Vlad Troitskyi, with the Dakh Daughters & Tetiana Troitska

Direction: Vlad Troitskyi
With: Tetiana Troitska and the Dakh Daughters (Natacha Charpe, Natalia Halanevych, Ruslana Khazipova, Solomia Melnyk and Anna Nikitina)
Lighting design: Astkhik Hryhorian
Translation: Irina Dmytrychyn
Executive Production: Le Préau CDN de Normandie-Vire
With the support of the Ministy of Culture Ministère de la Culture/DRAC Normandie, of la Fonderie au Mans and of Dakh Theatre, Kyiv, Ukraine
Co-production: l’Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe – Paris ; Théâtre National de Strasbourg ; Le Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne ; Les Quinconces et L’Espal – Scène nationale du Mans avec La Fonderie au Mans ; Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg

The proceeds from this Nomadic Night will be donated to the France-Ukraine association.

In exile in France following the Russian invasion of their native land, the Ukrainian singers and actresses of Dakh Daughters and director Vlad Troitskyi have hurriedly created Macabre Dance as an act of resistance in response to the current war, and as a means of bearing witness and making a stand.

“If I don’t burn, I don’t live.
If I don’t love, I don’t sing.
But I don’t know it yet
Because I am here
Still in flames
Because I am here
Still in flames.”
Excerpt from Macabre Dance

In March 2022, Dakh Daughters and Vlad Troitskyi were welcomed by the Préau CDN in Normandy-Vire after fleeing the war in their country. Through their art, they wanted to continue to take a stand against the war, while bearing witness to what is happening in their homeland. Together, they have created a new show with a similar esthetic to their previous Freak Cabaret, recounting their experience of exile and the violence of the conflict currently taking place in Ukraine. Punctuated by excerpts from The Book of Job, and interwoven with songs and accounts of the war, Macabre Dance is a frontal, intimate, and mythical journey to the heart of a conflict raging a few thousand kilometers from our borders. It is also an ode to peace.

Biographies

Vlad Troitskyi was born in Russia and grew up in Ukraine. In Kyiv, he studied at the Polytechnic School while performing on stage. After studying at the GITIS in Moscow, he returned and founded the Dakh Theatre, an independent Ukrainian theatre company. He is an actor, director, producer, set designer and artistic director. He founded the DakhaBrakha, the Dakh Daughters, the group NovaOpera, TseSho, the great contemporary art festival “GogolFest” which he presides. His shows tour in France and internationally where he also creates numerous projects, notably in Hungary, Poland and Germany. In recent years he has won prestigious prizes, such as the Shevchenko National Prize for his opera-requiem IYOV (based on the Book of Job) in 2020. In 2018, he received the distinction of Officier des Arts et des Lettres. In France, he created Viï - le roi terre at the Théâtre de la Ville, as well as in Switzerland at the Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne, and toured La maison des chiens at the Théâtre Monfort.

Tetiana Troitska was born in Kyiv in 1975. She is an actress in the Dakh theatre company. From 1981 to 1987, she studied at the Classical Ballet Studio. In 1990, Tetiana continued her studies at the Anatolyi Cherkov Studio Theatre. From 1996 to 1999, she studied directing and acting at the DAKH contemporary art center. In 2002, Tetiana graduated from the acting and directing programme of the Moscow Art Theatre. She is a director of documentary films, such as A Little Prince (2004) and Prologue (2005). As an actress, she played the main roles in numerous plays directed by Volodymyr Ogloblin and numerous plays in Ukraine, France and internationally directed by Vlad Troitskyi. She acted in the last two opera creations of Vlad Troitskyi, IYOV and BABYLON.

The Dakh Daughters (Natacha Charpe, Natalia Halanevych, Ruslana Khazipova, Solomia Melnyk et Anna Nikitina) created with Vlad Troitskyi an apocalyptic cabaret with texts by Iossip Brodski, Charles Bukowski, William Shakespeare, Taras Shevchenko, Alexander Vendenski... This show is made up of timeless songs and stories from the distant regions of the Carpathians. With power and humanity, the musical actors express the need for freedom of these citizens born in changing worlds and the need for revolt leads them to take action against bitterness and resignation. In 2016 and 2017, they collaborated with Stéphane Ricordel for his show Terabak. Since 2015, they have collaborated with Lucie Berelowitsch in the show Antigone. They will be in her next creation, Les Géants de la Montagne, which will premiere in January 2023 at the Théâtre national de Bordeaux en Aquitaine.