Dance Macabre. The Immortal Dance

This miniature performance was born at the intersection of dance, physical theater and music. The interweaving of experimental searches with tradition, the live sound of the wheel lyre and modern dance will offer you not only a spectacular form, but also important and deep meanings. The cycle, and most importantly, the interdependence of Life and Death, the place of man in this eternal cycle, is what the play focuses on. Two female performers will immerse you in the whimsical and at the same time magical world of contemporary dance theater for 30 minutes.

Director and scenographer: Bohdan Polishchuk
Choreographer and performer: Oleksandra Mahera
Composer and musician: Varvara Turta
Lighting designer: Svitlana Zmeeva

Duration: 30 min
Premiere: April 2023

The performance was created in cooperation with Contemporary Dance Platform (Ukraine) and The Place (Great Britain), with the support of the British Council, Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, and the Trust for Mutual Understanding (USA).

See trailer. 

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Bohdan Polishchuk is a scenographer, co-founder of the NGO Scenography Gallery (Lviv) and the international scenography festival Lviv Quadriennale of Scenography. He collaborates with various state theaters of Ukraine and independent art projects and formations as an artist and director. Bohdan Polishchuk and his team worked in Kyiv, to the sound of sirens and during blackouts. He notes that it was extremely important to create the performance without delay, despite the obstacles, to do the best that everyone is capable of.

Oleksandra Mahera started her dance career as the head of a children's studio. She worked at the Totem Theater (Kyiv). She has worked with Staatsoper Hannover, Francesco Annarumma, Tomas Danielis and others. Last year she was in Wuppertal, Germany, for a residency at the Pina Bausch Theater. In the performance "Dance Macabre. The Immortal Dance" she creates and performs the central image of this performance - the Girl with a Braid.

Varvara Turta is an active concert musician, participant and winner of several international harpsichord competitions in Ukraine and Europe. Varvara began playing the hurdy-gurdy and studying the Ukrainian tradition of playing this instrument, specifically for the performance "Dance Macabre. The Immortal Dance".

Svitlana Zmeeva is a stage lighting designer and photographer. Co-founder, technical director of visual projects, curator, photographer of the NGO "Cultural Association HRONOTOP.UA". For the performance, she created the light of a baroque mystery that takes the viewer to another dimension, to the edge of Life and Death.

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The visit of this show is realized as part of the “Let the body speak: rebuilding the community” project.

The “Let the body speak: rebuilding the community” project is implemented by TOPLOCENTRALA as a partner in this project with support of IZOLYATSIA foundation, Trans Europe Halles and Malý Berlín and co-financed by the “ZMINA:Rebuilding” program, created with the support of the European Union under a dedicated call for proposals to support Ukrainian displaced people and the Ukrainian Cultural and Creative Sectors.