The filming of “Mayakovsky” in which I played the role of V. Meyerhold is completed. Director Alexander Sheyn had to cross himself when I appeared for the first time in my make-up…

Then, the second set of rehearsals for a new project “Who is Happy in Russia?” at the Gogol Centre in Moscow. I am the director and choreographer of the “Drunken Night” segment. Composer - Ilya Demutsky. There are 23 dancers on stage. I must admit, I have never seen so many talents on one stage simultaneously. Strong company. Thanks to Kirill Serebrennikov for his disciples.

Upcoming projects are the “Viking” by A. Kravchuk and “Bonus” by Valeria Gai Germanika.

In the meantime, my “Extended Day Group” improvises in private apartments, in the streets and so on. Exercising by DEREVO.

Recently, Museums night in St Petersburg at Mikhail Chemiakin’s Foundation, in July there’s a festival in Nizhny Novgorod, on 8th of July we’re closing the Open Look Festival in St Petersburg.

In Summer there’s a lot of filming too and in Autumn there’s a big marathon coming up at ERARTA.

It would be good to be in time for all of this.

Anton

Text: Anton Adasinsky
English text editor: David Kemp
Photos: Elena Yarovaya

DEREVO played Ketzal in Dresden
Although “playing” or “dancing” doesn’t really suite Ketzal
I rather should say “Ketzal happened” or “Ketzal has been here”

I always realised that that Ketzal game is a festival of men
So after two months of rehearsals it happened

The best cast!

Anton Adasinsky
Anna Budanova
Makhina Dzhuraeva
Pavel Alekhin
Ivan Nevzorov
Stepan Lyubimov
Ivan Volkov
Alexey Popov

Light: Elena Yarovaya, Igor Fomin
Music & Sound of course by Daniel Williams
All round helper: Liza Polyanskaya

Thank you!

Do not miss ISLANDS at ERARTA in St Petersburg!

Text: Anton Adasinsky
Photo: Peter R. Fiebig, Elena Yarovaya, Liza Polyanskaya

Yesterday our friend and partner on the stage, one of DEREVO’s co-founders, left this world - Dmitry Tyulpanov

His heart

A month ago, Andrey Gladkikh and I together began work on the documentary RED ZONE - our very first performance
There will be lots about Dima
The film is not finished yet

And we bow to Idit Herman - his wife who nurtured his talent and his daughter, who accepted and bore his Derevo-like way of life

Lena, Tanya, Anton & Alexey

..and the sky begins right from the ground…

Text: Anton Adasinsky
English text editor: David Kemp
Photo: Dmitry Konradt
Video: Andrey Gladkikh (cut & new sequences)

I wrote and wrote for two days about what was strange this year
and about the “Story of a Girl”
and about friends in Kiev
and about instincts
and about frozen time
about friends and career…
lots of things

I wrote and looked at the cabbage on the window sill

It’s useless!
Just as well I could simply write “Happy New Year!”
But that seemed too small to me

Suddenly, having no more thoughts of my own
I’d rather repeat someone else’s words, quite like Redrick Schuhart did:

“…But if you really are… all-powerful… all-knowing… then you figure it out! Look into my heart. I know that everything you need is in there. It has to be. I never sold my soul to anyone! It’s mine, it’s human! You take from me what it is I want… it just can’t be that I would want something bad! Damn it all, I can’t think of anything, except those words of his… ‘HAPPINESS FOR EVERYBODY, FREE, AND NO ONE WILL GO AWAY UNSATISFIED!’”

(from ‘Roadside Picnic’, Arkady & Boris Strugatsky, transl. Antonina W. Bouis)

Text: Anton Adasinskiy
Photo: Elena Yarovaya

In the days of rehearsing the AEROKRAFT project based on the music of Nikolay Gusev
I think about war.
I wrote text for eight scenes of the show.
I want the audience to hear the voice and listen to the words
Reading again, I decided that even without the performance these texts are of interest.
Anton Adasinsky

1
I love you, War
How much courage and light are in you
How precisely you cross those t’s and dot those i’s
How doubtlessly it can be decided who is bad and who is good
How clearly you draw the borders and decide on the destinies of countries
How many feelings and cries you give birth to in our hearts
How carefully you help women wait for men
How many hopes for a bright future are born with each shot and each explosion
How many heroes you give to the people
I am ready to go with you to the end of the war

2
I hate you, War
You’re the main thing people remember
You’re the starting point
What was before and after means nothing
You are the main thing
I hate you because you’re sitting in my head with your names and dates
With newspapers, wounds and beggars
I will not live my life happily because you will come to my door and make me suffer
I have one life, and still in this life there will be at least one war
I hate you, War, and wait for you to die

