"I Knew I Was Home": Ukrainian Dancer About Living In India

Falling in love with a country on your visit is normal but to change your course of life to settle in a new country for its sheer beauty is special. A Ukrainian dancer who had come to India for a three-month dance gig ended up staying for the next three years here and wishes to live for a lifetime as she feels like she is finally home.

Yachmin Elizoveta Olexandrivna was born and raised in Ukraine, she had a passion for dancing right from her childhood. She grew up learning the art form and visited several countries with her dance group for gigs until she came to India. She says, "Mein jaise hi India land hui thi tabhi mereko pata lag gaya tha ki yehi meri country hai" (The moment I stepped into India I knew this is the country where I belong). Olexandrivna shared her incredible journey from being a little girl with a dream to dance to achieving it now five thousand kilometres away in a foreign country.

Ukrainian Dancer Living In India

Yachmin Elizoveta Olexandrivna spoke to SheThePeople and shared her life story of falling in love with India and how the country and its people have welcomed her and taken care of her so well that she extended her stay. Born in the small town of Ochakov, Olexandrivna went to school there and at the age of 12, she joined a dance academy. Along with her studies, she started learning various forms of dance like folk dances of Ukraine, Russia, Poland and even India, along with classical ballet, which she says is a must-learn for every child there. She knew dance was her calling right then and never made a plan B in life.

But to pursue dance and earn a living with it was not a very easy task in Ukraine. The weather and the earning opportunities both became an obstacle for her dream to come true. Olexandrivna along with a dance group went to several countries in Europe and China to perform and thought this is how life will pan out. One day a friend of hers suggested that they should go to India next time and she agreed. Her sister had been to Goa in India and she was familiar with the culture there and thought India would be similar to that. Before she visited India, her friends and acquaintances warned her that it would not be a safe country to live in, would be unclean and not very suitable to stay in for long. With all the assumptions when she landed in India, she knew this where she belongs. As dramatic as it sounds, Olexandrivna says that this was her exact feeling at that moment.

She stayed in Delhi for her performances and then visited Punjab as it was closer to Delhi and she fell in love with the culture, the way people treated her and everything the country had to offer. Olexandrivna came to India for three months only but promised herself to come back soon. She had already made friends here and a year later in 2019 she visited India again and this time to stay for longer. She settled in Ludhiana with some of her dancer friends and even called her sister from Ukraine to stay with her. And just when she was settling in, covid happened and all of them were stuck here for good.

Olexandrivna says, " Covid happened a few months later and I was stuck but that made me know about the culture so much. I met people and everyone was so welcoming I made Punjabi friends, they taught me how to talk in English, Hindi and Punjabi and then I was finally introduced to Bhangra." She took advantage of her long stay to learn about the culture. She learnt three new languages and a dance form with her sheer motivation to know more. Olexandrivna used social media and especially YouTube tutorials to learn the Bhangra and she learnt it so well that she started to perform the dance professionally here. She got many opportunities and even collaborated with a company for freelancing. She said that her dream life is finally coming true and earning a living with dance doesn't look like a sad dream anymore.

Olexandrivna found the people in India amusing, she says, "They are so caring and interact with me as if they know me for a very long time." She also had relationships here and said that the Indian men understood women and empathised a lot compared to what she saw back in Ukraine. One complaint that she has had so far is the lack of boundaries that most Indians have, they would invade your privacy and not understand it but she says it's not impossible to bear with. She has recently moved to Chandigarh to a new place for herself and to have some space as so far she was co-living with her friends in Ludhiana. She also mentioned that the mentality of the Indian people is what made her stay back in the country. According to Olexandrivna, people in Ukraine are high in life and not very passionate about working and being productive. But here in India, they are very practical, go to work and also have time for family which she always wanted to follow in her life. So here she fits in very well. Olexandrivna speaks in broken English and she received a special comment on that recently on her foreign travel, she shared, "When I travel outside and speak English people tell me I sound like Indians which makes me feel so happy." She is still learning and can speak quite well in both Hindi and Punjabi.

Olexandrivna encourages women to travel more and go out of their comfort zone to find out what they like away from what is in front of them. Many women don't travel far because of safety issues but she says one cannot bog down their dreams out of fear. If you want to travel, be cautious but don't stop going for your dream.

Watch a glimpse of her dance performances here.

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