Discover the East: first seeds then flowers

From Kyiv Borispol airport to Odessa

I have a lot of time until the bus-ride at night. I decide to go up to a restaurant and have a bite. The alley is incredibly hot – even though it’s summery warm, the radiators are in full use!
I immediately have to think of the most recent crash between the State of Ukraine & Russian Oil-Giant Gazprom, which actually cost quite a few people’s lives all over Europe as Gazprom decided to shut down the gas-pipes in freezing mid-winter, after accusing the Ukrainian state that a payment of XX-million Y’s had not been paid / received. I am really hungry, so I have more food, a second dinner almost. (wonderful food!) I notice the water is from Georgia, a brand I’ve never seen before, and I drink the first Georgian water of my life.

Teaching the Master Class

My arrival at the Yuzhny Art Scool is a local event, Vlasova Yuliam, the headmaster, comes out herself to greet us .The participants are mostly students preparing to be dance teachers of different kinds, from ballet to social-dance sports. I teach what is likely the first class of Kinetic Awareness® in Ukrainian history. (for more information about this movement practice please see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_awareness)

Probably no one would have expected that I would do something like this. I decided to give something unique that I practice and have an official certificate to do (currently I am one of four Certified Teachers in Europe) . Since neither modern nor postmodern dance are taught or known at this school, this turns out to be a long way to go before more mutual understanding can be reached. Still, the final responses are very positive, if a bit shocked and I am surprised at the obvious patience and determination of my fellow professionals, as they try to deal with the new information. (article by Violetta Panhidina yuzhny.org/index.php?lang=&parent=111&type=full&id=1845
We talk about the possibility of an artist-in-residency. Natalia Zhurenko, with whom I had the most agitated discussion about the uses of leg-alignment, gives me a CD with music for dance-competitions as a souvenir.

Performing

The event “The 25th Hour” at the famous Odessa film-studio complex (yes, the one with Eisenstein’s Potemkin and many others). The festival celebrates 90 years of film-industry in these studios. It is at the same time a political rally, because these studios are to be turned into yet another luxurious housing complex that is offered to (Russian) ultra-rich who want to continue to use the Black Sea as their holiday resort. An enormous amount of local artists have come together to re-vive the studios with installations, music, performances and mixtures of all of them. For the first time ever, the complex is opened up to the general public.

When we arrive the place is packed with people, the atmosphere playful but also powerful. I have a chance to present a world premiere of my dance “walking con•sens•us” con-sens-us.net/walking_consensus.html
as an intermedia-piece with the sky-video I shot in 2006 in Budapest, a chance to try Odessa as the first station for the overall-project “Discover the East”, where I would realize exactly this dance in a string of cities from Berlin eastward to as far as Cairo.
I share the bill with two local dance celebrities, a couple producing something between showdance, ballroom, and contemporary dance with lots of acting to likewise music, and the performance artist, critic, and writer Uta Kilter. The latter is the one to make a lasting impression on me: not even so much by her mix of video-projection, self-produced composed music, and an amazing presence that owes to Japanese Butoh in style. I am very impressed of the presence of something near sacred, from a woman who has chosen to be clearly an outsider.

My own performance goes lukewarm to my own perception. Some people start to laugh at what I do. Both Natalias, joined by the painter Nadiia Fomicheva as well as young art managers are very supportive and encouraging. Later I get word from some people that they thougth this was one of the best things they’ve seen at the evening…

Unfortunately the festival has to be closed down before we can perform “walking con•sens•us”, so it will have to wait for further realisation elsewhere (or maybe again in Odessa?)

A (non-) commercial side-adventure

Right after my performance a young enthusiastic woman talks to me and says she loved what I did and did I also teach? Would I be interested to teach at the contemporary dance-workshop she is organising that weekend? The workshop is given by choreographer and dancer Viktor Ruban and is based on New Dance. The participants are mostly amateurs and semi-professionals. It is wonderful to be in an atmosphere that to me feels much more like home dance-wise and my contribution to the workshop is a full-out success for everyone involved.

KusiCreaVision show me the beauty of Odessa. We have lunch at the art-café "Gogol Mogol". We also visit the official Choreographic Institute, The Odessa Regional Organisation of Choreographic Union, who unfortunately said they could not offer their time for a visit.

The last evening in Odessa

When it is time to say goodbye and leave I get a feeling that I earlier had only observed with Japanese friends of mine: an upwelling urge to cry because it is time to no longer see each other. Obviously I have felt very much connected to this place without even realizing it myself. I am very impressed by everyone’s great hospitality and generosity.

May all their efforts be rewarded in return many times!

if you wish to read the full report, please click here realdancecompany.org/KA_Ukraine_2009.pdf