Hopak

Since 2022, the Russian invasion in Ukraine has been accompanied by a cultural battle with the aim of eradicating any Ukrainian identity. Russia's official discourse insists that Ukrainian culture does not exist.

The Hopak project is based on research around traditional Ukrainian dances. Distinguishing Ukrainian dances from those of Russia is not easy due to centuries of forced cultural assimilation, territorial expansion, repression, and linguistic oppression. Traditional Ukrainian dances are lost. They are no longer danced at weddings. What we find today are only scenic adaptations, influenced by the Soviet version of classical ballet.

I seek to identify this lost culture: a culture that is mine but unknown to me. I do not want to reproduce these dances in their original form, like a dead relic exhibited in a museum. I want to integrate them directly into European culture, into our contemporary world, into my conception of art in 2023.

What would these dances be today if their development had not been hindered? What would they look like without this eclipse, without being dominated and stifled? Being naturally optimistic, I believe they will resurface like never before: because the more Ukrainian identity is denied by Russia, the more Ukrainians reinvent that identity.

Hopak freely shifts from attempting to perform these dances to the temptation to summarize them to their main gestures and concepts. I approach them with my contemporary perspective. I question their essence: squats? Big jumps? Foot strikes? Masculinity? Competition? Geometry? Rhythm? This piece is a play between historical heritage and a minimalist approach that tends to reduce each dance to its starting point. From there, something new can be created: these waves, these back-and-forths between past and future open the way to images and metaphors. The meaning becomes unpredictable.

Distribution / Team

• Olga Dukhovna: choreographer & performer
• Dennis Weijers: composer
• Éric Jaccard-Alain: accordionist musician
• Alexis Hedouin: performer
• François Malbranque: performer
• Érik Houllier: lighting director
• Simon Hatab: dramaturge
• François Aubry: technical director
• Amélie-Anne Chapelain: production manager
• Enora Floc’h: production coordinator
• Special thanks to François Maurisse, Julien Monty & Nicolas Marie

Premiere

• 2024, May 25 — Théâtre Louis Aragon, Tremblay-en-France, France

Partners

• Production C.A.M.P
• Co-produced by Théâtre Louis Aragon – Conventioned stage of national interest in Art & creation of Tremblay-en-France, Mille Plateaux - CCN La Rochelle, Le Triangle – Cité de la Danse in Rennes, Chorège – CDCN Falaise Normandie, Les Rencontres Internationales de Seine St-Denis, LA MAISON CDCN Uzès, Le Petit Écho de la Mode. With the support of the Caisse des dépôts et consignation, Théâtre de Vanves, and CCNRB – Collectif FAIR-E.