Maida Withers Dance Construction Company

Solovetsky Monastery - Solovki, Russia Report Photos: Anthony Gongora

TOUCH3 International Dance Festival Arkhangelsk, Russia July 11-16, 2004 ARTANGAR Project “Solospheres” Solovki Islands, White Sea, Northwest Russia July 17-23, 2004

Tour in Russia, July 2004

Artists associated with Maida Withers Dance Construction Company (dancers, vocalist/cellist, filmmaker) began arriving in Russia on July 10, 2004 to participate over a two-week period in the TOUCH3 International Festival in Arkhangelsk, as well as in the ArtAngar “Solospheres – Dance on Site” Solovki Project on Solovki Islands, located in the White Sea in northwest Russia.

The Dance Construction Company (DCCo) tour in Russia was made possible by the generous support of The Trust for Mutual Understanding; the Virginia Commission for the Arts, The George Washington University, Dallas Morse Coors Foundation, private donors, and the artists/participants. The TOUCH3 Festival and the ArtAngar Project were supported by the Culture Department of Arkhangelsk region, Russian Dance Theatres Network, the Ford Foundation in Russia, the Nordic Council of Ministers, and private sponsors in Arkhangelsk. TOUCH3 is organized by the “Dance Without Borders” Center for Contemporary Dance and Performance sponsored by the City of Arkhangelsk and co-directed by Elena Rogushina, Nikolai Schetnev and Vera Andreeva. The ArtAngar Project is sponsored by the Arts ArtAngar Center for Contemporary Art in cooperation with the Solovetsky Museum. The Center, established in 2000, is directed by Luba Kuznetsova, Evegeny Shkaruba, and Natja Repina, founders of the project.

We were delighted to be returning to Arkhangelsk. In 2003, for TOUCH2, The Dance Construction Company and collaborators from Brazil, Poland and Russia performed Maida Withers’ large-scale multi media work, Dance of the Auroras – Fire in the Sky, in the Arkhangelsk Cultural Center following our performances during the 300th anniversary celebration of the founding of St. Petersburg. Through our classes, performances, and extensive television and press interviews in 2003, we developed a strong bond with artists and the community in Arkhangelsk. We were honored to be invited to return to this beautiful city on the Dvina River for TOUCH3.

Our participation in the ArtAngar Project would be the first experience of the company in Solovki. In July 2003, while performing in St. Petersburg, we met Luba Kusovnikova, one of the founders of ArtAngar, an annual arts program since the year 2000 that was taking place in the Solovki Islands. We expressed our intense interest in participating in the ArtAngar Project. We were interested in ArtAngar because of its focus on social and political issues. This led to discussions with Luba and several Russian dance groups regarding the prospect of featuring dance as the next season’s program. Previous ArtAngar projects involved only visual art and visual artists.

Maida Withers Dance Construction Company of Washington, DC assembled a specific cast for the tour in Russia. Mature artists were selected who were skilled in improvisation as performance and in the creation of site-specific performance events. The artists included: Maida Withers (dancer, director, choreographer), Anthony Gongora (dancer, choreography, visual artist), Audrey Chen (cello/vocals, performance artist), and Linda Lewett (filmmaker). These artists were known for the depth of their insight and the imagination and intelligence of their performance and media works. Nikolai Schetnev, dancer in Arkhangelsk, had agreed to work with us in Solovki. ArtAngar Center – Solovki, Russia . Constructed, 1925, by gulag-(forced labor camp) Maida Withers, Audrey Chen, Anthony Gongora

Dance companies and artists invited to participate in the TOUCH3 and ArtAngar “Solosphere” site-event projects included Maida Withers Dance Construction Company (USA), Kannon Dance Company (St. Petersburg, Russia), “Dance Without Borders” Center for Contemporary Dance (Arkhangelsk, Russia), and the Association for Contemporary Dance of the Barents Region (Finland). Local artists were also included in the events whenever possible.

Nikolai Schetnev – Russian Dancer Big Zayatsky Island, Solovki, Russia

The producers of TOUCH 3 and the ArtAngar Project coordinated their plans to include the same four dance companies in Arkhangelsk and in Solovki. This strategy provided a strong continuity for our collaboration projects with international artists for both festivals. In essence, four groups from three different countries would present their own work and collaborate over a two week period to create seven to nine site-specific performance events.

