Hi Lena. Please tell us where you live and work and what you do.

Well, I'm currently living in Finland. My name is Yelena Sagandykova and I'm a professional ballet dancer, but also a teacher and a choreographer, so all my work is connected to ballet. I'm mostly interested in the classical ballet as well as the Russian contemporary choreography and everything to do with it.

Could you tell us about any bright episodes in your work as a choreographer that you're proud of or that you would like to recall?

Well, I'm a choreographer with a narrow specialization, not everyone understands this division. A choreographer is a very broad term, but there actually exist those narrow specializations. For example, someone is a choreographer who stages a ballet and always has some creative ideas in his head, and someone else has to carry it out and get a result. So there are people who make something up and stage it, and others who realize their ideas, who conducts rehearsals, who preserve this work of art for years to come or for a certain period of time. So these are different people's responsibilities. I belong to the second category. For one thing, I've worked at the theatre for all my life, first as a ballet dancer for 20 years, and then I started teaching and giving classes to professional actors and ballet dancers. Naturally it's another level compared to an ordinary dancer, because it takes 8 years of ballet school to become a professional, and then they get more experienced working at the theatre. So it is professionals I work with. This is my life-long experience. I work with young ballet dancers I've selected at different ballet schools, I examined them to decide whether they could join our company, the company of the Karelia Music Theatre. Then I introduced them into all our repertoire shows, because it's a repertoire theatre. So my work was to sustain the repertoire shows, to give everyday trainings for the dancers to keep them in shape, such everyday monotonous work.

As far as I know you also work with children in Helsinki, don't you?

Yes, it's true, I do it because I'm used to working in this sphere, and it's really hard to stay at home, especially now, during the pandemic. I'm currently learning Finnish, I've been learning it for a year, I'd never thought it was so difficult. For me it's immersion into a language with a completely alien pronunciation and structure. So while I'm learning the language I'm having classes with kids from a very good sports training school, they've won the first prizes in Finland and international contests. They're very advanced and I teach them as a choreographer to give them some grace and gentleness, to bring a bit of creativity into sport.

What art project do you think you might be interested in, a project you would like to participate in?

Well, I would be interested in any dancing projects, projects that combine drama, dancing,
declamation or singing, everything to do with creativity and music. You don't have to stick to classical ballet. It's hard to say… I'm open to any kinds of creative projects, anyway, you have to look at it and discuss it, art is not science, is it? You may be interested in one thing and neglect another, it all depends on who's doing it.