behind the curtain: the lviv ballet

In Lviv, regarded as Ukraine’s most independent and pro-Western city, an effusive admission of a debt to Russia comes as a surprise. (Lviv’s name in Russian—Lvov—is still resented by some as a reminder of Soviet rule.)

But Simon Crofts, who took the photographs on these pages, found that attitudes to both Russia and Europe had relaxed in the past few years.

 
Pictured:
A costume for “Don Quixote” by Lysyk’s widow, Oksana Zinchenko, pays homage to Lysyk’s taste for jewel-encrusted, gilt-tasselled, Russian Orthodox excess.