Baryshnikov told Onet website: ’Teal House is a phenomenal project, which I support with all my heart’.
He added he would make more visits to Warsaw to assist Vyrypaev and his initiative.
Born in 1948 in Latvia, then a Soviet Republic, Baryshnikov developed a spectacular career in classical ballet in the Soviet Union. In the 1970s, he defected to the West and asked for a political asylum in the United States.
Baryshnikov has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine in an open letter to Putin. He is among the founders of the True Russia foundation to support victims of the war in Ukraine.
Highly acclaimed across Europe primarily as a playwright, Vyrypaev last year renounced his Russian citizenship and became a Polish citizen. On May, 17, 2023 he was arrested in absentia by a Moscow court on charges of ‘spreading fake news about the Russian army’.
The Teal House, that he founded in Warsaw, is described on its website as ‘a space for self-discovery, harmonious development and learning healthy and constructive communication between different cultures and nations’. Its wide-ranging programme of activities covers theatre workshops for Ukrainian teenagers, after-school classes for Polish-, English-, Ukrainian-, and Belarusian-speaking children, music, dance, and therapeutic sessions.
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Source: Onet