Maida Withers has visited Russia seven times for various projects since she first participated in the Volgograd Conference and Festival in 1997. While each tour had a specific program, all of the tours featured artist exchange through performances, choreography, and teaching. The TOUCH3 festival and ArtAngar project included traditional performances, but, uniquely, emphasis was placed on the creation and presentation of site-specific works in various settings.

It is important to remember that modern dance began to take root in Russia only after Perestroika in 1991-1992. To feature site-specific work in these festivals, just thirteen years after Perestroika, must be viewed as both bold and daring. This interest in experimentation seems to be quite natural for the dance community in Russia, a true testament to their own vision and stamina.

Artists for the The TOUCH3 Festival met in Arkhangelsk on Sunday, July 11 to plan and perform the first site event scheduled for that evening. Taking the first available flight from Moscow to Arkhangelsk, we arrived on Monday, July 12, 2004, missing the first performance event. Consequently, we were invited to direct the site event for Tuesday evening, July 13, 2004, which would include all the participating dance groups.

Initially, we had hoped to create a site-specific work for Malye Karely, a village 25 km outside Arkhangelsk, an outdoor museum of ancient wooden architecture, churches, barns, windmills, and folk art assembled in the rolling hills. However, we came to agree with the producers that to build performances in the city would be more meaningful and would bring the program to a greater number of people. The audience would include those who came to see the event and those who would become a “found” audience - unintentional or coincidental participants.

Script for Merci Café and Environs: Arkhangelsk is a curious combination of urban life, paved streets and sidewalks, juxtaposed with natural unkempt grass, weeds, dirt pathways, and vacant buildings. For the performance, eleven “art” chairs from the cultural center would serve as basic objects for the performance. Each chair, painted with exaggerated designs in brilliant colors, provided a strong element to support the performance script. The event began in the trendy Café Merci in downtown Arkhangelsk. Audrey Chen, experimental musician, began playing cello and singing as Anthony Gongora danced among the patrons, interacting in various ways. Eventually the artists led the audience from the café to the second-floor balcony overlooking the park, the street and sidewalks below, and the field of tall grass. Sini, a dancer from Finland, had climbed to the top of a large tree, across the street, to retrieve a chair purposely planted there. After her precarious descent from the tree with the chair, ten dancers abruptly emerged from the bushes and trees, each carrying a chair, only to sit in a long line along the edge of the city street. Dancers were taking movement cues from Anthony on the balcony. Dancers interacted with each other and the traffic when it came down the service road. Eventually dancers with chairs crossed the street to occupy the outside entranceway to Café Merci. The entrance was a grouping of cement squares that had the exact dimensions of the legs of the chairs. The dancers with chairs improvised in this location using text, trading places, and building chair towers/sculptures. The local television camera person became involved in this segment of the actual event and participated, without previous planning, in the dialogue and the grouping and regrouping of the chair configuration. This segment and others were shown on the nightly news in Arkhangelsk that night. Audrey, the vocalist, was singing and playing cello in the elevated field of grass that occupied the entire corner of the city block/lot. The dancers moved slowly along the elevated rock wall and disappeared into the tall grass that was blowing gently in the breeze coming from the Dvina River. The dancers became visible when they climbed on the chairs and stood quietly, moving gently from side to side, then quickly and percussively reaching in a direction to catch an airborne “cotton” seed, then returning to their gentle swaying motion. One by one the dancers reclined in the tall grass. Suddenly, one figure was spinning in the grass, whirling one chair overhead, and eventually throwing the chair high into the air. Then silence! This street, these people, perhaps, might never view this block in the same way again. The television broadcast of the performance created at least a small buzz within Arkhangelsk.

