Dancing the New Realities: The Beauty and a Beast of the War
Joanna Szymajda
joanna.szymajda@ispan.plInstytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8491-7737
Anton Ovchinnikov
(Ukraine)
Abstract
This essay is a record of the experience of the ongoing war in Ukraine, presented from the perspective of the contemporary dance artist Anton Ovchinnikov. Captured almost in statu nascendi, his moral dilemmas and difficult choices—personal and artistic—constitute a kind of a war diary, a record of a moment in history. The author also asks important questions about artistic responsibility, whose relevance resounds ever more strongly in the face of the continuing conflict. Joanna Szymajda’s introduction offers a historical panorama of artistic phenomena and attitudes in response to the state of war. The author focuses on 20th- and 21st-century artists, showing the variety of formats and aesthetics in the works of such major figures as Martha Graham, José Limón, John Cranko, and Rami Be’er, among others.
Keywords:
war, dance, choreography, manifesto, protest, memory, trauma, video-danceReferences
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Authors
Joanna Szymajdajoanna.szymajda@ispan.pl
Instytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8491-7737
Joanna Szymajda - assistant professor in the Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences, dance researcher and cultural manager. She was deputy director of the (National) Institute of Music and Dance from 2010 to 2017, ballet manager of the Wrocław Opera from 2018 to 2020, artistic coordinator of the International Contemporary Dance Festival Body/Mind from 2007 to 2010 and again from 2021. She collaborates with the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw and the University of Łódź, and as a dramaturge for dance performances.
Authors
Anton OvchinnikovUkraine
Anton Ovchinnikov - choreographer, performer, curator, educator. In 1989–1991 he served in the Soviet army. He was a dancer with the Hollywood Ballet in Kyiv, then completed his master’s degree at the National University of Culture and Arts in Kyiv. He has been the artistic director of the Black O!Range company since 2008, and the artistic director of the Zelyonka Space UP international dance festival in Kyiv since 2010. In 2015, he co-founded the all-Ukrainian association Contemporary Dance Platform, serving as president of the institution until today. Since 2018, he has been a member of the expert panel of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.
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