Ukrainian Booked to Perform in US Circus Trapped in Poland After Fleeing War - CircusTalk

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Ukrainian Booked to Perform in US Circus Trapped in Poland After Fleeing War

Anastasiia Savych should be performing this week in the new Flip Circus at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey.

Instead, the 20-year-old dancer is holed up in Warsaw after fleeing Kyiv, worrying about how to help the family members she left behind as the Russian assault closes in on her hometown.

Savych is one of 16 members of Kyiv’s Bingo troupe of acrobats and dancers hired by the Texas-based Vazquez Circus to perform in its two traveling shows this spring.

”They are first-class performers,” said Roman Vazquez, 50, whose parents started the company he now runs.

The troupe signed about six years ago and performed both the opening act and the grand finale.

“They’ve become very, very important in our shows,” he said.

Vazquez tried to secure visas for the performers so that they could start the season in February, but between reduced operations because of COVID-19 and the embassy’s move to Lviv in western Ukraine before Russia invaded on Feb. 24, visas were impossible to obtain.

Savych had a ticket for a train to Lviv for that day, with plans to continue to Poland. She awoke to a call from a friend: The invasion had started…

Link to Full-Length Article at New York Post

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