The Arkhangelsk City Cultural Center, a large building that includes a café/bar, studios, and a 1000-seat theatre, was the center of activity for TOUCH3. During the week of the festival, a concert of Russian and/or international artists was presented each night. On Wednesday, July 14, 2004, the Dance Construction Company was featured on the GALA concert. Maida, Anthony, and Audrey performed a stage version of Thresholds Crossed in the Arkhangelsk City Theatre. The dance is an intensely dramatic new work based on extreme images of degradation and deprivation that will premiere in 2005. Withers sees some parallels between Russia’s Gulag and America’s Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. The choreography for Thresholds Crossed is very original and unusual, with the relationship of the two dancers on the dark side. The music features extreme vocals and cello sounds as the composer/musician slowly moves across the stage space through the dancers.

Once again, the people of Arkhangelsk graciously and enthusiastically received the performances by the Dance Construction Company. We have developed deep and strong feelings of kinship with the people of Arkhangelsk. Modern dance is very new to this city and region. We deeply appreciated the receptiveness of our host and the audience both in 2003 and 2004. We appreciated the opportunity to be on local television with our site performance and the subsequent interviews with the performers. The site event was featured in the local newspaper with a photo of Withers. There was an extensive interview with Maida Withers in the regional publication of the national Magazine Shokolat.

In addition to the Dance Construction Company, the festival featured performances by “Top Nine,” an all-male company of dancers and acrobats from St. Petersburg. The dancers performed hip hop and break dance moves to songs and music from various historic periods (church music, rap, Bach). Their back and shoulder spins were truly spectacular, a Russian “River Dance,” in the making. A mature dance, theatre, and music company from Switzerland, presented a complex multimedia performance involving continuous manipulation of sound throughout the production. Three Russian dance companies also presented original works. Members of the Dance Construction Company enjoyed seeing all of these performances and participating in the after-concert discussion forums.

Classes for TOUCH3 featured modern dance, contact improvisation, jazz, hip hop, and street dance in an attempt to bring the younger dancers to the festival this year. Students, mostly from Russia, included a mix of dancers and teachers with varied backgrounds in ballet, modern, and jazz, as well as actors, circus performers, gymnasts and others. There was a decided increase in younger students and adults participating in the classes this year. This shows important growth for the three-year old festival.

TOUCH3 was very well organized and successfully produced by Nikolai Schetnev, Elena Rogushina, and Vera Andreeva. We appreciated the opportunity to return to Arkhangelsk and continue to build a relationship there. In line with our view of the importance of reciprocity, Nikolai Schetnev will be a guest artist for the DC 10th International Improvisation Festival in Washington, DC, December 2004. Nataly Kasparov, Kannon Dance from St. Petersburg, will be a guest artist at The George Washington University in Washington, DC in October 2004.

Arkhangelsk, located on the beautiful Dvina River near the White Sea, was founded more than 300 years ago. It is a stopping-off place in the summer for thousands of tourists on their way to Solovki. Arkhangelsk (“city of archangels”) seems a most desirable setting for a successful international festival of dance.

On Friday, July 17, 2004, we boarded a small plane of the Arkhangelsk Airline for the one-hour trip to Solovki to participate in the ArtAngar Project, July 17 – 23, 2004. Commercial airlines fly only on Monday and Friday during the summer months. Due to
	limited airline space, several of the artists took a train to Kem and then went by boat to Solovki, a 25 to 30-hour trip. We were happy to arrive safely on the main island of Solovki. The runway was made of rectangular iron pieces that were screwed together to create the landing strip due to the harsh winters in Solovki. It was almost an art experience landing in such fashion and then ending on a circular pad of beautiful wood. There is one small building at the airport for weighing luggage, etc. A temporary tent is set up in the summer for tourists to be processed in an out of the airplane. Security at this time was minimal, since it was before the recent terrorist incident in at the school in Beslan, Russia. Security screening in Russia at the time was simple compared to that in the US or to the challenge of getting a Russian visa.
Arrival Solovki Airport

Solovki is important to Russians who visit there to remember and to worship. In preparation for our participation in ArtAngar, we researched thoroughly the fascinating and tortuous history of Solovki. From our research, we knew in our hearts that this was to be an unusual journey, a potential life-altering experience. “I feel much of my life has been a preparation for this opportunity,” says Withers. There would be no disappointment on our part, only a rush to find the importance of our being there at this time and for the future.

