Hello to you, Gods!
I’m writing with a big “G”, hoping that you’re not snorting offended and that you’ll read it to the end.
Greetings to all of you!
To the sly and bearded, to the bald and invisible, to the painted and gilded, to those of clay or wood, to the unspeakable.
Did I forget someone?
Oh.. there was another one of Sun Ra descendants, born in a joint.

As I can see you’re working hard and diligently.
Wars and more wars, deaths, hunger…
And those are not wars because of princesses or fields or land.  Rather because of yourselves, my dears.

But you’ll have no success after all…
You’d better meet somewhere up in your clouds to measure your strengths or the lengths of your tongues..

And we shall keep making people happy. You cannot stop us!

I’ll outlive you!
And don’t you dare to lay the blame for the miseries of humankind on the Devil!

“The devil’s role has been greatly exaggerated”, Alexander Sokurov

I’ll outlive you, you cardboard figures…

Happy New Year, people!
Go on, do your business!
You were born to be happy!
So be happy!

Anton Adasinsky
DEREVO group

post scriptum

I’ve been asked about it many times…
But didn’t want to answer.
Now I’ll say:
While working on the Faust filmset I’ve been through many things.
Every day some “signs”, “encounters”, “visions”…

I thought I couldn’t cope with it.
However, the Old Pulteney and Morton Feldman were of great help.

Some time later the sensations subsided. But mirrors and the sound of the wind still can get on my nerves…

Therefore I’m writing in the first person.
Though in the meantime I’m not quite sure of it.

“ONCE…” final bows have been filmed on 28 Dec. 2013 at the Festspielhaus Hellerau in Dresden

Camera: Makhina Dzhuraeva
On stage: Anton Adasinsky, Elena Yarovaya, Tatyana Khabarova, Oleg Zhukovsky, Pavel Alekhin
Sound: Daniel Williams
Light: Falk Dittrich
Management: Isolde Matkey

Text: Anton Adasinsky
English text editors: Daniel Williams, David Kemp
Video: Makhina Dzhuraeva

At once both the Bermuda islands and flying Dutchmen came to mind…

A village where the pavements are covered in marble, the seafront is paved with something uncommon…
Each shack is of an original design…
Fountains and wonder-yards.
But then something must have happened,
And now everything and everywhere – is for sale.
The people have driven, walked, flown away
There are no more night cafés and parties
A few hotels are still working, but things aren’t easy there either
Lonely and cheerless nudists gather there…
Solitude there is justified – the wind makes speaking impossible.
It has always roared and always will…
And the waves.

Now – listen.
In any place I always find a local pub
Found one there too. Perhaps, too local, since from six in the evening everyone there lies plastered.
One of the “horizontal heroes” – Steve from Amsterdam, told me that on that terrible day he had been drunk since morning, so he remembers nothing besides his heartbeat and the desire to crawl under the bed…
And it was on that day the WAVE came.
Everyone who stayed on in the village says roughly the same.
There had been no wind all morning.
A miracle in itself!
People poured out into the streets to discuss this, and then a strange thing happened: everyone’s ears became blocked and the people ran from the coast into the mountains
Only the children failed to react, but they were also hauled away.
In the evening everyone returned home, but no one was able to sleep.
The next morning, the same thing happened…
They blamed the spirits, African winds or other evils.
Fish were not caught for a week, and folk began leaving…
But Steve stayed on – “Your coffee, Anton, 50 cents!..”
When he found out what I do, he dragged me off to see the theatre!
The “theatre” was to my liking, as was everything else that remained in that village.
The wind is still roaring in my ears, and Arthur and David are convinced that that was how the Ocean spoke to them.

Text: Anton Adasinsky
Translation: Ruth O’Dowd, Pavel Glebov
Photos: Elena Yarovaya, Anton Adasinsky

Hello all,

the rehearsals in Voronezh are finished!

Tonight, on 27th November 2013 the ONCE… show by DEREVO has been revived on stage in Voronezh with:

Andrey Merkulov
Ekaterina Khmelevskaya
Makhina Dzhuraeva
Mikhail Bagramyan
Dmitry Krivochurov
Alexander Gromyko

and

Yana Kuzina
Elizaveta Polyanskaya

All the best, guys!
Merda!!

and on November 29th in Voronezh concert hall ONCE… is going to be presented by the classic cast:
Anton Adasinsky
Elena Yarovaya
Tatyana Khabarova
Oleg Zhukovsky
+ Pavel Alekhin

Anton Adasinsky

The next workshop by Anton Adasinsky & DEREVO will be held in Moscow (RU) on October 21-23 only for russian-speaking audience.

Full information and registration form in Russian »

The next workshop by Anton Adasinsky & DEREVO will be held in Voronezh (RU) on October 13-15 only for russian-speaking audience.

Full information and registration form in Russian »

A message from an artist landed in my inbox. Just like many others which I receive regularly: “I’d like to work with DEREVO”.

I skimmed through the text without paying much attention and instead turned to the attached pictures which I liked very much. Immediately some dance images came to my mind.

So I answered the message and we made an appointment to meet in Moscow. Then I went back to the original message and noticed the small addition at the end: “I’m 15 years old”.

