A dance performance as a form of somatic protest and viscous disobedience in the light of the current aggression of the Russian government. Russian artists Elena Demyanenko and Tarik Burnash examine the notion of rapidly disappearing past and their need to negotiate the unknown, absurd, madness, inhibition, and rage while searching for release into another approach for moving forward and finding their resistance.
on the other side is a way to comprehend through the body, an act of survival, and a sustainable means of making a difference within the upheaval of deeply dark, angry, ugly, and insecure times.
Using four different modes of engagement, Elena moves through a choreographic process among community, within context, centered in a heartbreak. She asks: What does it mean to be a Russian artist? To write from the side of an aggressor? Elena disavows cultural nostalgia or political naïveté to acknowledge the complexity of state-sanctioned violence on the scale of the nation and the scale of the body.
on the other side (2022), Russia/US. Choreography and performance: Tarik Burnash and Elena Demyanenko. Lighting design: Masha Tsimring. Lighting associate: Austin Boyle. Voice advisor: Tatyana Tenenbaum. Choreographic advisor: Jon Kinzel. Dramaturgy: Natalia Zaitseva.
Running time: 45 min.
The performance is followed by a talkback.
Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $10. Seats are limited, on first-come, first-served basis. Online registration through Eventbrite is required.
on the other side was created with the generous support of Trust For Mutual Understanding and Ufestudios in Berlin, Germany.
About
ELENA DEMYANENKO is a Russian/American dance artist, choreographer, improviser, maker of dance films, and educator who lives and works between New York City and Vermont. Elena has extensive professional performance and choreographic experience in a multicultural context from 30 years of touring around the world. She has been inventing “impossible” scores in order to uncensor the body as a source of information and a primary site of healing and transformation.
Elena is a former member of both Stephen Petronio Company (2003–2008), and Trisha Brown Dance Company (2009–2012). She has danced with Dana Reitz, Susan Sgorbati, Joseph Poulson, Dai Jen, Pavel Zustiak, Lindsey Dietz Marchant, Kota Yamazaki, and Jimena Paz. Her most recent evening-length work, welter, premiered at Roulette Intermedium and her multimedia project echo/archive premiered at EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Troy, NY). Blue Room, made in collaboration with Dai Jian and commissioned by New York Live Arts, was described in the New York Times as “luxurious” and “eloquently meticulous” (Kourlas). As a guest artist, Elena performed in Martha Clarke’s production of Garden of Earthly Delights at Minetta Lane Theater and in Continuous Replay with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company.
Elena’s live performance works have been shown at many US performance venues, including Baryshnikov Art Center, Danspace Project, Roulette Intermedium, EMPAC, Movement Research at Judson Church, Dance New Amsterdam, and Dixon Place, and abroad at GARAGE (Moscow) and the Architecture of Movement Festival (Yaroslavl, Russia). As a maker of dance films, Demyanenko was the recipient of a Dance Movies Commission by EMPAC and was nominated for the Dance on Camera Jury Prize for her work on kino-eye. A graduate of the Academy of Theatrical Arts (Moscow), she went on to perform throughout Europe and Latin America at venues including the Théâtre National de Chaillot (Paris), Montpellier Danse Festival (France), Dance Umbrella Festival (London, UK), Danscentrum Stockholm, Festival de Fortaleza (Brazil), and Festival Panorama de Dança (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Demyanenko is a full-time member of the dance faculty at Bennington College and is currently developing a new work titled death souls.
TARIK BURNASH began his career as a dancer and choreographer after studying dance improvisation at the School of Dramatic Art in Moscow in 1997. He relocated to Berlin in 2022. He participated in various improvisation projects, worked as a guest choreographer and created his own works in Russia and Europe. His choreographic approach is based on the exploration of authentic and intuitive movements as well as social phenomena. In the years 2006 – 2021 he worked on his own performative project – Ohne Zucker Project. It was a project based company and each production team was unique. Dance works and performances In general, everything is fine, Red Square, Terra Nullius, Burnashev and Andrianov / Live, The Order of Things and many others were created during that period of time. Cloud of Me was created at the residences Black Box in the Meyerhold Center and Schloss Bröllin (Germany, 20170). Tarik's piece Luftmangel was nominated for the Russian national theater award Golden Mask (2009).
Tarik's projects have been supported by various cultural organizations: DAAD, Schloss Bröllin, DTW, Springdance Festival, Kanuti Gildi Saal. His work has been presented at many Russian and European festivals such as Aerowaves, Dublin Fringe Festival, Springdance, Aerodance, Unidram, ADF.
In addition to his work as a choreographer and performer, Tarik is known in Russia as a teacher thanks to dance improvisation classes and various laboratory work that he has been doing for 20 years. Tarik has taught release technique at the TSEKh dance school and dance improvisation at the PART Academy in Moscow. In 2018, he oversaw the residency program for young choreographers at the ZIL Cultural Center, and was the program director of Aktovy Zal in Moscow. He also develops artistic practice in other media: in photography and drawing.
ABOUT THE 2023 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH THEATER FESTIVAL
The 2023 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival: Anew is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York, GOH Productions, Trap Door Theatre, Centre of Jewish Culture ŠTETL, Jan Mocek, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Palissimo Company, and Romanian Cultural Institute.
The program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. The festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague, and Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.