“On February 24, 2022, on the evening of the day when Russia began its war on Ukraine, I urgently left Kyiv and went into forced isolation. Kyiv was shelled with cruise missiles and I moved to the village of Morozivka, 50 km from Kyiv. A week later, the war was 20 km from the place where I stayed. Around the clock, we heard explosions and shooting, and a week later we got used to these sounds. In early April, the Ukrainian Army drove out Russian troops from nearby villages and it became quiet here. Gradually, I began to regain mobility in my body and come out of the stupor. Then, I decided to shoot a few videos of improvisations in order to look at the bodily transformations that happened to me from the outside. Before that, I felt completely paralyzed. The only thing I could do was write poetry – suddenly, the thoughts and feelings began to take the form of words. When I analyze my perception of events and information during this time, I get the impression that everything had become completely black and white. Halftones disappeared and people were divided into ‘friends’ and ‘foes’; I was searching for halftones to bring the ability to feel back into my life. This also became the ability to preserve the imaginative perception of the world beyond good and evil.” Anton Ovchinnikov

#from stupor to bodily mobility #from black and white to horizon of halftones #surviving war

producer: Anton Ovchinnikov * production: Black O!Range Dance Productions * choreographer, performer, composer: Anton Ovchinnikov

© Tamara Negrova

With the support of Perform Europe as part of the East is Best project