Ilona Gvozdeva found herself embroiled in a scandal over a dance trend started by a Russian woman

Ukrainian choreographer Ilona Gvozdeva found herself at the center of a scandal after she replicated a dance trend popularized by Russian dancer Polina Glend. The celebrity’s followers accused her of promoting Russian content and called on her to delete the video.

The dancer has already responded to the wave of criticism, explaining her position. 

The choreographer posted a video of herself dancing to the song “White Horse.” However, her followers pointed out that the moves in the video mimic a trend popularized by Russian dancer Polina Glend, who lived in St. Petersburg for a long time.

Afterward, social media users began criticizing Gvozdeva and demanding that she remove the post.

The following comments appeared under the video:

• “Are you kidding? That’s a trend started by a Russian woman”;
• “I agree that we shouldn’t look for betrayal where there isn’t any. But after learning that you’re dancing to a trend started by a Russian woman and promoting it, you’re reacting very strangely by leaving this video up. You don’t provide any reasonable explanation for why you’re doing this; you’re just trying to scold those who pointed it out to you in the comments. The question remains: ‘Why spread Russian creativity?’ You’re a choreographer too and can create your own trend to this track. Deleting this video, recording your own trend, and promoting it—that would be really cool”;
• “Please check what you’re sharing. It’s unpleasant to see our dancers doing a trend created by a Russian woman.”

After a wave of criticism, Ilona recorded a separate video in which she explained why she disagrees with her followers’ complaints. According to the choreographer, she verified the information about Polina Glend.

In particular, Gvozdeva explained that Glend was born in Kazakhstan and grew up in St. Petersburg, where she ran her own dance studio until 2016. Later, the Russian woman moved to the U.S., where she continued her work as a choreographer.

Ilona noted that she found no evidence of Polina’s collaboration with Russian artists after the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.

At the same time, according to Gvozdeva, Glend’s personal website features a Russian-language training program that can be paid for with Russian bank cards.

“Should this be considered collaboration with Russians? Everyone must decide for themselves,” Gvozdeva stated.

The choreographer also emphasized that she found no information indicating that Polina Glend supports Russia’s war against Ukraine.

In Ilona’s opinion, under these circumstances, there are insufficient grounds to accuse her of promoting Russian content by repeating a dance trend.

“Being vigilant during wartime is the right thing to do. But vigilance means checking the facts first, not immediately hurling insults, accusations of betrayal, and hate at a person,” the choreographer added.

This information came to light on her Instagram page (ilonagvozdeva).

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