Latvian Andris Kapinš explains why he didn't leave Ukraine during the war
Andris Kapinš, the owner of the dance studio “Papa Dance,” moved to Kyiv seventeen years ago, and Ukraine has become his second homeland. The YouTube project “Kashtan. Business” showcases how the Latvian dance instructor operates and grows his studio amidst constant air raid alerts and blackouts.
“To seize, take, and sow war – this has been Russia's position for the last thirty years”
Before relocating to Ukraine, Andris worked in Russia.
“I am originally from Latvia, arrived in Kyiv in 2007. I got married here and now live here. For a long time, I worked in Russia – I was a ballet artist, but I also taught in that ballet. After some time, I came to Kyiv to open a school for this ballet, but after the war began in 2014, my relationship with the ballet management deteriorated, and after a while, I decided to close that chapter and establish my own school,” Andris shares.
According to him, severing ties with former colleagues was not easy, but he disagreed with their stance on Ukraine and the Euromaidan of 2014.
3 “The Maidan, the start of the war – my position became clear to me immediately. The country wants to choose its European path: since I am from Latvia, I know what a European movement and direction is. And if this is all happening through force, then that is already wrong. We saw this before 2013; I witnessed how it developed, how the Russian language, music, and everything Russian was promoted here. The Maidan, the annexation of Crimea, troops in Donetsk and Luhansk – it was clear that such actions are taken only by, excuse my language, thugs. In other words, to seize, take, and sow war – this has been Russia's position for the last thirty years. Transnistria, Abkhazia, Georgia – all this happened in stages, and it is impossible to come to terms with it. I don’t understand how the entire world could calmly observe this,” the Latvian recalls.
“It’s a very family-oriented name”
In Kyiv, Andris Kapinš founded his own dance school “Papa Dance.”
4 “I have been working with children for over twenty years, not only in Kyiv. Since 2007, I have collaborated with a charitable foundation: we have worked and continue to work with socially disadvantaged children, as well as with children with disabilities, and we traveled all over the country when it wasn’t mainstream yet. It was very difficult to look after these children; I helped, and someone called me Papa Andris. I thought for a long time about what to name the school – both “Papa Andris Dance” and “Papa Andris Dance School,” and “Dance Dance.” Then we simply removed “Andris,” and it became “Papa Dance,” and it’s a very family-oriented name,” Andris recalls.
In 2014, children displaced from Donetsk and Luhansk appeared in Andris's school.
“There were very scary stories – how mothers made their way under shelling with small children. We had many such children. Some left further away after 2022, unfortunately. But we always welcomed children, not just the displaced. Now we also accept children for free. However, in this case, we focus not only on taking in displaced children or the children of fallen soldiers – for me, it’s important that the child consciously engages in this,” Andris says.
5 “I made a decision for myself that we would stay”
On February 15, 2022, Andris went to Latvia to prepare a children's creativity project.
“We wanted to showcase Ukrainian culture in Latvia. I had agreements with some groups; we were planning to create artistic bridges between Latvia and Ukraine. At that time, I was completely out of the information loop, not understanding what would happen here – I wasn’t here; I was there. But I returned to Ukraine: on February 23, at 6 PM, I arrived in Kyiv on the last flight of “AirBaltic.” We met the onset of the full-scale war at five in the morning when the explosions began. I couldn’t believe that this was happening,” he recounts.
Representatives from the Latvian embassy urged Andris to leave Ukraine as quickly as possible.
“I received calls from the embassy saying: ‘We are waiting for you in Lviv; a bus will be leaving for Latvia.’ But I decided that we would stay because I have a great responsibility; I have children, and something needs to be done; a lot of my friends, both those who are fighting and those who remain here. I started receiving funds from abroad, and I began distributing it among my friends, acquaintances, and those who needed help at that time. We contacted my friend – he is the director of a hotel in Bulgaria. We wrote to our school group that we were gathering children and women and would evacuate to Bulgaria. We gathered 90 people, ordered buses, and on March 18, our entire school, along with relatives, sisters, aunts, and grandmothers, left for Bulgaria. There, we organized living arrangements and education for the children, creating a process so that everyone felt comfortable,” says Andris Kapinš.
6 Three months later, the school returned to Kyiv, and Andris began volunteering.
“In September 2022, we realized that we needed to continue working, that there was a demand – children and parents were asking in groups, and we opened the school. The school started operating, and I began traveling to Donbas and Kherson. My volunteer movement began with a trip to Avdiivka. I first arrived in Avdiivka in November 2022, and since then, we have been going to the guys almost every two weeks. Then we began collaborating with some charitable foundations that provided us with food packages, and we delivered these packages to local residents. This included Avdiivka, Vuhledar, Bakhmut, Pokrovsk, and all the other free areas of Donetsk region,” Andris recalls.
7 “I understand the evil that Russia brings”
Currently, the “Papa Dance” school operates, as Andris describes it, “between shelling and power outages.”
“We had to buy a generator – all at my own expense, no one is supporting us. I can’t ask parents for help because I often ask them to assist the boys; that’s more important. If there’s shelling, we always go down to the shelter; we have one, thank God, and we’ve managed to set up the electricity more or less,” he explains.
8 Andris recalls that he was struck by the unity of Ukrainians in the early days of the full-scale war.
“I saw how people gathered in thousands at military enlistment offices, volunteers clearing rubble and helping, and that was already inspiring. Since 2022, I switched to the Ukrainian language because I understand the evil that Russia and the Russian language bring. Under the guise of the Russian language, they are destroying Ukrainians. For me, this is now a war of good versus evil. I believe that the truth is on Ukraine's side,” says the Latvian.
For more details, watch the new episode of the YouTube project “Kashtan. Business” at this link