LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Every day we step through life. The struggles, the successes, we experience it all one step at a time.
For the last 18 years, each one of Natalia Ashikhmina’s steps have been centered here in Louisville, specifically inside the halls of the Louisville Ballet.
Now her time at the ballet is coming to an end.
“It’s a rollercoaster. And I’m tried to embrace it,” Ashikhmina said.
“There is definitely a moment that is harder to embrace. You just want to push it away. And there is those that are beautiful and I will have always with me," She said.
Natalia is retiring from the ballet at the end of this season.
She began dancing professionally back in 1991, moving from Siberia to Moscow and eventually touring the world before finding her way to the United States. She stayed briefly in Indiana before moving to Louisville in 2006.
Natalia says that her relationship with dance started much earlier, in fact, it’s something that’s always been with her.
“My sister, older sister, was taking lessons and my mom was working so there was no one to be with me, watch me. They just decided to let sister take me with her and for me to wait in the corner until the lesson is over, until her teacher said, ‘Who’s that monkey in the corner? Let’s just find the right place for her,’” she said.
“Dancing was something that I didn’t separate from life at all. It was just the way I was,” Ashikhmina said.
Natalia says she thinks everyone has that kind of innate style of dance inside them. It’s something that connects each and every one of us.
“I think every single one of us is a dancer because dance is movement, and everyone is moving in a different way. Dancing may be a little refined, maybe a lot refined, but it’s the same movement. So, I think everyone [is] moving through life, that means everybody is a little bit dancer,” she said.
Natalia’s final performance with the Louisville Ballet is a rendition of Romeo and Juliet where she will dance as the titular character.
She says that this show offers her a chance to reflect on the relationships that she’s built across her 18 years in the city she now calls home.
“It’s a beautiful opportunity to leave this beautiful story once more with my family, colleagues, and I hope that the Louisville community will come and join us,” she said.
The Louisville Ballet’s season finale “Romeo and Juliet” has three showings Friday March 1st and Saturday March 2nd at Whitney Hall.
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