LANSING, Mich. (WLNS)—The Greater Lansing Ballet Company lets dancers express themselves. Each show is unique.
This upcoming Sunday, the company is putting on a show to help the refugee crisis in Ukraine.
“It’s really just about raising awareness in the community,” said Anastasia Bavayan, dancer and choreographer at The Greater Lansing Ballet Company.
Her passion for dance has led her to give back to Ukrainian refugees.
“The dances that we’re creating based off the feelings that or the reactions that we felt watching the news, or first hearing about the conflict,” Bavayan said. “A couple of the dances will be like cultural dances so ethnic, Ukrainian dances.”
Bavayan says giving back to Ukraine hits close to home.
“It’s affecting people in this community, especially my family mom has really close connection with the people there she has a lot of her friends and family living there,” Bavayan said. “This concert is just about really for me is just seeing my mom getting the support that she needs from the community and those kind words that come along with it.”
“We actually have a couple of families who have family in Ukraine they came to us ‘we want to do something and I pretty much went yes,” said Jim McEwan, Artistic Director of Greater Lansing Ballet Company.
McEwan told 6 News the artistic approach to generate awareness is amazing. He’s excited about the performance.
“It’s a concert comprised of dancers here from the studio we have a couple of guest companies coming in,” McEwan said. “We have musicians from the area who will be playing music, and a choir coming in to sing to us its turned into quite a community event.”
Bavayan says with this dance she feels like she’s found her life mission.
“It’s just really about reminding people that this issue is still going on,” Bavayan said. “Still affecting a lot of people cause its easy to forget because we’re not being affected as much as the people across the ocean are.”
The Dance for the Ukraine Benefit Concert will be held at Okemos High School at 5 p.m. on Sunday, and tickets are being sold for $15.