Solovki is a fascinating mix of paganism and orthodox Christianity, a gulag camp, and, now, a Center for Contemporary Art. To understand the importance of the Center for Contemporary Art, it is important to know something of the history of Solovki.

Solovki consists of six large islands and scores of smaller ones, islands situated in the White Sea 160 km below the Polar Circle. The White Sea is rich in natural and cultural treasures. The islands are “beautiful though severe landscapes (a mixture of thick taiga forests, seaside tundra and moss bogs), with glacial hills and ridges, countless lakes, northern berry-fields, summer white nights and winter twilight, with wonderful bird colonies. It is possible to discover the life of polar white whales, or belugas, which come annually to the Solovki Islands to reproduce and raise their young at Belugas Cape.” (Quotes are taken from information distributed by ArtAngar to participating artists.) The Nordic countries will build an observation tower to reduce harassment of the whales by curious tourists who come there by boat.

Scattered over the islands, especially the Anzer and Big Zayatsky (Hare) Islands, are prehistoric Neolithic settlements, stone labyrinths (the largest in Northern Europe), burial mounds, and other artifacts from 3000-1000 BC. We were privileged to carefully walk through two large labyrinths, bringing some imaginary gift into the center point or bringing energy out from the center to, perhaps, better our lives and/or the world. For many reasons, Solovki is regarded by many as a holy place. Neolithic Labyrinth – Zayatsky Island

The central structure in Solovki, past and present, is the Solovetsky Monastery, which dates back to the 15th century. It functioned as a monastery until 1920 and was reopened in 1990. “The monastery, founded by hermit monks, became an influential establishment that owned huge territories of land along the shores of the White Sea. The monastic architecture is presented by a historically shaped ensemble within the Kremlin walls and minor hermitages scattered around the islands. In 1992, the Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solovetsky Islands was recognized by UNESCO as a “world heritage site.”

The Monastery has often been a place of “involuntary confinement for political enemies of the Tsar, religious heretics, and political dissidents. By 1917 there were 300 people imprisoned there, many in solitary confinement. With the victory of the revolution, the monastery was closed but the prison boomed! The Monastery was turned into the gulag headquarters. The cathedrals became prison cells and monastic living quarters and chapels served as punishment blocks and execution chambers. At Sekirnaya Hill (Hatchet mountain), in the Church of Ascension (which was also a lighthouse) atop the hill, prisoners were systematically tortured and killed.” These atrocities were written about by renowned Russia writer, Alexandra Solzhenitsyn, in his award winning book, Gulag Archipelago.

Kremlin Wall “Tower”–Gulag Prison

“The Solovetsky Special Camp is considered a prototype for the gulag, the forced labor camps that later appeared around the Soviet Union under Stalin’s rule. This camp was neither the biggest nor most brutal, yet it became a model camp where the NKVD developed and tested security measures, living conditions, production norms for prisoners, and all possible methods of repression. The number of prisoners who went through the camp during 1923-1939 ranges between tens and hundreds of thousands.” The Solovki gulag was shut down in 1939 to make way for a naval base. Prisoners were sent back to the mainland where some were killed while others were relocated to gulags throughout Russia. In the 1930s perhaps ten percent of the Russian population lived in gulags. This repressive system continued in some form in Russia until 1985. The gulag could not be discussed until the collapse of the Soviet Union when Mikhail Gorbachev came to power.

“Solovki has always been significant for Russia. Currently the monastery is being renewed (re-opened in 1990) and the museum-reserve (opened in l967) is in charge of conservation, restoration and popularization of the history and architecture. The islands are viewed as a historically significant space.” Barrack houses and other buildings built by the gulag prisoners, 1925 to 1939, continue in use in Solovki. The Monastery and the gulag museum are important destinations for Russians and other tourists. The Monastery, currently housing approximately 40 monks, and the museum are under the control and supervision of the Russian Cultural Ministry.

In addition to the monastic and gulag elements, Solovki is known as “an island in the vanguard of the times, an island that had free economic and informational contacts with the rest of the world….a place where people would go in their search for different kinds of meaning. Technical achievements include the building of the first Russian stone harbor and the first dry docks, the second hydroelectric power station in Russia (1912), and a remarkable hydraulic engineering system (channels, dams, floodgates, and other land-improving systems) on three islands.”