3
God, how cunning you are, War
I’ll never understand what you want
How many people you need to take
How many words you will say in your defense, how natural and glib they will sound
For each death, thousands of letters and arguments for each drop of blood, pages of gabble and lies from the leaders
You’re experienced, War
You’ll outlive us all, you’ll take a different name and start over again.
You’re sly and pratlling, War
You’re lying on your side and drinking a liqueur while others tell lies and make the decisions
And far away in the fields, boys in baggy uniforms play tag with your friend Death

4
I thank you, War
You helped me solve my problems
You persuaded me to make a choice and change my way
You took away my miseries and dried my tears
I will not have to suffer pain or aging
I am grateful to you, War
You took away my life

5
I’m the same as you, War
I’m full of hate and doubt
I need to shake the muscle and arms
I need to justify my lies and violence
I need to be cunning and diplomatic
I too get tired and want rest and silence
and I too am uncapable of just sitting and doing nothing
I too feed myself with blood and rumours
and I too forget why I fight

6
I am your father, War
You are my child, War
I’m a man, I gave you life and I named you, War
I, human
I, the one who is at war
I, the one who kills or spares
And chooses commanders and soldiers
I choose the target and the task
You’re nobody without people, War
We are at war, we the people, and you are just letters in our mouths
I am your father, War and like all fathers I want you to be the best
Grow big, War
I will lean upon your shoulder when I’m old

7
I can not live without you, War
Forgive me, War
If I do not praise your beauty and stature
Oh, how cool and arrogant you are
How forbidding and desirable
Your romance is in our songs and books
The only thing that remains
Where Death is majestic and just
Where Good always wins over Evil
But at some time, of course,
Evil will return
And swords must not rust
And I want to be the best to get into your ranks, War
Forgive me for not praising you every day, War
For only you will bring me away from boredom and malaise
You will give me direction and purpose
And you will make me believe that killing is possible
Finally! This is what we need you for, War
For a man to fulfil his dream, to kill another

8
What words I must find to make you understand how grateful we are, War!
You gave us the work of War!
We sew on buttons and cast bullets
We draw maps and brew spirits for your soldiers
We paint everything khaki and print bulletins
Aeroplanes and tanks
Cameras and boots
Condoms and sights
Vests and briefs, for summer, autumn, nighttime and underwater
Much, much work
We are millions grateful for the possibility to bring home some money and bread
Thank you! Our children will not starve
You give us all something to do
Please do not end, War
Or we’ll be unemployed
What will be left to write and talk about when you’re not there, War?
What else shall we put in our prayers, hymns and plays?

Everything is meaningless without you, War

9
I forget about you, War
I can’t remember, if it was true
If it was near death.
I see different things
How clouds fly by, how life’s rolling past
How children grow, who will never see a war
We were friends, War, but you were the last
You were old, War, living in memories of great battles
You’ve got no skill to fight like a coward
With lies, gold and oil.

You’re decrepit, war
I walked with you, Old Lady War
I wanted to trip you up and watch you dying
I wanted to commit the last murder in the world
To kill you, War

10
I thank you, War
You helped me solve my problems
You persuaded me to make a choice and change my way
You took away my miseries and dried my tears
I will not have to suffer pain or aging
I am grateful to you, War
You took away my life

11
You’re untidy, War
You’re not cleaning up after yourself, War
There is always garbage and leftovers
Dirty memories in the mind
Tattered photos
Destroyed buildings and old bombs
You’re not cleaning up after yourself, War, still in our heads
Shouts and farewells
Letters and smoke
You want us to remember everything
You leave your marks everywhere
Sweep the streets and the cities after you
Wash the rivers
Burn the bones and flood the cemeteries
Give the cripples back their arms and legs
Put their eyes back in their sockets
Make us, force us to forget you
You’re a magician, War
So make anyone who speaks your name, War
Cover his face with the palm of his hand and walk thus till his death

12*
Where’s the power
That will cleanse the Earth
Of all the filth,
The cowardice and lies
Theft and murder
Cities and countries.
Where are you, power?
Be swift, time is short
For we are clever and cruel
And the world is cramped…
Wipe out all the people
No time to swift the good from the bad
Let it again be quiet and clean,
As it was in the beginning…
Maybe next time….

