On the Other Side: Russia/USA experimental Dance Review

by Amora Sun, MA, CCC, CCC-S

Part of the Voices International Theater Festival presented in partnership with Rehearsal for Truth and Polish Cultural Institute NY, showcased two dancers from Russia with lived experience in navigating the tumultuous and fracturing impacts of the Russian occupation and aggression against the Ukrainian peoples. The performance took place at the Jersey City Theatre Centre on June 10, 2023.

As a psychologist, when I first read and listened to the reports and audio-recordings of a Russian soldier and his wife discussing how he would be raping innumerable Ukrainian women, my throat clenched. I heard the wife laugh with that casual form of evil so hallmark to genocidal plans and actions: “just use a condom,” was her only request.

If this article disturbs you, I am sorry/not sorry. Sometimes I am petrified at just how undisturbed people are surrounding the horrors their fellow human beings perpetrate. How social rank and profit trumps love and respect, I will never understand. But, people adapt.

People who are abused must often abuse in order to avoid death, this has been well-recorded for centuries. Many fall in love with their captors to avoid certain death. It is the origin of codependence, the fawn response and cognitive dissonance. I suppose I care so much because I care about people, and the more general awareness-raising these works of art can do for the general public, the less work I will theoretically have on my hands in the therapy room. Perhaps? I hope so.

One of the most astounding things about Elena Demyanenko & Tarik Burnash’s performance is their willingness to capture the raw brutality that a snake eating its own tail — that is a country killing its own people — what a family cannibalizing its own children looks, feels and sounds like.

They described their work as somatic, which was what I was first drawn to. Catharsis, coping with the insane, that’s what I work with too. Receptive and requesting audience feedback, I remarked upon the wrestling between both dancers in one part of the performance. Burnash moaned as he gripped Demyanenko in a restrictive embrace. She bucked against him, crying out in Russian. The beginning of their dance featured them describing the erasure of Russian art, artists and those who wished to preserve a non-violent artistic cultural legacy. Those who resisted conformity for freedom and authenticity; those who had Ukrainian family and friends, omitted from existence. As Burnash restrained Demyanenko, her plaintive cries spoke to me of continuing to share what was important, what couldn’t be lost or stripped away by war.

Demyanenko continued to fight and it reminded me of the futile fights I’ve witnessed between one generation urging their elders to stop, change course, resist against the brutality in-tandem, together, as a team. But, the elders are too afraid of poverty, or further violence, so they stay still and wait out the threat.

The last improvised scene of the night that stuck out to me in harsh relief to the others was the palpable enactment of the skirmish: land. Both dancers chose a sound speaker to fight over. One in protection of it, the other in domination of it. They slid and undulated around the object feverishly, murmuring, “mine!” and, “you go to hell,” “no, you go to hell!” with the kind of lazy hatred that sticks in your soul. The kind of domination that cares nothing for life, only property.

Artists of any medium are some of the bravest warriors there are, willing to persuade people who observe them to bear witness to their humanity, often at great personal risk to themselves. I pray that both these artists maintain their voices, their sovereignty over their bodies, hearts and minds, and their message be received by all of those families harshly fragmented due to conflicting ideologies that wars are known to foster.