ArtAngar Center for Contemporary Art

an architecture monument of 1925, that was built during the gulag period by prisoners. The building is a true example of the best of Russian constructivism.” This amazing architectural feat is the only remaining example of 30 such buildings constructed. The effect of the warm Gulf Stream in the area assists in the preservation of the wooden structures in all of Solovki. In 1925, the hydroplane was used to transport food and other necessities from the mainland to the gulag, and was also used for patrolling and/or searching for escaped prisoners. Unfortunately, the building was declared “off limits” for the 2004 festival because it is scheduled for renovation in 2005. We were privileged to enter the building, briefly, for video taping for the art video project.

The festival arranged for us to rent a home while we were there. About 50% of the homes do not have running water. However, there are natural springs, with wooden barn coverings, located everywhere around the island where people come with their buckets to draw water. Our first home was rife with the smell of cat odor throughout the dwelling. We soon learned that animals in Solovki are treated with great respect. Wherever you go you come into contact with animals that roam freely. The gardens are fenced off to keep the animals out rather than the animals being fenced in. Cows, goats, dogs, and cats roam on the streets, in the entrance to the monastery, near the lake and the sea, etc. By the second day we were comfortably located in home in the center of the community.

Lunch, provided by our hosts at the school cafeteria, consisted of delicious cabbage soup, rice, fresh tomatoes and fine Russian black bread. There were three cafes located on the island: two connected to hotels and one located in the central area of the community near the street market and the grocery store. Food is very cheap in Russia especially at the grocery stores. The problem in Solovki is that most food must be imported. The menus at the cafes were strictly Russian and featured soup, fish, chicken, eggs, tomatoes, juice, and, of course, Russian beer and vodka. Many of our planning sessions took place in a cafe we lovingly called “The Blue Café” due to it unusually bright blue color.

Luba graciously provided guided tours for all of the artists through the Monastery and other historic locations. Luba’s passionate and detailed descriptions of the monastic and gulag life were recorded by Lewett for our Russian television project, “Under the Radar,” a documentary of dance and dancers in Russia today. In the Monastery there are three churches ranging from simple functional architecture to more complex structures in the Transfiguration Cathedral. The sweeping arched rooms of the original dining hall and the dark and damp quarters in the base of the Kremlin towers made our imaginations run wild as we considered our video art project and possible site performances.

Spaso-Preobrazhensky (Transfiguration) Cathedral
Solovetsky Monastery

In Solovki, the Kremlin is a combination of plastered and painted red brick with a base of huge rocks often weighing into the tons. The small hermitages were constructed of plastered red brick painted white. Solovki is known for having oversized red bricks that were produced only in Solovki. The roofs of the buildings were constructed of tin or wood that was weathered to a rich deep grey tone. The houses built by the gulag, a sort of dormitory style architecture, were constructed of natural smooth wood that is also aged to a deep grey tone. Wood is plentiful in the forests near Arkhangelsk as well as the islands. We were able to go inside most of the areas of the Monastery with Luba as our guide.

Church of Andrew Pervozvanniy St. Andrews Church

Luba arranged for the artists to take a two and ½ hour boat trip to Zayatsky Island (The Hare’s Island) that houses St. Andrew’s Church. St. Andrew was the patron saint of Peter. St. Andrew’s Church was built, under the direction of Peter the Great in 1702,just one year before the founding of St. Petersburg. There are two large labyrinths on the island, perhaps the largest in Northern Europe. Dancers improvised in the rocks, the labyrinths, and along the seashore for the video camera and other tourists on the island. In the evening the dancers from Russia, Finland, and the USA met to discuss the structure of our one-week residency in Solovki. Where would the site performances be located? How would the events be planned and coordinated? What ideas did the various groups want to propose? How could we build community, bring the people, children, and adults of the island into the performance projects? How many events would be possible? The previously agreed-on schedule was about to change.

