The Right Direction
The first Ukrainian Theatrical Platform on the stages of drama companies in Kyiv and Kharkiv is hard to describe as a festival. They showed rather fresh yet well-known productions, performed more than once after the premiere. Participants from other countries were also absent. Among those that arrived were drama companies from Transcarpathia’s Berehove that are well- known in Kyiv (with the plays Cargnione and Murder in the Cathedral), Les Kurbas Company from Lviv (with one of their best productions, Apocrypha based on a play by Lesia Ukrayinka). The other works were done by the capital’s producers. Platform viewers went to Kharkiv to watch Andriy Zholdak’s Hamlet: Dreams.
The aim of the action was to show the attainments of “young Ukrainian stage directors” to professionals (critics, producers, representatives of European festivals). In fact, the modifier “young” is rather questionable, as most stage directors are 35-45 years old. Rather, those that made their names in the 1990s and later, turning into mature masters and occupying leading positions on the Ukrainian stage. Such are the project initiators Dmytro Bohomazov, whose name is well known among the Kyiv theatergoers owing to his productions at the drama and comedy theater and on his own Free Stage; Mykhailo Yaremchuk, author of the excellent Cherry Orchard” at the Puppet Theater; Atilla Vidiansky who sired a real European drama company in faraway Berehove; Volodymyr Kuchynsky who turned Lviv into a thespian center matching the capital... Of course, it is difficult to describe these people as maestros. This museum-like appellation does not seem fit them; they are constantly searching for new ways and generating fresh ideas. However, these people personify the current and future realities of the Ukrainian theater.
Time will show whether the first Platform reached its goal. This author would like to tell about some of its participants who, unlike the producers mentioned and companies, are not as popular, due to some or other reasons.
Larysa Venedyktova’s TantsLaboratorium [Dance Laboratory] is a small dance studio where the creative emphasis is on the quest for new approaches to the “energy of movement, sound, and text.” Apart from other clauses of their program — like “the pure abstraction of dancing in the virtual reality of daily emotions” — it is clear that the Dance Laboratory is a group of enthusiasts doing what is popular elsewhere in the world but which does not pay off in this country: modern improvisational eurhythmics. Such modern dance festivals are a great success and the creative quest continues. Actually confronting classical ballet, this choreography develops most unusual eurhythmic forms, borrowing bodily movements from other cultures. This trend was sired and led by the legendary US dancer Merce Cunningham. He participated in most unusual avant-garde projects (like those based on James Joyce’s writings). He was a top professional, and this has made it possible for him to create his own choreography, dogmatic views notwithstanding. At present, his followers, severely competing among themselves and with traditions, work out their own techniques and conquer their territories. This extensive historical reference is necessary to understand the problems facing the performers of improvisational eurhythmics in Ukraine. The Dance Laboratory demonstrated a new work, The Crossroads, based on Tom Stoppard’s plays. Venedyktova et al. made the most of the Contemporary Art Center’s interior, a suite of white resounding halls with high ceilings. The dancers wearing dark tights looked very impressive against the background, every gesture and pas adding to the effect. Also, the simultaneous action allowed drawing the audience into a kind of game, a small adventure. People had to follow the actors from one room to the next, discovering eurhythmic surprises of sorts.
The Crossroads, despite its brimming energy and impressive mise en scenes, lacked dynamism and conceptual impetuosity. Very quickly it became apparent that the cast had mastered certain movements but, while trying to improvise, could offer nothing unexpected; in fact (using literary parallels) theirs were phrases consisting of the same words producing no coherent story in the end, just so many excerpts, each interesting in itself, but no integrity when put together. Improvisation is as attractive as it is dangerous. Its imperative freedom requires basic training, perfect command of all the attendant techniques, and of course the absolute obedience of the performer’s body, its instant preparedness to cope with any task. The Dance Laboratory lacked all this, except perhaps for Venedyktova. Well, this skill will come with time. The main thing is not to stop halfway and get stuck in the pompous spirit of manifestations.
Ruslan Baranov, at 28 the youngest of the Platform participants, has a noticeable classical schooling under his belt. He used traditional techniques in the solo performance “Emptiness is Form, Form is Emptiness.” Its simplicity and easy comprehensiveness verge on an etude and is attractive primarily with the performer. Tall and smoothly lithe, Ruslan would not let a single muscle remain idle; he performed with his whole body and face, shifting from one state to the next in an endless succession, all the while sticking to the main tragicomic character, the buffoon. In other words, his rendition is not only choreographic but also very dramatic. This combination promises very good future results.
Contemporary ballet remains a pariah in Ukraine; all trying to fill in this niche have a very hard time (it suffices to remember what happened to Serhiy Ratmansky or Heorhy Kovtun). Groups like the Dance Laboratory are still exotic in Kyiv, whereas they ought to be regarded as nothing out of the ordinary, involving hundreds of students, staging dozens of productions and taking part in standing and extensively promoted festivals. Incidentally, this will make the academic ballet companies seek innovative approaches. A similar situation proved quite effective for a drama company.
This is perhaps the main result of the “dancing” part of the Platform.
