Degas used the name "Les danseuses russes" ("Russian [female] dancers")[1] and it was known under this name in English and French sources, despite vast ethnographic and art historical evidence for the Ukrainian origin of the women [2][3][4] There were a number of voices calling for changing the misleading "Russian" name, criticizing it as "deliberate or just lazy misinterpretation" of Ukraine for many years.
The increased focus prompted London's National Gallery to rename a drawing from its collection Ukrainian dancers in April 2022.
[6][7] As of May 2023 in the National Museum of Stockholm another work from the series was changed to Three Dancers in Ukrainian Dress.
[8] There are at least 18 pastels and sketches of Ukrainian dancers created by Degas, mostly in the second half of the 1890s.
Lisa Bixenstine classifies them as 6 finished pastels, 4 unfinished ones, and 8 sketches.