* From the film «Süd. Grenze» (DEREVO, 2001)

Text: Anton Adasinsky
English text editor: David Kemp
Photo: Chester Mueller, Roman Dubinnikov, Elena Yarovaya, Carola Fritzsche

I spent a week in StP.
A record for meetings and conversations.
Meetings all about organising DEREVO’s work in St. Petersburg.
I was not on my own for one minute.
I met the Committee for culture, theaters, directors, officials, students …

Two days of rest and now I try to analyze my feelings

1. This happened in some other world. With this world DEREVO never was connected.
2. I was always in danger in these days.
   • Danger to look independent.
   • Danger to make a compromise.
   • Danger to be misunderstood. Danger of too many jokes. Danger to absorb the private lives, which pour from virtually every interlocutor.
   • Danger to get sick at heart seeing all these people’s insecure plans.
3. When there are millions of troubled people all around you - you will be troubled. The dream is gone. Just whisky and music.
4. Desire to vacuum and clean the shoes.
5. Flashes of anger with vendors and taxi drivers - never had this before.

I leaned too far out of the trench. Could be shot.

The last day, two students came to say their goodbye and thanks for the master class. To speak of the work, I forbade them. They asked - is it possible to smoke.

I gave permission. They smoked a joint and the smell drew from memory a distant morning when I woke up in space. It was 4 am. And from the window flowed a sound that did not belong to Leningrad, nor to the USSR nor to our damp morning courtyard …
I remembered how I went to the window and sat on the windowsill for forty minutes …
My 17 years have been dismissed by the judge. I’ve started from the beginning.

And I did the same thing!
I put an ancient speaker in the window and turned on “Wish you were here” …
But something strange has happened. Soon we became scared.
I reduced the volume - the fear never left.
I turned off everything and had to close the window to calm down.
I showed the girls a book, just bought that evening.
Searched for three years and bought it!
The first small edition of his book “Stone” that Mandelstam paid for himself in 1913.
300 small books that changed my world, and not only mine … We read the poems ….
and Pink Floyd came off and flew back home…
I sang page 8 to them.
That’s all.

Then the taxi and the familiar: “Do you mind turning off the radio?”

Text: Anton Adasinsky
English text editor: David Kemp

Video:

Lyrics by Osip Mandelstam
Music composed and performed by Roman Dubinnikov
Photos from DEREVO archive by various photographers

with
Anton Adasinsky
Nikolay Gusev
Alexei Rakhov
Victor Vyrvich
Igor Timofeev
Veronica Golubeva
Sasha Harinova

Video and Photography : Nastasia Maslennikova, Eva Kuligina
Sound : Seva Gakkel, Mark Titov
Editing : Nastasia Maslennikova, Eva Kuligina
Production Assistant : Alexandre Senin, Olga Ogneva
Producer : Seva Gakkel

In association with 3MostA Hotel and Erarta Museum and Galleries of Contemporary Art

see also: http://balconytv.com/v/positive-band-his-eyes-balconytv

Hello all,

in October 2014 you can see & listen to Anton Adasinsky on many occasions in St Petersburg:

• autumn school at the New Stage of Alexandrinsky Theater, 7-10 Oct.
• on-line on BalconyTV with the Positive Band, 7 Oct.
• at the talk & film evening at the Angleterre Cinema, 11 Oct
• at the special event for the Mikhail Chemiakin Foundation, 13 Oct.

In the meantime you can watch the documentary (in Russian) “With a rainbow in the heart” by Galina Korshikova. Unique archive footage by Andrey Gladkikh has been used for this film.

Here you’ll find some pictures of our summer projects

• White Fortress, finally I’ve got the main part since Pavel Semchenko of AKHE was busy elsewhere
• Pioneers Parade at Radebeul, it’s all about having fun
• Midnight Balance at Radebeul
• Finale Grande at Radebeul, ten thousands wood pieces and five thousand spectators

Text: Anton Adasinsky
Photo: Elena Yarovaya, Silvio Dittrich, Anton Adasinsky, Igor Fomin, A. Rummler

Dear Anya! 

10 years you’re working as our manager

10 years of performances, DEREVO travelling around the world
And projects, and festivals, and the School, and “Russian Seasons”, and “Vertical”…
10 years marching on the same road
and only at 19.30pm for 2 hours do our roads part
DEREVO goes on stage, and Anya goes into the auditorium…
Thankyou !!!

Anton Adasinsky and all of us !!




”Usually, things coming to me from others are temporary. Only this, a ship thrown up on the shore, stays forever true.
Standing in the dark auditorium, on the other side, I understand, the path that went before. I understand, everything is possible, if there is availability.
I used to watch from behind, and now I’m flying alongside.
Leaving a trace in the eyes, and deeper - in the hearts, and to again turn and walk away.
Making a sign of love to another = my way”.



