According to the long-year December tradition DEREVO performs a series of new works and brings back some older shows at the Festspielhaus Hellerau in Dresden.
20 - 22 December 2012, 20:00
“Fifth Sun”
new performance by Anton Adasinsky & DEREVO. Stage design by Pavel Semchenko (AKHE)
An abstract tales or myths make children and scientists happy. Common people rather passionately discuss those concerning the End of the World. Like The Flood, The Fire from the Sky, The Mad Asteroid and of course The Maya Calender. The End Of the Fifth Sun is on 21.12.2012. But the premiere is on 20th of December, don’t worry.
Yes, that’s true. Everything comes in its time. To all of us.
Provided that we really do live,
That Time goes only in one direction,
And that I do understand WHAT I’m writing…
There’s an entire series of exercises within the DEREVO system which is dedicated to “anchors”: our habits, preferences, duties and desires…
All of those exercises I was joyfully trying out on a single test subject (and by his merciful agreement). Many of the exercises have been proved to be good ones. This man has become an even more happy and merry person than previously. Well, for the people around him he might have become useless but terribly interesting.
I could not say he shows up in my life very often but it’s always at the right time.
I was looking at the title «Ketzal. Part two». And I felt that a few other people in the world were looking anxiously for something at the very same moment.
A telephone rang. Not the mobile but the almost forgotten office landline. It was this same man, asking for a possibility to stay and sleep for a while in the studio.
He came with a backpack, rather merry again. He made a dug-out in the backyard and installed a small tent above it. An entire day he was busy with making a pickled cabbage, singing and sweeping the ground.
If I go left and he goes right we’ll turn around the globe and meet again.
About his dug-out he said, that it’s his desire to find out about the bears sucking their paws, about slowing down the body’s functions and overall about being below the level of human activity. He asked me to put over the lid and get some earth on it. He reminded me that God has gave himself the trouble to caulk up the seams of the Noah’s Ark from the outside.
Noah’s Ark…
You’re probably aware of the story. There’s one point in it…. as the decision was made, the Earth was to be purged of scum… But the Lord God really couldn’t arrange this slaughter with his leaving the first of all his men still alive… so he’s been waiting for Adam to die.
I covered the lair with earth and wondered about the smell of the Spring while it was just a humus. Everything fits.
It means «Ketzal. Part two. Noah’s Ark»
The man’s name is Oleg Zhukovsky. Once he saw the «Rider» in St. Petersburg he was jumping through puddles all night long and he followed us on our way next morning. With the same backpack.
It’s a good sign that he’s here again.
Text: Anton Adasinsky English text editor: Daniel Williams Photos: Oleg Zhukovsky
I, Anton Adasinsky, am responsible for the news text.
Everyone is hurrying me.
Here, I wrote about my dream of a tunnel.
Daniel told me to stop writing a novel in the first person, people would need some facts, where have we been, where will we be, what have we done…
Here, I wrote about where we’ve been and what’s coming up
Lena Yarovaya told me that everyone knows it anyway and that a flatfish is hiding in the sand by using vibrations.
Here, I wrote about the flatfish, although it pretends to be a maggot there.
I’m tired now.
Just read all that you want. It’s just a troubled week of April.
We were in St.P.
HARLEKIN, MEPHISTO WALTZ, the workshop (there was quite a lot of people, about sixty or so). Then there were four days of dreaming up the DROP in the OCEAN.
Then I flew back to Dresden.
I’m not getting sic easily, you know. I mean any flu, quinsy and so on. But suddenly - bamm! I woke up and realise that I don’t want to go anywhere. I don’t want to go to the theatre. Rather I want to read something by James Fenimore Cooper. And I want a thermometer. It says to me: 38°.
Two days have passed like this. To me it’s just as unusual as reading my words in the press. Unusual but wonderful.
Now after a week in St.P., I have decided to end the story.
I’ve got a friend (yes, you can envy me). His name is Igor Timofeev. He lives on the outskirts of St Petersburg. He has a house, a sauna and twenty-eight guitars.
This place is my cavern. When I can’t cope anymore with hearing somebody else’s heart, I can escape there,into the sauna.
Everything describable just stops there. Words and actions change their meaning or lose it completely. We speak to each other there but subjects are not known to us and they’re not suggested by us.
He had a dream.
The manner, as he told it to me, refers to the special language of the steam room.
“raised on horizon… colour of the sky changed… like it was needed there… but they’re drawing here unnatural and a big piece… I unbuttonned the shirt to meet the punch… twenty seconds are still there… first light then I close my eyes then a sound, and in the sound I understand… stand and wait and then the air blows and it’s twisted… ribbed… I see the great playful movements of an accordion which you can touch with your hands… and the eyes flying towards you and me… do you understand!? I’m flying through the nuclear explosion and to my framework… to my skeleton everything is clean understand?? washed and cleaned and inflatable eyes maybe five meters large and I must turn them somehow…”
Then I could remember the rest of my own dream. I’ve never forgotten it to be honest.
