Dance biography

    I want to tell you about myself, how I came to the dance world and my development in the field of contemporary dance.

       My interest in dance began at an early age: from age 5 I was involved in artistic gymnastics, and from school age I continued to take rhythmic and pop dance and music lessons at the Lundstrem Children’s Musical School #16, in Kazan, and simultaneously studied fine arts at the Children’s School of the Arts #3. Dance for me gradually took on meaning as my main and favorite form of creative self-expression.

        After finishing my general education in secondary school I decided to choose choreography as my profession and entered the faculty of Choreographic Art at Kazan State University of Culture and the Arts (KSUCA), studying from 2004 – 2009.This was a conscious decision for my further development in the realm of dance. My bachelor’s degree included a five-year training in dance, in practical disciplines: contemporary dance, composition, improvisation, etc., and in the theoretical disciplines: history of choreography, culturology, sociology, psychology, etc. At the university I received an intensive foundations program, including the basic knowledge and skills which help me in further developing my body, and in carrying out instructional as well as composition work, whether with individuals or groups. At KSUCA I had the experience in dance composition class of performing my own work on a theme provided by the instructor with the participation of other students of the choreography department. From 2005 – 08 I produced choreographic “shorts” in the genre of dance theater, including “Night,” “Tango,” “The unknown about the known,” and “A small problem,” in which I posed the problem of conveying as exactly as possible the idea through expressive means of choreography and theater.

            My university studies showed me a way of understanding how important it is to work with one’s body properly, to master it, to know its construction and on this basis to expand its possibilities, to develop and understand its movement, to find one’s own language of movement and to speak in that language.

         On finishing university I received the specialization, Art Director of Choreographic Companies, Teacher; which qualifies me to train others in dance, to be involved in the work of composition and production, to work as a rehearsal and practice coach or tutor, and engage in performance.

            I studied contemporary dance techniques and the art of choreography not only at university, but also in the “Tsekh” Summer School of Dance, in Moscow, organized by the Russian Association of Dance Theaters. Instructors from around the world, including Sahar Azimi (Israel), Maja Delak (Slovenia), Ana Buitrago (Spain), Virpi Junti (Finland), and others, came there and conducted master classes in various disciplines of contemporary dance: contemporary, somatic, composition, improvisation. The knowledge gained from this three-week training during the summers of 2006 – 08 improved my physical preparation and expanded my outlook on the art of composition.

           Also I studied one year in a professional dance education program in North Karelia College, in Outokumpu, Finland. The program, conducted in English, leads to a recognized vocational qualification in dance.

       I want to mention about my teaching experience. While studying at KSUCA I worked as an instructor and choreographer with children, teaching them rhythmic and pop dance (Children’s School of Music #16, from 2005 – 06; Center for Child Creativity, in 2008) and from 2008 – 09 worked with students not specializing in dance at Kazan State University (KSU), where I conducted lessons in contemporary dance and staged dance numbers for student festivals and competitions for the choreographic collective, “Sakura,” which was affiliated with the History Department at KSU. This work was helpful to me, since I was able to apply the theoretical knowledge I gained at university in practice: in creating plans for technical and practice lessons, distributing the instructional load across sessions, carrying out pedagogical conversation with participants.

       I spent a year in the United States (2010-2011) in an intensive English language program. This was important to me, not only as a way to prepare me for future studies in dance in North America, but to prepare me for future international collaborations. 

      In the future, I hope to dance professionally, to teach dance to a new generation of dancers, to engage in choreography of new dance pieces, and to develop international collaborations and partnerships that will help to promote the field of contemporary dance in my home country, Russia.