German Russia-affiliated ballets and an introduction to the "Ukrainian" National Opera aka Russian State Ballet

When the full scale invasion of Ukraine happened in 2022 some strange but not so unexpected movements happened in the ballet world. Like the Russian crude oil fleet, also the Russian ballet companies changed flag. Not to Gabon for obvious reasons, but to Ukraine of course.

A couple of Russian ballet companies have been disclosed pretending to be Ukrainian.

First out in January 2025 was the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre (R.I.P (not)) Under the new name the Heritage Ballet they tried to fool eight concert venues in Sweden(one private owned by ABBA legend Björn Ulvaeus and 7 municipality owned) and booked in total 13 000 seats for ticket sale. They managed to fool the concert venues and contract agreements where written.

I did some mapping and research on them and that research content is archived in the Internet Archive. As it is archived on the Wayback Machine servers it can take some time to load the blog but it's all there. It's screen shot heavy duty...It is a great resource on understanding these ballet networks:

SPBT will never tour in Sweden again and I hope the rest of Europe stay vigilante.

That was approx 10 000 000 SEK in turnover blown to back to nothing by "some" time, blog posts and your support.

And now there are a few more ballets attempting to perform in Sweden, Scandinavia and Europe.

One ballet, Kyiv Ballet aka Touring Actors, is right now trying to convince some Swedish municipality owned concert venues to let them hire the stages for their ballet performances.

I could help some municipalities out by showing them the Touring Actors homepage is on servers in Russia.

Now the "Touring Actors" try to pitch a new idea for their performances, a German based production focusing on children fleeing the war in Ukraine or similar. That will be refused I hope as the company behind the ballet is disclosed for being Russia affiliated.

So Germany seems to be a "home" (we know where the true дом is, da?) for some of these attempts to change flag and go on. The Royal Classical Ballet, Russian National Ballet and the Moscow State Ballet are all under the umbrella of the German based production company Agenda Production GmbH fronted by individuals Shalva Beniashvili and Rimma Wachsmann. Neither of them are German or Ukrainian.

Agenda Production GmbH, Highlight Concerts and Swedish production company Fulius AB are responsible for the ongoing tour of the Grand "Ukrainian" Ballet aka "Ukrainian" Classical Ballet.

There were an excellent piece in Swedish media outlet Sydsvenskan about some of the questionable arrangements around this ballet ensemble.

On this blog are a deeper look into their agenda. See other posts.

While Grand "Ukrainian" Ballet mainly focus on Scandinavia and Germany, the "Ukrainian Classical Ballet" are planning performances in eastern Europe and includes Hungary and Serbia. A true legit Ukrainian ballet is planning a tour in Hungary and Serbia raises questions.

Ok, back to Galina Gulii, Galyna whatever, she "used to" be responsible for the ballet Russian National Ballet at the German based Agenda Production GmbH while Russian-Israeli Rimma Wachsmann focused on her partnership with Moscow State ballet aka Royal Classical Ballet and its founder Luidmila Titova. There are posts about them here in the blog too if you want to do some catching up. Doing some time machine magic to the Agenda Production homepage discloses that Galina Gulii is Project manager for the RNB, Russian National Ballet:

Homepage in its current state:

Their project Eifman Ballet you can read about in another blog post here:

The Eifman Ballet did this "Ukrainia" friendly related performances:

See lower left corner:

Link (caution its Russian):

Galina Gulii doesn't leave that many footprints on the web. But there are some that are easy to find. There is a galynagulii7 account on the web too and on Instagram related to another individual doing some "serious", but not so succesful attempts to being a Russian influencer. Go check it out if you want to throw up your latest meal.

But "our" Galina Gulii is much older person than that Russia state-affiliated influencer freak galynagulii7.

First out is an article about the Russian National Ballet in the Norwegian media outlet DrammenLive24 from 2018. The tour bus of the Russian National Ballet organised by Agenda Production GmbH went up in flames. Despite a few burnt feathers all 37 Russian ballet dancers survived that tragedy.

So who do they interview after this unfortunate "disaster"?

Etter heltemodig innsats fra tilfeldig forbipasserende drammensere ble en samlet russisk nasjonalballett reddet - sjokkert men uskadet - fra flammene før brannvesenet ankom i full utrykning. I etterkant vanket det både «spasiba» i fleng og teaterbilletter på drammenserne som ble ballettkompaniets redningsmenn.

In translation:

After heroic efforts by random passersby from Drammen, the entire Russian National Ballet was rescued—shocked but unharmed—from the flames before the fire department arrived in full emergency response. In the aftermath, there were plenty of "spasiba" (thank yous) and theater tickets given to the people of Drammen who became the ballet company's saviors.

It goes on:

- De risikerte livet sitt for å redde oss, og vi er svært takknemlig for at de reddet våre, uttalte turnémanager for den russiske nasjonalballetten, Galyna Gulii, til DRM24 i etterkant.

