Open Doors 2023

Open Doors 2023

Alfa of death
Interactive research-performance

© Yevhen Titov

The interactive research performance by Inna Falkova, Alfa of death, will take place on 18 July 2023 from 10:00–16:00 at Ballettakademie. Up to 20 people can register for this unique experience. Please register va e-mail: workshopoffice@impulstanz.com
The Ballettakademie der Wiener Staatsoper: Goethegasse 1, 1010 Vienna
This one time research performance is addressed to performers, who have experience with improvisation.

Death is a natural and inevitable part of life. 
It is always there, where life is. 
One without another is impossible, and at the same time they are on the opposite poles, balancing each other. 
We have a culture of life and a culture of death. Historically, civilizations were built not only around life, but also around death. Death is a “litmus test”, a “spiritual mentor”,  a “great destroyer”, and other names...

What do I leave behind when it is here?

It's almost 1,5 years since I've been living, moving, and dancing 40 kilometres away from the Russian border. Here, the sounds of birds singing and shells exploding do not discontinue each other. Here, burnt houses and the blossom of cherry trees. Here, tanks and baby strollers are parked nearby.
Death and life lose their boundaries, touching ever more tightly, clinging to each other. Here is Ukraine and this place is acute to sense. 

Don't feel acutely, forget about death, live. Where are you?
Ornaments of fate are individual, far from the Russian border.
You are there, I am here. Where are you?

Don't live the war, it's not natural.
Live your L...
Live your D…

They say that during the war everything becomes black and white, polarized, in between life and death. 
That's why I'm wondering,
What exactly happens in between? 
What does death display? 
What does life display? 

Now I know life when death is nearby. 
You know life when life is nearby. 
And what if both positions next to each other are cancelled?  

Alfa is some kind of a strong side, profit, benefit. 

Looking attentively, we have something from this in each our own context. 

Looking  attentively.

______________________________

There may be several preparatory practices based on improvisation and Authentic Movement.

I’m not suggesting that you live the experience of war (though you can if you want to). Life and death are both individual and universal.

Inna Falkova is a choreographer (first higher education), living in Kharkiv. She studied physical theatre and performance techniques in Europe. Inna is a teacher at the Theatre Department of the Kharkiv National University of Arts and at the Dance Department of the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture. Her second higher education is Dance-Movement Therapy (Institute of Integrative Psychology of Professional Development). She completed a post-graduate programme at Kiev Academy of Psychological Sciences, leading trainings and further development programmes in Integrative Dance-Movement Therapy, body and somatic therapy. Inna is certified in Body Mind Gestalt Therapy (Arye Bursztyn, Israel) and Integral Body-Mind Therapy (London Somatic Institute) based on Body-Mind Centering. She is also studying the Trauma Somatic Education method and a participant of annual conferences of Contact Improvisation teachers in Europe and America. Inna is the organiser of the Kharkov Laboratory of Contact Improvisation, leading a regular Authentic Movement group and creating for the performative experimental group DANCELAB. She is a director of the plastique and choreography for drama and has been developing works since 1995 and art projects since 1997, as well as delving into improvisational dance styles and Contact Improvisation since 2000. Inna is also working in the fields of psychology and therapy since 2005 and has 20 years of experience in teaching at higher educational institutions. Since the beginning of the war, she has been working as a crisis psychotherapist with humanitarian and volunteer organisations in de-occupied territories. She has experience of working in the Mental Health department of MSF. During this year of war, she took part in the creation of the play Vertep in Kharkiv and the creation of the performative project Is it easy? with people with limited abilities in Kaunas, Lithuania. Now she is leading an Authentic Movement group and a somatic practice group “Nervous system: nutrition, support, lifehacks” in Kharkiv, and a therapeutic group of support and recovery in the de-occupied territories adjacent to the Russian border. Surprisingly, she continues combining both of her professional interests: psychology and artistic projects.