Luba broke the disappointing news to us that she had been informed, on her arrival in Solovki that day, that a petition supposedly freely signed by 3000 Russians had been received by the Russian Ministry of Cultural requesting that the monastery and any/all hermitages/chapels on the islands and the ArtAngar historic building be declared off limits for ArtAngar performances and/or workshops in the summer of 2004. The claim was that 3000 Russians were against any performances by the Center for Contemporary Dance programs in these locations. The justification for the closing of the former hydroplane building, in use by the Center since 2000, was that the building was scheduled for repair in the summer of 2005, i.e., next summer. In previous years, the center had been open all day for the public - islanders and visitors - to participate in art projects, lectures, performances, etc. This was a potentially devastating blow, especially for the youth of Solovki. Fortunately, the dance programs intended to create several site events, and there were more than enough other places for such activities on the islands. This last minute action/claim by the Ministry of Culture may indicate a basic resistance of the government to support anything that strengthens the establishment of a “community” on the island. Further, it may indicate resistance to the development of free expression and communication of values and ideas through the contemporary arts, including dance. We knew, then, that we could not build public performances for these spaces, but we would plan to explore these spaces, as all tourists do every day, for artistic documentation for our video project.

Maida Withers Sekirnaya Hill

high above the mainland. This prison was designated for the most spirited and rebellious political prisoners. This is where the most brutal punishment took place in the gulag. Prisoners were forced to do hard labor but were given little food. Prisoners were forced to balance on poles and if they fell off, their prison sentences were increased. Prisoners were isolated and put into mosquito cages. Prisoners covered with water froze to death when forced to stand outside in the harsh winters. Outside the Church of Ascension (prison) there are 294 wooden steps on a steep incline ending at the bottom of the hill. It was claimed that for ultimate cruel punishment and/or to inflict death, a log would be tied on the back of a prisoner and they would be pushed/thrown down the stairs. The government of Norway has restored the stairs at Sekirnaya Hill so that these stories will not be forgotten. The Dance Construction Company performed a segment for the art video there.

Anthony Gongora & Nikolai Schetnev

The artists would return to the monastery from Sekiranya Hill by row boat, passing through three freshwater lakes and canals. Solovetsky Island does not have rivers, but it has hundreds of lakes. In the 16th century, monks started to connect lakes with canals. The lakes are connected by canals that were dug by the monks and lined, along both sides, with very large rocks - a daunting task. The Dance Construction Company boat included Linda Lewett, camera, Maida Withers, Anthony Gongora, and Nikolai Schetnev, dancers. We shot extensive video footage for our art project during the boat trip, a truly unforgettable experience. The video shoot was a great success, including Anthony’s fall off the bow of the boat. The camera was saved from a dunk in the brink when Lewett, the filmmaker, fell.

A total of five site-specific events were created and performed during ArtAngar:

ArtBarn - Event #1

washed hotel sheets) that employed a battery-operated light to create mystery and drama in the space. The audience viewed the performance from the first room. We closed all doors so the audience would share in the trapped situation with limited air or light. There were many objects in the room that we used for the performance: the cellist/vocalist was situated on top of the pool table at the rear of the room in front of light seeping through the wooden slats of the barn; a dancer was suspended in the attic of the barn on a ladder; a box of rusty nails became a sound score as they were lifted and dropped in the bucket; the clothes lines of sheets distorted the view of the dancers’ bodies, feet, and heads. The resulting performance was like a nightmare, a tragic memory of something real drawn from the distant past. The event continued outside with a solo by Nikolai Schetnev, a group work on the rooftops of three wooden barns by Kannon Dance and a performance by the dancers from Finland that included a colorful tent that moved from the field by the campers toward the audience. The event culminated in a ritual in a large mud puddle where Audrey, the vocalist/cellist, became trapped as others threw rocks splashing into the water.

Audrey Chen - Event #2

The audience gathered on the cement road running past the chapel, one of a few such roads on the island. Audrey, the musician, located on the second level of scaffolding, was playing the cello and singing a classical Bach piece. Two dancers with The Dance Construction Company had, previously, danced, entering and exiting, through the windows. Two Finnish dancers began a duet performance in the far distance, moving closer and closer over a period of fifteen to twenty minutes. Eventually, dancers danced in and among the audience. Pia pulled rose petals from her pockets and tossed them on the road. Audrey, at this point, was singing and playing in a distinctly contemporary/experimental manner. All other dancers were to join in a “parade” leading the audience up the hill to a showing of dance video created by the artist participants. However, at the last minute the local authorities informed us that the room had been rescheduled for another purpose. Surprise can become a way of life in Russia. Later that evening video art works by the visiting dance companies were shown to introduce these ideas in Solovki.