I only had time prior to shooting at the Mosfilm studio. So we met at 7 in the morning in an empty café.
She brought her camera and took some photos.
We spoke as equals, feeling like old acquaintances. I asked her about what was going on amongst young artists.
While she spoke to me about this, we walked at a leisurely pace towards Mosfilm.
We were walking quite slowly indeed; it was a pleasure, something unusual to see in Moscow.

So now,
as far as I could understand, the young are not interested in focusing on the source of a problem. They have a way of elevating an intense experience of reality to a level from where they can project their charged thoughts onto the monotony of everyday life, painting it brightly, as if lit by a spotlight shone from a helicopter’s belly.

And apparently I was seen by this girl like an oil film on the surface of water, able to spread over any possible subject of discussion, even the risky ones.
She called it the “blubber-oil” effect: a temporary taming of the waves.

During our conversation we felt distanced from the pavements and monuments. For an hour Moscow became an unreal cardboard city. I also gained a sense that the Mystery of Art has just been discovered but not yet deciphered.

Assuming that the “helicopter” theory is correct, there’s no need for decryption. The barcode of the Art will be placed on every damp corner of the city (look at her pictures) and will be dissolved in a minute. The Theory-Hypothesis-Null by Rama Michael Tamm has been amended by the “Null-Hypothesis-Null” construction.

She, Valeria Erza, stands with a permanent invisible connection to the others of her own kind. On that morning I was introduced to and easily accepted into this circle.

There’s no name for this “circle-sensation-consciousness” phenomenon. Not yet. To enter you need a password. In my case, my morning indifference towards my own creative work has worked as a password.

And so we both got ourselves some ice-cream which neither of us finished, stopped by the risen sun.

Text: Anton Adasinsky
English text editor: David Kemp
Photos: Valeria Erza

Something very special will happen at the Exhibition opening in St. Petersburg on May 29th, 2013. Mikhail Chemiakin’s personal exhibition to be presented in the Russian Museum’s Marble Palace

Anton Adasinsky & Slava Polunin will take care of the live action part at the opening.

On June 13 & 14 DEREVO performs “HARLEKIN” in Norway at the Porsgrunn International Theatre Festival.

On July 4 & 5 the new show previews PARADOX KASPER are running in Dresden as part of the Scheune Schaubudensommer Festival.

As soon as more appearences will be confirmed they will be available in our Tour Plan.

I was quite full of wonder after my brief visit to Moscow to the Lumiere Gallery.

I hadn’t expected that so many people were still able to walk slowly and speak gently, to look into your eyes and even to listen to you without meddling with their iphones right in front of your face. I’m speaking of the visitors to the exhibition and to my gig there.

The exhibition Time of the Bells is a VERY GOOD one. Thank you to Nastya and all other organisers behind the scenes.

Meanwhile the DEREVO studio in Dresden has been turned into a filming location. A motion picture in progress is:

The Middle of White (working title)

Idea: Pavel Semchenko (AKHE)
Director: Pavel Semchenko
Cast: Anton Adasinsky (DEREVO)
Cameraman: Andrey Gladkikh
Assistant: Natalia Krymskaya
Producer: Pavel Semchenko

Big thanks to Elena Yarovaya and Isolde Matkey for their support with the boring administrative tasks.

We will tell nothing yet about the music. That will be a surprise.
Anton

(english text editor: Daniel Williams)

Also the heavy metal performance by DEREVO is nearing:

29 – 31 March 2013 in Festspielhaus Hellerau, Dresden

The golden classic by DEREVO to be presented by the original cast & crew.

On stage:
Oleg Zhukovsky
Elena Yarovaya
Tatyana Khabarova
Anton Adasinsky

Sound: Dmitry Abramov
Light: Falk Dittrich

Anton Adasinsky performs his song Cat on Accordion from the Album DOPPIO live at Lumiere Centre in Moscow, 9th of March 2013. On stage are Alexandra, Veronika, Anton & Nikolay

Download the album DOPPIO here »

What an exceptional human being is living among us!
Never gives any master classes; never goes to the theatre but still when she does see something, she always offers praise; never starts serious talks about art.
And if they talk about Butoh or dance or theatre, she would just run away.
More likely sitting in a corner, busy with costumes. Respectful but indifferent toward Music, although she made her own CD “The man kissing the bottom of a boat”.

However, no any single DEREVO show would exist without her.
And two years long editing of the film, ‘Süd. Grenze’, it’s hers.
And Fanchulya in The Rider.
And Donna Flora in Once… and Zhizha and the Jester in La Divina Commedia, along with many other inimitable characters and figures.

There were times she was ill or busy and someone had to replace her but it was never quite the same.
Not enough DEREVO…
Though she does no somersaults and breathes no fire,
It’s impossible to avert your eyes when she’s on stage.
And now after one and a half year break (the cause is known) Elena Yarovaya comes back on boards in HARLEKIN: on March the 1st in St Petersburg! And in Mephisto Waltz on March 23d in Warsaw and in La Divina Commedia on March 29th to 31st in Hellerau in Dresden.

Lena,
Thank you!

Anton

English text editor: Daniel Williams

Text: Anton Adasinsky
Photo: Elena Yarovaya