The story behind
Aleksander is a dancer and physical theatre performer from Kharkiv, Ukraine. With his partner Maria Koreneva they co-founded the Eleffant-Foot physical theatre in 2006, which has masterminded many actor-devised theatre spectacles, in Ukraine and internationally. He has also spearheaded several educational projects, dedicated to teaching physical theatre, group devising, neutral mask, character development and the infamous red nose performance throughout Ukraine.
In March 2022 after the war broke out in Ukraine, together with his wife and their two children, they moved to Vilnius, Lithuania so they could find a safe place to live and their kids could continue their education.
Through their eyes
“Thanks to MakersXchange and the financial support we received, we were able to keep our artistic practice moving forward, despite being displaced from Kharkiv, Ukraine. We are currently based in Vilnius, Lithuania where we continue to create work based on our experience of war, as it is. For all of August and September, we have been working on a creation of a short film entitled ‘Де Ти?’ (“Where are you?”). This film deals with the emotional states created by being thrown into near-death experiences. When you realise that life will never be the same, we experience shock, grief and disbelief, sometimes we accept, sometimes we fight. Our language is movement, and our goal was to find a corporeal/ physical form/ choreography to match our emotions and share these emotions with our audience. With the financial support that we received, we were able to bring a Ukrainian dancer, Eva Sai to join the production, as well as enlist two Lithuanian-based dancers, Elmyra Ragimova and Nikita Berezko. Sandro Garibashvili was the choreographer and one of the main dancers. The film was directed by Maria Koreneva, a Ukrainian-born actress and director. We researched the theme together in complicity finding the truthful state and its embodiment, in parallel we researched locations and wrote the script. We were lucky to receive a residency and permission to film at Menu Spaustuve, a Vilnius dance and circus hub, as well as two outdoor locations. Our talented film crew, filming equipment and lights were provided at a modest cost by Evaldas Arlauskas. We plan on screening the film at the end of October in Vilnius, and making it available online in November of 2022. Thank you for your support and interest in the arts!”
More about Aleksander Garibashvili
Teaching Experience
2019-21 5th Floor Studios Physical Theatre School, Kharkiv, UA/ Kiev, UA.
2019 CORRUPT:OFF, Youth Anti Corruption Musical, Poltava, UA.
2016 Pie of Parallel Realities – UA/DK co-production, dedicated to Donbass war Refugees, Kharkiv, UA, Actor Devising workshop leader.
2015 Organiser of the experimental performance festival; ‘Me and Sela Brook,’ Kharkiv UA.
2015-16 Performance Art Semester Course Teacher at the Academy for Visual Arts, Kharkiv, UA.
2014-15 The Comedy Workshop – a 4 month educational project in the territory of Commedia Dell’arte, clown and bouffon. Kharkov, UA.
2011-12 Hartenberg International Theatre festival – Performance workshop leader. Hartenberg, CZ.
2007-09 Actors playground – Ongoing creative movement and physical performance training, with an emphasis on Mask Play, Commedia Dell’arte and ensemble creation.
Artistic Experience
2022 Birds – Dance Theatre Film (uncompleted) Kiev UA.
2022 The Hill – a Film based on poetic rituals, Producer, Director. Kharkiv UA.
2016-20 Vocalist at the Gulliver’s Thunder Machine music band.
2017 BMP – Video Art Performance, loosely based on the Epic of Gilgamesh.
2016 The Whale – Performance – Porto Franco Performance Festival.
2015 Gza Unda Dzala – Performance – Ermilov Centre.
2014 12 Songs of Freedom. Kharkiv, UA. Dance, vocal performance.
2008 A.W.O.L – Physical Bouffon piece, based on the events of the 2003 Iraq War.
2007 Mezza Verita – physical theatre performance.
2006 010101 – physical theatre performance.
