Without institutional support, Ballet Corps on international stage

Radio Free Europe: Mr. Brahimaj recently the Kosovo Ballet troupe has had several presentations on European countries' scenes. How did he get there?

Ahmet Brahimaj: Yeah, we started the season well this year, so we had two premieres, and we were in Berlin. We went to Hamburg, and recently we came back from Paris last night. It means we had seven performances in Germany, and in Paris three. I think our ballet has reached a proper level of fiction, even in professional knowledge. So we've been extremely well received in Germany on another show, so we've been with two different performances in Paris and Germany. Public we've had enough, cheers, applause means people have gone out after the show and congratulated us and commended us for the success we've achieved as a body.

Also in Paris, our embassy has arranged for us to thank you there. The main thing, though, is that the three shows we have had, three evenings, have gone very well and have followed some 600 viewers, which are not few.

Radio Free Europe: Have you managed to secure co-operation with other ballet troops in the world, but also with foreign choreographers, who can engage in certain performances of the Kosovo National Ballet?

Ahmet Brahimaj: Yeah, we've always gone in this direction means we have as many international co-operations as possible and many global choreographers. We will now go on 1 July to be in Bulgaria, at the festival. In October we'll be in Finland. In September we'll have a choreographer from America, in December we've got our last premiere of this year, which dancer Sinan Cateazi, with music, with all of it, with books he's prepared. So we have cooperation with many global choreographers and we have enormous friendships. We formed a network of accomplices.

We have offers every day from young choreographers who follow him, who want to work with us because they appreciate us as very serious bodies with both artistic and technical levels. But also with a modesty that is perhaps missing in another body. It means we have a great generation that does the job willingly and are very modest in cooperation with choreographers. Co-operation with choreographers is from Cuba to Asia, choreographers we have cooperated with, as far as South Africa.

Radio Free Europe: During this year, what are the commitments awaiting the Kosovo National Ballet?

Ahmet Brahimaj: But we already had two premieres, and we have two more by the end of the year. An international co-operation, two of our dancers will go to Gratz in Austria, are invited.

So four premieres. But we're trying to be as active on stage as we are on the outside. Now a couple of dancers will go and they will have a premiere in Gratz one in Ljubljana, and in September it will be the premiere in Pristina. We have certainly had good co-operation with Tirana as long as Ilir Kern was director.

With Skopje we have co-operation also means we have moved to all Albanian centres in Skopje, Macedonia. Although we in Kosovo have problems with theatres, are even smaller and don't function enough, winter means they don't have heat, summer have no organisation, but every time we've been invited, we've been ready and we've gone to Kosovo as well as to Peja, Prizren, Gjakova, Gjilan, we've been to Skenderaj, Mitrovica many times. It's a Ballet Corps activity, it's commendable.

Radio Free Europe: The Kosovo artists' community has consistently given remarks on insufficient investments in the field of art and culture. At this point, what is the situation with ballet?

Ahmet Brahimaj: Ballet is an art that works in youth and has a useful stable. If you expect the conditions to create us a country that doesn't take a hard time with culture, which has no priority on culture, then you actually get a very quick career. We are very aware of where we are living and who is leading us, so we are compact to work and not to expect conditions. Don't expect the conditions, the salaries, the budgets for shows, or the environment where we work.

We work in the basement, we have a theater hall that has no light, the air is unclean, the strippers are a disaster. The stage is small for ballet, we have trouble leaving costumes, we have a problem with where to put the scan. The main problem, though, is that the scene is too small for ballet, for the rest, but especially for ballet. The old theater that doesn't meet the terms. But counting that until our policy clears up until it returns to itself, it returns to terranean schooling, and these young people are out of time. I've always preferred you. I told you not to wait till tomorrow you finish your career.

Hence, under such circumstances, you can afford to do your best and actually give it their best. You've seen that we've never staged a strike, we've never canceled any evidence, never for any conditions. Leave it for show, we never cancel.

So I can freely say that we have a generation that has both artistic and human values and ethical and moral and everything. That's why it's a shame these guys aren't backed enough by our country.