine: Dancing in Defiance (CNN Sunday, September 17, 2023)

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The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper: Ukraine: Dancing in Defiance (CNN Sunday, September 17, 2023)

Published

3 weeks ago

September 16, 2023

The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper: Ukraine: Dancing in Defiance airs Sunday, September 17, 2023 on CNN.

What is this episode about

In the latest episode of CNN’s The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper, we learn about a group of Ukrainian ballet dancers who had to decide whether to leave their homes and represent Ukrainian culture abroad or remain in the midst of a war zone and continue performing. Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s Chief International Anchor, will be reporting.

Members of the United Ukrainian Ballet Company, based in Holland, are followed in this episode. These dancers fled their home country of Ukraine during Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II. CNN cameras have caught moving moments of dancers struggling with survivor’s guilt as they watch their families fight for their culture on the front lines. The stakes are high as they get ready to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, one of the world’s most renowned concert halls.

Even as sirens and air raid alerts ring out, Amanpour spoke with dancers in Kyiv who have stayed to perform at the National Opera and Ballet Theater, offering a brief respite from the war to audiences and protecting Ukrainian culture from extinction. Three months after the war broke out, the theater reopened, but only to a fifth of its usual capacity (the number of people who can fit in the bomb shelter).

“Speaking to this troupe of ballet dancers, we learn that making art during war is a form of resistance and defiance,” said Amanpour. “Ukrainians are also cementing their separate cultural heritage in the face of Russia’s attempts to deny and wipe out their history.”

The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper is executive produced by Susan Chun.