Anna Bogodist, Aug. 2014


”… and there was “Suicide in Progress” (St Petersburg’s dirty lampposts, Adasinsky in black, diving into red) or “La Divina Commedia”. And something moved, trembled, became happy and stood still. You learned something for the first time and understood who you really are. You laughed and wanted to hear them in every sense. And it was incredibly near and far, they were here, in the middle of the field, in the night and wind. Not prepared for the myth, swirling, love, hangover, history, fairytale, winter, hell, sin, and the eyes… Then their “spasibo” in Russian, a huge hourglass, sequins, just found in your pocket, hurried steps, the audience’s reaction noted with pride, a quick taxi and call to Katya: “They’re the best.” And you can’t sleep, and you say thankyou.”



Anna Bogodist, Edinburgh, Aug 2002

Text: Anton Adasinsky / Anna Bogodist
English text editor: David Kemp
Photos: Anton Adasinsky & DEREVO

Idea & realisation: Anton Adasinsky & DEREVO
Music: Daniel Williams
Production manager: Isolde Matkey

A Bull engages the same force to see and know an Eagle, as an Eagle does for a Bull”
Alejandro Jodorowsky, ‘The Holy Mountain’

“- How could you lie to a child?
- I can’t wait till she’s grown up”
Barmaley, ‘Aybolit-66′

Good and knowledgeable people leave.
Now Elena Markova has gone.
Her articles in Russian can be found here: http://ptj.spb.ru/author/markova/
How many of you had a chance to meet her in person? Only a few I suppose.

And listening to her, it was the golden hours of our profession. Each time her analysis of DEREVO’s work pushed us to the next level. Conversations and interviews with her helped me to find the idea of an “emotional statuary”. And we too, at DEREVO, called it a “screaming obelisk” or a “crying stone”. And this attempt to break out of the dusty orbit of le mime statuaire was successful. We have become very strong in the stillness…

In person, it’s different when you work or talk to someone.

Three days of working with Grotowski personally gave more to us – DEREVO – than all his books and videos.
In just four hours, Jodorowsky blew my mind further than with his ‘Santa Sangre’.
That’s the reason I want you to meet each other and meet the Knowledge bearers, in person… In short, I’ll work as the procurer…

There’s a workshop in October in St Petersburg. That’s the chance »»

In August we’ll have another beauty in the old centre of Dresden – White Fortress II. Blind Rain.

In September a big improvisation at the wine festival in Radebeul near Dresden; the wine festival!!.

Independently and in parallel, Lena Imamova and Kolya Zapolskikh are working on a book of my short stories, ‘Back to the Sun’. And Makhina Dzhuraeva and Pavel Alekhin are busy in the museum and libraries of Mikhail Chemiakin at his mansion in France, growing cleverer every day under Mikhail’s eagle eye.

And I’m tormenting myself in Spain with the screenplay of the film ‘DOPPIO’.

Let’s know each other!

Anton

Text: Anton Adasinsky
English text editor: David Kemp
Photo: Elena Yarovaya, Elena Imamova, D. Pandurski

10 days in June

• June 8th ISLANDS
• June 9th ISLANDS
• June 10th Filming for «Viking» (feature), director A. Kravchuk
• June 11th AVIA at the street parade
• June 12th «Midnight Balance»
• June 15th AVIA in concert
• June 17th Makhina Dzhuraeva performs with Elena Kaufman

These two weeks reminded me of DEREVO’s beginnings.

Working continuously for 24 hours at the limit of your strengths, you stop being conscious of any other world but your own. And thus it becomes easy to be creative!

No, “easy” is the wrong word.

At the peak of tiredness all the most crazy ideas become natural, the place begins to draw people in like a magnet, a church-like seriousness builds, a whirlpool of power…

And then the great moment comes when the actors and dancers on stage cease to look like “performers”. They are living it.

It stops being “just” a Theatre.

Elena Yarovaya
Makhina Dzhuraeva
Anna Budanova
Gleb Alekhin
Ivan Nevzorov
Lida Kopina
Liza Polyanskaya
Nikolay Zapolskih
Dmitry Krivochurov
Dasha Fedotova
Anna Bogodist
Elena Imamova
Nikolay Khamov
Igor Fomin
Grisha Shmidko
Sasha Gromyko

Thank you!

Anton Adasinsky

and folliwing was the ONCE… in Poland, we’re heading to Italy with MEPHISTO WALTZ soon and AVIA is going to play a big concert at the Open Cinema Festival in St Petersburg

Text: Anton Adasinsky
English text editor: David Kemp
Photo: Anna Bogodist

Text: Anton Adasinskiy
English text editor: David Kemp
Photos: Valeria Erza, Olga Arefieva

Text: Anton Adasinsky
English text editor: David Kemp
Photos: Anna Bogodist, Evgeny Sinyaver, Evgeny Pronin

Text: Anton Adasinsky
English text editor: David Kemp
Photo: Judit Horvath, Igor Anosov, Sylvio Dittrich, Janos Posztos