Police on Standby for Russian Ballet Theatre in Cedar Rapids

The elegance of the "Swan Lake" Russian Ballet Theatre performance at Cedar Rapids' Paramount Theatre this Sunday night is not expected to be any less elegant because of current events between Russia and Ukraine, but just in case, there will be extra security.

More than 1,000 tickets have already been sold to the event, according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, and, although VenuWorks Cedar Rapids director Michael Silva says he's "not aware" of any mass refund requests or potential threats to the show in protest of the invasion of Ukraine, the Cedar Rapids Police Department is sending officers as a precaution. Nor are they aware of any organized peaceful demonstrations.

They are making a slight name change, too, from the "Russian Ballet Theatre" to simply "RBTheatre" for short, or the acronym "RBT".

The fear is perhaps that the mere connotation "Russian" Ballet will evoke negative reactions. But don't get it twisted. This is an "independent ballet company with a multi-national cast". Their statement in response to the events at hand was a moving one.

Let’s not allow them to destroy a beautiful world and culture created by millions of brave and kind, smart and caring people of the world. We Dance for Peace. We stand with Ukraine.

February 24 was their first show after the start of the invasion and was held at the Carolina Theatre in Durham, North Carolina. Following that show, they posted on Facebook.

It brings tears to your eyes as an onlooker just to think about it, yes?

They also recently performed in Dubuque and Davenport to packed, emotional audiences.

Sunday's show at the Paramount begins at 6:30. As mentioned, the 1,700-seat theatre (according to a Google search) still has a few tickets available. You can get details from the CREventsLive website here.

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In closing, we'll leave on this note, a nod to the emotion we can plan to see Sunday from the RBT troupe:

It's hard to dance with tears in your eyes, but we will make it happen.