Ukrainian ballet dancing star Artem Datsyshyn has died on March 17, three weeks after being injured in Russian shelling in Kyiv. He was a former soloist at the National Opera of Ukraine, and died at 43.
Datsyshyn was born in Kherson in 1979. He danced at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, as a lead ballet performer and was one of the most well-known figures. He studied ballet with V. Parsegov, attended and graduated from the Kyiv Choreographic School, and was associated with the Kyiv Ballet. He participated in the International Serge Lifar Ballet Competition while still a student and won the third prize in 1996. He also received the second prize in the Rudolf Nureyev International Ballet Competition in 1998.
As a ballet dancer and soloist of the National Opera of Ukraine, he performed in such leading roles as Petr Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake," and Sergei Prokofiev's "Romeo And Juliet." He also performed in leading roles in Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov's "Swan Lake," Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot's "Giselle," and Marius Petipa's "La Bayadère," among many others. He also toured extensively in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Japan, Lebanon, Canada, and the United States.
He also participated in a charity event of the National Opera of Ukraine for children of refugees in 2014, where he presented the ballet "Cipollino," with music by the composer Karen Khachaturian and choreography by Genrikh Mayorov from 1995, which tells the story of a hero who bravely enters the fight against injustice and leads his friends and associates to the victory of good over evil. In this particular performance, he played the role of the "funnily arrogant" 'Prince Lemon.' Besides his International Serge Lifar Ballet Competition in 1996 and his Rudolf Nureyev International Ballet Competition in 1998, he was also the recipient of several other awards.
He was seriously injured during a shelling of the city of Kyiv by russian artillery on February 26, 2022. Upon his death, he was remembered as “a great artist” and “a wonderful man” by the chief stage director at the company, Anatoly Solovyanenko and his colleagues.
