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The Kiev Ballet
 Having just entered Australia following the New Zealand leg of their current tour, principal dancer with the Kiev Ballet Viktor Ischuk describes things as "fine really" before admitting he's looking forward to a couple of days off before the Australian leg kicks off. He only gets a day or so... "this tour on Australia and New Zealand, our company is very popular all over the world, and we have just come from Japan, and we were very popular there, so we've been working on this tour for about two months," he tells me.
Does he usually get time off? "Sometimes yes, sometimes not," he laughs. "Actually, we tour a lot but we have time at home and we have performances at home as well. It's okay."
Ischuk is a principal dancer with the Kiev Ballet, now the principal company for the Ukraine. The company, as you might expect, is a powerhouse in the art and has a long and proud tradition.
"There is always like one part of the company going on tour, and we are an enormous company, about 150 persons I think," says Ischuk, who is a Gold Medallist from the International Ballet Competition in Moscow in 2005. He really is at the height of his powers.
"I think I have the best age for a dancer, not too young not too old, I have a lot of experience, I have a wealth of things to do, and I want to work, and I have," he says, relishing the opportunities available to him.
"Yeah, I can say I'm lucky because when I finished school and ballet school they had very good teachers, and I achieved good results, so that's what I'm doing here now. I am one of the company and I'm very proud of that.
"I decided I wanted to be a professional dancer when I was 18 years old. Then I decided I wanted that to be my job. My mother was a dancer, but before I decided dancing was just a hobby for me."
In fact, the young Ischuk harboured dreams of playing football for his country, and achieved - as he puts it "I was okay but it didn't work for me". Nowadays he gets to watch the Ukranian national hero Andreas Shevchenko strut his stuff with Chelsea FC. He might be a national hero, but I avoid mentioning that Shevchenko's career with Chelsea looks to be in terminal decline. After all, he might bring up the name Harry Kewell...
We continue the sporting analogy for a moment - 'is the Kiev Ballet the best team in the world?', I ask him. "The best in the world? Yeah, I think we could say that," he allows.
"We have our national tradition and experience, and I'm glad we have all the classical repertoire. So I can say I was with one the best. And of course there are lots of Ukranian dancers working all over the world, in the US and Covent Garden in London. So I can say we have lots of talent."
Alex Wheaton
The Kiev Ballet performs a four-act Swan Lake with fresh sets and costumes (Sat 7 June) and 'Sleeping Beauty' (Sun 8 June) at the Entertainment Centre
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