Audience Drawing Event #3

chalk on the outside of the historic grey wooden building. Eight or nine ominous partial human figures were drawn, revealing the locals’ deep understanding of the demons that may have resided there at some earlier time, or even now. Then, ten women from the community performed seven events in various locations of the Industrial Zone. These events had been created during a workshop with The Dance Construction Company in the following areas: rusted flat-bed boat on the shore; woodpile of tree trunk for planting and throwing poles; metal scraps used as sound and movement instruments, pipes dragged on cement that triggered, jumping, and freezing; large running round and rectangular cement forms accommodating appearing and disappearing; tableaus against a long white building; sequence of movements in silhouette in a line on the top of poles stacked at the sawmill. This event culminated in a sound performance between two artists located on the top platform of two five-story steel towers. The artists, Audrey and Nikolai, climbed the zigzag of stairs to the top of the towers and then used rocks and pipes to create sound by pounding and scarping on the steel surfaces, combining these sounds with the human voice. This performance was very effective owing to its location in the silence of nature at the seashore.

Audrey Chen – Event #4

The director of Kannon Dance began to tell mythic stories about this port as dancers danced in the field to his fanciful stories. Dance performances took place in several locations including an old airplane, a pile of logs, an old boat resting on the land out of the water, etc. Audrey Chen came by boat from a distant island about a mile off the shore, playing cello and singing as she was rowed to shore. Kannon Dancers portrayed the actions of mermaids/beautiful women luxuriating on large rocks in the bay while the “musical” boat in the background. Audrey exited the boat and climbed on the rock to wash her face. The musician, with white face makeup, climbed from the boat and performed a ritual of cleansing in the water of the White Sea. The entire event culminated in a dance on the pier with the beautiful White Sea and the brilliant blue sky as the backdrop.

Industrial Zone – Tower

our experiences in Solovki and our appreciation to the many adults and youth who had been coming diligently each night to see us perform. The site we selected in the Industrial Zone, the base of an abandoned building, consisted of a smooth 20’ x 20’ cement floor framed by two partially standing intersecting red brick walls that varied in height from 5’ to 8’. We spent the entire afternoon working at the site, building six sculptures (installations) from a large array of fragments/remnants (metal strips, wood, canisters, pipes, metal doors, bed frames, glass and cement forms, weeds, flowers) left over from the Industrial Zone factories and natural foliage suffering from overgrowth and neglect. We were reassembling as installation and sculptures the abandoned vision for the Industrial Zone established there in 1988 and abandoned in 1992. Benches were constructed for the audience from wood planks and rocks. Pia from Finland   began the event by sweeping the stage with a handmade broom of sticks determined to have one spot in Solovki that was clean for even just one moment. The dust in the restaurants and houses, everywhere, is an accepted reality as are the ever present mosquitoes. The tent from the first performance made a second appearance on the cement

stage with ten artists inside counting, in unison, from ten to one over and over in various represented languages. Out of the now discarded ten, dancers formed the shape of a boat with a Russian dancer seated in the center making a repetitive rowing action with her body and arms. Each artist performed a personal movement and text story of arrival in this magical place called Solovki. We concluded this by standing quietly and reverently in a tight group, shoulder to shoulder, in honor of the monastery and its influence on the spirit there. At that moment, ten young Solovki teenage girls, workshop participants, broke up this reverence by running from all of parts the audience to join us. Two large cookies were passed around the group by hand and by mouth with people trying desperately to get the “sacrament” by taking a bite. Our bodies passed closely and chaotically. The group began to shuffle together through the space.