I was running and following Pieretta to the stage. It’s a long tunnel. She’s lighter and faster, I wouldn’t be able to reach her. And suddenly I was not chasing her anymore but simply running, precisely and evenly. It was the run to the stage. I kissed my shoulder while I was running there.
On the opposite wall, there was a big letter “E” and then “A”. I realised that I must remember them, for I was running towards the beginning of these words. It’s not hard. When the letters were over I could put together the words “Heat Mode”. Now I was running directly towards the red glow. It was very easy to run.
We’ve added our dreams. I can’t quite remember what has happened after it. Nastya said something about a butterfly who gives a flower a slap in the face. We reproached her with poeticizing of men’s problems. However, the picture of that night has been completed: a butterfly and the hysterical kiss of a light bulb…
Ode to a one-day fly
The worm lying in a tight cocoon
Your life goes forth unhurried
You see no spring, you’re purposeless.
You’re sure you’re resting here for ever.
It’s so delightful, so silent here.
One year or two
But suddently there’s a coolness cracking in.
Scream, you worm! death is coming
Your shield is crackling and it’s scary. Scary!
The wind has blown away the pieces of the cocoon.
Are you dead? No, alive.
So what is that?
Where’s your house? Where’s the tightness and the dryness?
And the crushing there is again like thunder!
Behind your back two wonderful wings unfolded
And you are flying, you are singing.
Your day is in the sky, exposed to the wind
And to the sun of the world
You have been thinking this is death?
But this is life.
Exactly one day long.
Text: Anton Adasinsky
Photos: Elena Yarovaya, C. Friedlander, Lena Dolmatova, Roman Ekimov
Photo Design: Elena Yarovaya
In May Anton and the Positive Band hope to finish the promised CD “Cat on Accordion”. Meanwhile you can enjoy the new video by Andrey Gladkikh to the song “All Seasons” by Andrey Sizintsev, Nikolay Gusev and Anton Adasinsky.
Festspielhaus Hellerau Dresden
21 – 23 April 2011, 20.00
DROP IN THE OCEAN Premiere!
Stage design, costumes, production: DEREVO
Director: Anton Adasinsky
Composer, musical director: Nikolai Gusev
Sound design: Daniel Williams
Light design: Igor Fomin
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
With +10 °C in Dresden just a couple of days ago and with -24 °C in St. Petersburg right now we’re fearlessly looking forward to the Spring which is coming soon.
Meanwhile the tickets for our shows in both Dresden and St. Petersburg (and then Dresden again) can already by booked online.
TOTENTANZ 2011 in Dresden (18-19 March, Dreikönigskirche Dresden)
Tanya Khabarova – founding member and dancer of DEREVO – will hold a dance theatre workshop in Dresden in the course of the 28th International Pantomime Festival from 11 to 14 November, 2010. The workshop is based on metaphysical insights of DEREVO`s school of movement.
Theme: Stained Glass Window
Dates: November 11 -14, 2010
In June the WEISSE FESTUNG (WHITE FORTRESS) happened at the beautiful pond in the historical city centre in Dresden. After the last year’s success they asked us to repeat the open-air action. It was far too easy to persuade us in this case.
On and In the Water:
Anton Adasinsky, Lena Yarovaya, Pavel Semchenko (AKHE), Andrey Sizintsev (AKHE), Alisa Oleynik, Maxim Kuznetsov, Lidiya Makeeva, Lidiya Kopina, Tatyana Belousova, Valentin Tzin, Alexey Lanskoy, Nastya Ponomareva
The crew
Daniel Williams - Sound, Steffen Köhler - Technical direction, Falk Dittrich - Light, Igor Fomin - Light for floating objects, Isolde Matkey - Management, and many assistants - everything that wouldn’t be possible without them
This is a first video from the future film project about DEREVO Backstage.
Here we rehearse the open-air project “The Fight Of The Harlekin With His Own Shadow In Search Of The Barrel of Wine And The Eternal Life” to be performed on 27 June and 9 - 11 July 2010 in the courtyard of the late gothic castle Albrechtsburg in Meissen, Germany.
We are working on the WHITE FORTRESS project again. At the beautiful pond in the historical city centre in Dresden. After the last year’s success they asked us to repeat the open-air action. It was far too easy to persuade us in this case.
Usually the work on a show is a process closed for the public. But the weather and the mood are too good to keep anything secret.
In the next days we will share some impressions with you here.
On and In the Water:
Anton Adasinsky
Lena Yarovaya
Pavel Semchenko (AKHE)
Andrey Sizintsev (AKHE)
Alisa Oleynik
Maxim Kuznetsov
Lidiya Makeeva
Lidiya Kopina
Tatyana Belousova
Valentin Tzin
Alexey Lanskoy
Nastya Ponomareva
The crew
Daniel Williams: Sound
Steffen Köhler: Technical direction
Falk Dittrich: Light
Igor Fomin: Light for floating objects
Isolde Matkey: Management
and many assistants: everything that wouldn’t be possible without them
MEPHISTO WALTZ will be the new performance by DEREVO. First previews are available to the public during the open rehearsal in the Festspielhaus Hellerau in Dresden and the appearance in the Mihail Chemiakin’s Meta-Theatre at his house in France.
