The INRTU School of Contemporary Choreography «STEPS» presented the performance «GEO»
he folk group led by Inna Chernykh started working on a new production last year. To work with the dancers in Irkutsk came choreographer-director from St Petersburg, the artistic director of the municipal ballet theatre «The Nutcracker» of Yekaterinburg, Pyotr Bazaron.
Rehearsal work was led by Yulia Kuznechikhina, a teacher and art director at the SHAGI School. The actors were trained by Honoured Artist of Russia Alexander Bratenkov (Okhlopkov Academic Drama Theatre). The stage costume design is by Svetlana Bushmakina.
«STEPS» is the first contemporary dance group in the Irkutsk region. The school is an active participant of regional and city cultural events, repeated winner and winner of grand prix of all-Russian and international festivals and competitions.
All principal dancers are students of Irkutsk Polytechnic University who love dance and devote all their free time to creative work.
The production «Geo» was prepared long and thoroughly: experiments with the stage space, with light and multimedia, with the images that we managed to embody in the dance. The main source of inspiration is nature, pictures of the world that we see every day, but sometimes we just do not focus our attention on them. The creators of the performance tried to convey the idea that in every sweep of a branch and in every whiff of wind there is music…
According to Inna Chernykh, the team leader, the Geo performance is a reflection on man and space, symbolising the Earth we are on at the moment, our GEOLocation:
«It was a very big, challenging work. A challenging job for the performers and the whole production team.»
«The immersive experience started from the very entrance to the university auditorium. The audience was invited to go «around the circle». In the first hall a photo exhibition of Evgeny Chernitsky was presented — diptychs with photos, depicting shots of rehearsals of the performance and views of nature of the Baikal region. The shots show interlacement of hands and bodies like branches of a tree, the static poses of dancers resemble frozen clouds, and the occasional gleam is associated with the starry sky.
Passing through the corridor one could find oneself in the landscapes of one’s native land — inside projections on the walls and ceiling. In the «White Hall» the viewer got into real space, thanks to the exhibition of Alexei Shevelev «Looking through the rock» (petrographic thin sections), provided by the Mineralogical Museum of INRTU.
The premiere took place to a full house — there were no any vacant seats in the hall. The new production was appreciated by the permanent audience of «STEPS», dancers and leaders of dance groups of Irkutsk, representatives of mass media, as well as administration, staff and students of the Polytechnic University.
Olga Gorina, leading specialist in choreography at the Irkutsk Regional House of Folk Art, stressed that the premiere of the performance «GEO» is a landmark event for choreography in the Baikal region:
«The students and teachers of the choreography department of the Irkutsk Regional College of Culture were lucky enough to witness this cultural phenomenon. Undoubtedly, it is fascinating, captivating and beckoning magic. The dancers were very organic!».