“Blue Café” Planning, Event #5

At the conclusion of this, the fifth and final performance, Luba Kusovnikova, Director of ArtAngar, expressed it this way: "I want to thank you, all the participants of the festival. It was a real pleasure to have you here for this week. It was great to be with you and see how you express all your impressions from this place in your dancing. We learned a lot from you and you learned a lot from the Solovki environment. And I don't think this will be the last meeting with Solovki for you. Thank you very much."

One of the most astonishing realities in Solovki are the White Nights. The Sun seems not to go down but, instead, glides below visibility for an hour or so and then returns. It is truly energizing to experience the power of light in Solovki. During the short period of the White Nights, people stay up all night and during the grey time of night build fires for warmth and also to cook fish from the sea. We especially enjoyed the delicacy of uncooked (raw) Solovki herring that was served to us immediately after being caught from the White Sea.

Yevgeny, one of the founders of ArtAngar, convinced us to travel at night with him for 3 ½ hours by boat to Kuzova Island, an astonishingly beautiful place where one can stand in the center of the island and have a complete view of the White Sea surrounding the island. At midnight, ten of us boarded the small motor boat and departed for Kuzova. Magically, the White Sea and the White Night sky became one with no distinguishable horizon line. After leaving the motor boat and rowing to the shore, we climbed the large and precariously situated rocks and slogged through the green tundra to finally arrive at a large prehistoric labyrinth about 50 meters in circumference that was located on the top of the island. Two people at a time would walk the labyrinth maze trying to keep balance and a consistent pace. It is an astonishing discovery to find a labyrinth especially under the light of the White Nights. Who were these ancient people? How did they get here? Why did they construct these labyrinths? What purpose(s) might they serve then and now?

Audrey had scaled the rocks to get to the top of the island, carrying her cello. As the Sun began to rise out of the White Sea, she sang and played the cello at the top of the world on the top of the island – all in the name of making art and communicating with the universe. We had planned to do more filming, but the mosquitoes were unbearable even with our bodies covered with pants, long sleeves, boots, and, of course, deet (antimosquito lotion) smeared on our faces, hands, legs, and bodies. Dancers had carried our bags of costumes in vain. There was simply no chance to perform. Back at the seashore, around the campfire, we enjoyed a meal of hot dogs, bread, tomatoes, cucumbers, vodka, and fresh green tea made from three greens located on the island.

The White Sea is an amazing and exquisite companion for the White Nights. We were told that the White Sea is like a cup where water comes inside and then spills back over the edge. The sea was calm as we made our way back to Solovki to prepare to leave the island by 3:00 PM that day.

Sunset – Solovki, Russia


The Solovki Islands are a rare and unusual place, a place of extremes found in nature and in man. Controversy continues between the power of the state, the power of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the power of the people. The Ministry of Culture has control of official spaces and the Russian Orthodox Church has a presence with 40 monks who conduct services in the churches and the monastery, and discharge other duties. Some citizens own or rent houses and are able to find a life around the other dominating realities. ArtAngar continues to establish a presence for contemporary art and a forum for dialogue about life in Solovki. The Russians who have found a new life in Solovki have strong ideas and opinions about the purpose of their new-found home. Solovki searches for a delicate balance.

Anthony Gongora & Maida Withers Solovki, Russia – July 2004

As artists, we came with our well-intentioned curiosity and our dances and we left in awe of our experiences. No one will ever be the same. We appreciate the commitment of organizations and individuals whose support made the tour in Russia possible. This year marks the Dance Construction Company’s 8th year of association with artists and citizens of Russia. It has been a pleasure to bring Russians to Washington, DC. The stage is being set for a rich and fertile period of expression through contemporary dance in Russia. It has been a privilege to be part of this important period of development in Russia. We look forward to continued opportunity for open and full exchange.

Internet Sources about Solovki Islands, Russia:

http://eng.solovki.ru/
http://belomorsk.karelia.ru/eng/solovki/
http://www.anatol.org/projects/travel/russia/solovki-archipelago.html
http://cr.middlebury.edu/public/russian/Bulgakov/public_html/Solovki.html
http://www.anatol.org/images/russia/2002/solovki/index.html
http://www.anatol.org/blarch/2003/07/solovki_my_love.html
http://www.cinemafoundation.com/free04/fff04_lucky.html