2006 Don Quixote or Two Figs for the Great Captain – physical theatre performance.
Other Projects
2000 Studio TAM, Chekhov’s ‘The Bear’ – Ivanov – Lead.
1999 European Repertory theatre co – “The Duel” by Anton Chekhov, Steppenwolf Studio. Supporting Role -The Innkeeper.
1998 Theatre Studio ‘TAM’ – ‘Don Juan’ (Moliere) Lead Role – Sganarelle.
1991 ‘Immigranti’ – Off Broadway Musical – Ensemble Member – Musical Theatre (New York, USA).
1987 ‘The house of Ghosts’ Mosfilm, Moscow Film Studio (Moscow, Russia) Supporting role.
Andrii Koshman is the head of Nova Opera, a contemporary opera group of artists. MakersXchange Ukrainian Artists & Creatives Support Program has provided them a recording studio to help them record their upcoming projects.
The story behind
Andrii Koshman is the head of Nova Opera, a group of Ukrainian artists aiming to find new ways of developing music for the theatre. They are involved in creation of the new synthetic genres and experiment with untypical music and stage performances.
In April 2022, Andrii together with his colleagues was forced to leave Ukraine and relocated to Greece.
Through their eyes
“Thanks to the Ukrainian artists and creatives grant and support program, this summer I took part in the Lotte Lehmann Summer Opera Academy in Perleberg, Germany. It is an intimate and intensive summer program preparing opera singers for professional work in the world of opera. During that time I took voice lessons and master classes, worked with coaches, pianists and directors, while also attended language coaching and german lessons. I set up a recording studio in Athens at BIOS/Romantso which was also provided by the program and made recordings of works by modern Ukrainian composers for baritone, cello and piano. Also, in September with soloists of Nova Opera, we made a live-stream performance for Fade Radio in Athens. On September 28 with the cellist Zhanna Marchinska we are taking part in the Insieme Festival in Rome with Danish-Ukrainian pianist Elisabeth Neilsen. Now we are working closely on the creation of a new project, within the framework of which a documentary film will be shot about the creation of our next opera. The first shootings have already been completed. The estimated dates for the premiere of our project is around February-March 2023, in Athens."
More about Andrii Koshman and Nova Opera
Since 2014 NOVA OPERA created and staged numerous productions: opera-requiem “IYOV” (based on the Book of Job), overnight opera “UnSimple” (based on the novel of Taras Prohasko), opera-circus “BABYLON”, in which circus artists take part, opera-ballet “ARK”, trap-opera “Wozzeck” (collaboration with Ukrainian poet Yurii Izdryk), drama per musica “Hamlet” (collaboration with Ivano-Frankivsk Music and Drama Theatre), futuristic opera “AEROPHONIA”, opera-dystopia “GAZ”(collaboration with Yara Arts Group, director Virlana Tkacz, choreographer Simon Mayer), PhD-opera “What is Zarathustra silent on”(libretto based on the philosophical novel by Friedrich Nietzsche “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”). In February, 2021 Re:post-opera “LE” (based on the poetry of Lesya Ukrainka) was presented in Kyiv. The first production of NOVA OPERA was improvisation opera “Coriolanus” based on the tragedy by William Shakespeare.
According to Music Theatre NOW competition in 2018 opera-requiem “IYOV” became one of TOP-10 contemporary operas among 436 participants from 55 countries. It was performed in Paris (France), Copenhagen (Denmark), at The V Festival of Traditional and Avant-garde Music CODES (Lublin, Poland), The Gdansk Shakespeare Theatre, Musikverein (Vienna, Austria), May Opera Evenings Festival (Skopje, Macedonia), PROTOTYPE opera festival in New York and Operadagen Rotterdam.
Key Takeaways
MAX (Makers’ eXchange) project is a pilot policy project, co-funded by the European Union, that aims to define and test policies and actions supporting the mobility and exchanges of experience between the cultural and creative industries, creative hubs, maker-spaces, fab-labs and formal and non-formal learning and skills development systems in a cross-sectoral way and embed makers’ mobility schemes for skills development and inclusion into mainstream CCIs support programmes, policies and ecosystems across Europe.
Name
Aleksander (Sandro) Garibashvili
Current location
Vilnius, Lithuania
Professional field
Physical theatre, dance, film
