Katya Vasilaky’s Ukrainian Roots Have Influenced Her Careers as a Dancer and Economist

During the dramatic finale of a “Nutcracker” performance with the San Francisco Ballet, Katya Vasilaky gracefully leapt onstage, then landed to a jolt of pain.

Unknown to the audience at the War Memorial Opera House, a previously healed stress fracture had unraveled, tearing an ankle tendon.

“I heard it snap, and then I couldn’t move my foot,” she said. “So I literally dragged myself offstage.”

Katya Vasilaky, Assistant Professor of Economics, works with her ECON 395 – Programming for Economics and Analytics class.
(Photo by Joe Johnston)

While that injury would mark the beginning of the end of her professional dancing career, it would set Vasilaky on a course to launch a much different career – as an economics professor.

“With both dance and economics, I appreciate working on something difficult and then being able to break that complicated thing down — for myself and then especially when teaching,” Vasilaky said. “Ballet is so much about dissecting both the physics and musicality of a step. And with economics there is so much to dissect from the theory to the data to how that connects to my work in the field.”

Both careers were strongly influenced by her Ukrainian roots. Vasilaky’s parents and grandparents left the Soviet Union at the end of World War II and arrived in Ukrainian communities in New York and New Jersey via displaced persons camps in Germany. Her father later earned a PhD in mathematics and her mother a doctorate in Slavic Literature

Growing up, Vasilaky was surrounded by Ukrainian culture, learning to speak Ukrainian and acquiring a passion for Ukrainian folk dance at her Ukrainian school. The Ukrainian school director, Roma Pryma-Bohachevsky, an internationally recognized ballerina, suggested that the 10-year-old audition for the prestigious School for American Ballet in New York City. Soon Vasilaky was studying ballet at the school — an opportunity Vanity Fair once described as a “rare privilege” — and attending the Professional Children’s School for academics, where classmates included actors Macaulay Culkin and Christina Ricci.

“And then I went to San Francisco Ballet School at 15,” she said. “After a year, I joined the San Francisco Ballet company, and I was living on my own.”

While performing at the 3,100-seat Opera House had its perks, the world of professional ballet took its toll she said. “You dream of it, but once you’re in it, it’s pretty tough.”

After her injury, she matriculated at UC Berkeley and eventually returned to New York to be close to family. Still interested in the arts, she attended the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, whose lengthy list of notable alums include Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro, Candice Bergen and Sydney Poitier. But she chose to complete her undergraduate degree at Columbia University in mathematics and economics.

Katya Vasilaky, from her days as a professional dancer, performs Helgi Tomasson’s “Handel- A Celebration” with Patrick Lavoie at the San Francisco Ballet. (Photographer: Marty Sohl)

“I always liked math,” she said. “And I always liked working with people, and economics was a good combination of those.”

She began visiting Ukraine while still in school, spending several months there during internships with banking institutions. In Ukraine, she developed an interest in development economics, which focuses on improving fiscal, economic and social conditions in developing countries.

She ultimately earned her doctorate in that field from the University of Maryland. Even while working on her dissertation in Uganda for over a year, she continued to dance, performing at Uganda’s national opera house.

She joined the Cal Poly faculty five years ago.

While far from her family’s ancestral land, Vasilaky has closely followed the war coverage in Ukraine.

“If you picture what people are going through, how could you not cry?” Vasilaky said. “But it doesn’t help anybody if I just cry.”

A member of the Economists for Ukraine, Vasilaky supports Ukrainians by organizing donations, holding discussions and talks at Cal Poly, and in one case connecting a homeless refugee family with friends living in Belgium.

While the human toll of the war is staggering, as an economist, Vasilaky also foresees a difficult post-war recovery. Investments from other countries could be crucial, she said, though that might entail stipulations. Aside from the physical ruin of entire cities, there will likely be a labor shortage and a potential brain drain.

“Despite the toll Russia’s invasion has taken, Ukraine is still rich in natural resources, which is one of the reasons Russia has always wanted it,” she said. “For centuries, it has been the bread basket of Europe, and that’s still true, and it’s affecting many countries in terms of food exports.”

When the war ends, Vasilaky would like to return, perhaps as part of an exchange program or as a visiting scholar.

While teaching and economics are her career priorities, Vasilaky remains closely connected with art, having served as a member of the Central Coast Comedy Theater and a teacher at SLO Movement Arts Center, which offers conservancy training on the Central Coast.

“I still love dancing,” she said. “I started dance with a professional job in the ballet world and since then have really immersed myself in so many other forms of dance — ballroom, Latin, modern, West African dance — and I like to share that through teaching and outreach.”