In translation:

They risked their lives to save us, and we are deeply grateful that they saved ours," stated the tour manager for the Russian National Ballet, Galyna Gulii, to DRM24 afterward.

Her name is spelt different depanding on what outlet you read, Galina Gulli, Galyna Gullii, Galina Gulli etc.

So they were the Russian National Ballet back then backed by the fishy German producer Agenda Production GmbH. In other blog posts you can read about how A G GmbH tried to trademark Russian National Ballet in Europe back in 2013 but it was refused. Tomorrow I will post a text about who managed...There will be an introduction to that text below.

Behind a paywall you can also read about the Norwefian hero Hans, 47 (now older) who became their hero when he "krabbet inn i en brennende buss" and " – Nå blir han takket resten av livet" etc, etc.

We will have reason to return to the Russian National Ballet matters in a future blog posts but let's see what happens when the full scale war in Ukraine has raged for a year. From Swedish media outlet NT February 2023:

"They dance in the shadows of the bombs over their homecountry" the headline reads.

A quote in translation:

It is far from the war in their homeland.

"The flag," says tour leader Galyna Gulli when we meet backstage.

"It's our flag, waving out here. My heart filled with warmth when I saw it. We exist. We are seen. We are not forgotten. I am so grateful for the warmth and love you show us here in Sweden.

My god she is grateful Galyna Gulli from German producer Agenda Production GmbH.

Another quote NT can afford:

Den ukrainska Nationalbaletten är ute på en evig turné, som ingen vet när den tar slut.

In translation:

The Ukrainian National Ballet is on an endless tour, with no one knowing when it will end.

Link to article(no paywall):

https://www.nt.se/kultur/balett/artikel/de-dansar-i-skuggorna-av-bomberna-over-sitt-hemland/r3xv532r

Ok so now in 2023 the Russian National Ballet all of a sudden is the Ukrainian National Ballet folks and Galyna Gulli is crying her eyes out backstage.

There is plenty more to write on the Agenda Production GmbH but I want to get this post out in a reasonable time today.

Tomorrow I will focus on another individual and flag changer . In the meantime you can check these links out:

Ukrainian National Opera® presents Dnipro Opera with Madama Butterfly

After amazing reception and great success last year, we are thrilled to announce that Dnipro Opera is coming back to the UK from 31 January to 28 March 2024. Coming all the way from Dnipro, Ukraine,…

Ukrainian National Opera® presents Dnipro Opera with Madama Butterfly

Yes same matter there. A Russian National something something ballet transforms into a trademarked Ukrainian National Opera

Do some googling around on them until tomorrow and you will get the picture.

So there is a pattern here with the Kyiv Ballet, Touring Actors, The Heritage Ballet, Ukrainian Classical Ballet, Grand Ukrainian Ballet, Ukrainian National Opera etc etc conducted (sorry) by a few not so Ukrainian individuals.

A call for action! This investigation is in its early stages. It will be revealed the true nature and purpose of these ballet networks.

In the meantime Gothenburg Concert Hall, Lund Science Village Hall and a few more concert venues are fooled to believe that these "Ukrainian" ballets are legit.

There is apetition to be signed:

There are daily updates in my Bluesky feed:

And there is also an encrypted vault where you can drop info anonymously about these individuals and fake "Ukrainian" ballets. Here is an introduction to CryptPad:

And here is the Baltic Sea Diving Resort vault form for dropping info:

I'm waiting in the backend:

Consider I have a Patreon page:

https://www.patreon.com/c/BalticSeaDivingResort

Unlike these Russia affiliated ballet actors I don't do this research for money. But a contribution would be very much appreciated as I'm building a drone detection system with machine learning based drone tracking capabilities.

I have bought most of the stuff for the hardware in the test lab. A NVIDIA Jetson computer and some other stuff. If I blow them to pieces in the test lab maybe I can use the Patreon support to replace them. I will be very transparent with the Patreon related purchases.

So that project, just like the research on these bad ballets, is done with the best for Ukraine in mind. I have a vision that the Ukranians and foreign volunteers spending critical time in "last ditch" circumstances will have a drone detection field system that is community built - over the shelf hardware supported - but with some powerful code checking their backs. I have written it myself and it is a beast 😄

Shame on the concert venues in Scandinavia/Europe for booking these bad ballets and shame on the production companies monetizing on the true Ukranian heroes.

In addition, here is a template setup for contacting the concert venues in Scandinavia with a pre-written text:

There is a link in the text containing a HTML code that brings all the email adresses, subject and text to your pre-installed email application if you have that setup in you phone or PC desktop. Feel free individually to edit the text or add emails, respectively.

I have done quite a bit of math in my life and if I compute correct there are still more than 100 hours to convince the concert venues.

Thank you for your support!

//Avel