«let the good man in, otherwise he’ll break down the door» («Aibolit-66», USSR, 1966)

Dear friends,

A very intense one and a half years have ended with a performance in Jyväskylä.

Both Anton and Lena are leaving for creative holidays to the Island of Monkeys and Butterflies to write the screenplay for a feature film. An offer from the Lenfilm studios has come rather surprisingly. Pre-production is going to start in October. And we had better keep the plot a secret now.

 

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In September, as an exercise, DEREVO is going to film some videos to the music by Positive Band. We suspect it might become a film too. That’d be good.

Cast:
Such a one – Anton Adasinsky
Chief Wow-Wow – Igor Timofeev
Ferdinand – Nikolay Gusev
DJ Cornflower – Andrey Sizintsev
Emmanuel Brüskind – Alexey Rakhov
Friendly Geometer – Viktor Vyrvich
Frigate «The Swift» – Elena Yarovaya
Gentle Giant – Vadim Tverdyukov

and also the entire DEREVO and many, very many friends, actors, artists, children, musicians, dancers…

«…Six musicians are playing at parties. There’s a phone call and the party host sends a car for them. As they see it the guys realise that this party they will hardly forget: the car is constructed of shinbones of drug dealers, the sail is stitched from a thousand blue neckties of the GDR young pioneers, the driver is a Giant Albino of dying breed of Squirrelgoats…»

Such a one

«…the reviving well of laughter is getting dry, the bucket bangs against the mossy walls… Instead of a jolly joke it brings back just sadness in the green bottle of tarragon soda…»

DJ Cornflower

«… It will be a musical film. Even too musical..»

Emmanuel Brüskind

Anybody wishing to help out with the costumes, light and sound, props and make-up, with the lunch and general assistance, anybody wishing to be merry and quick-witted…. please e-mail us

 

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Meanwhile Vadim Tverdyukov, Nikolay Gusev and Nastya Ponomareva are finishing the mixing and mastering of the Positive Band’s album „Cat on Accordion“…

And there’s more to come:

• September, Faust by Alexander Sokurov is in competition at the Venice Film Festival.
  (I should think about getting some tails)
• A big theatrical project in Perm in Russia
• AVIA concert in Yubileyny in St Petersburg
• Preparations for the performance at the Mikhail Chemiakin’s art exhibition

 

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«Sleeplessnes. Homer. Taut sails. I have read the catalogue of ship just halfway through…»

(Osip Mandelstam, transl. Alan Shaw, Ugly Duckling Presse)

Gaudeamus igitur!

 

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Text: Anton Adasinsky
English text editor: Daniel Williams
Photo: Elena Yarovaya, Roman Ekimov, Anton Adasinsky and others
Photo design: Elena Yarovaya
Video: Elena Yarovaya

 

Back in 1989 DEREVO was performing at OEROL for the very first time!

Aaaaah! Is it really so long ago???

22 years ago this Island made a new hardly noticeable companion to world re-knowned DEREVO theatre company.

Right there in the dunes, under the sky, on the endless sands, in the roaring wind and surf, there the unique principles of DEREVO’s dance have been elaborated. And they mean the mastering of huge spaces, laconic moves, purity of senses, precision in colours of the costumes and props, live music of nature…

Our improvisations here could be just four hours long, as well as nine days and nights without break, like in the „Adventures of the Golden Egg“.

And now at the thirtieth (!) anniversary OEROL Festival, on top of the hill, in an endless wind, blowing all the waste out of your mind and body, here DEREVO performs Mephisto Waltz.

No photograph could possibly convey the power of this place…
But still… here are some photo-visions…

 

 

 

 

 

Text: Anton Adasinsky
English text editor: Daniel Williams
Photos: Anna Bogodist, Elena Yarovaya
Photo design: Elena Yarovaya

 

See also one of the first online photo projects at DEREVO.org dedicated to the Island of Terschelling - Wind & Water »

The photographs from the Wind & Water are also available as a printed album DEREVO vol. 1 here »

 

DEREVO with Elena Yarovaya, Anton Adasinsky, Alexey Merkushev and Oleg Zhukovsky and guests from St. Petersburg – Nikolay Gusev (keyboards), Igor Timofeev (perc., guit), as well as dancers Tatyana Belousova, Nadezhda Lanskaya, Anastasia Ponomareva, Aleksey Lanskoy.

Project manager: Isolde Matkey
Costumes: Anne Frumson
Props: Andrej Bobylew
Assistants: Elena Dolmatova, Ekaterina Lobanova

Technical director: Kai Kaden
Production supervisor: Andreas Lorenz
Light: Falk Dittrich
Stage manager: Steffen Köhler
Sound: Helge Petzold, Sandro Schwertner
Stage: Peter Tirpitz, Welko Dimitrow

The new production by DEREVO is dedicated to the modern russian folklore and at the same time it’s a nostalgic contribution to the 50th Anniversary of the first space flight of human, as well as to the 50th Anniversary of the city partnership between St. Petersburg and Dresden.

The hero of the journey to the collective past is Petrovich. He could never forget his dreams, in his grey backyard he still tinkers a rocket which will once take him to the outer space…

Host organization: HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts Dresden.

The premiere has been supported by the Culture Foundation of the Free State of Saxony

Great news for our russian friends. Right after the perfomances in St. Petersburg in March 2011, there is a 3 day long workshop by Anton Adasinsky to be held. With many special exerсises and with deeper looks into the DEREVO system. Unfortunately this is only available for russian-speaking participants and audience.

All details and application form are available in Russian under http://www.derevo.org/live/workshop.