In August 2022 the UA Contemporary dance platform initiated the creation of a digital hub to collect dance videos from Ukrainian dancers and choreographers — LET THE BODY SPEAK – YouTube. Videos that were shot after February 24, 2022 are posted on the YouTube platform. Each of them is accompanied by a description in Ukrainian, English, German, French and Polish. In this way, the whole world will see the video expressions of Ukrainian dancers.
“The human body is an “archive” that stores impressions of all the events that happen to it during its lifetime. Based on this scientifically proven idea, we decided to create a video archive of works, movement practices, and discussions of Ukrainian choreographers and dancers during the war” — Anton Ovchinnikov, author of the idea and manager of the “Let the body speak” project.
The YouTube channel is a part of the Let the Body Speak project (https://danceplatform.org.ua/let-the-body-speak-en), there are educational program and productions of performances as well. Since August 2022 year, at least 500 choreographers and dancers have taken part in online lectures and masterclasses. Two performances were created at the beginning of 2023 and touring in Ukraine and Lithuania this fall.
“It is important for us that more people around the world learn about Ukrainian dance during the war. Body language is a universal language that expresses our reactions and reflections. Through dance, we can learn more about each other, understand and feel more as well. We hope that viewers of the “Let the body speak” YouTube channel can feel solidarity and respect for the Ukrainian people, who continue to develop culture, thus bringing Victory closer.” — notes project manager, Oleksandr Manshylin.
The project was presented to international audiences in Switzerland, France, Finland, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, Romania, Lithuania, Ireland, Check Republic and USA.
Due to relations with the international community, which were created by the president of UA contemporary Dance platform Anton Ovchinnikov, the project was supported by The Place (Great Britain) as a part of UK/Ukraine Season of Culture by British Council Ukraine together with Ukrainian Institute in the beginning. The Trust for Mutual Understanding and Movement Research from the USA joined the project later. And now the project gets support from the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.
“The initiative to share Ukrainian dance during the war among the world has got a lot of positive feedback and let us build new partnerships.
We had collaboration in Denmark with Ukrainian Dialogue, Crossing Borders and Youth Democracy House, with Dance Camera Istanbul (Turkey), Lublin Dance Festival (Poland), Lithuanian Dance Information
Center, Tanec Praha (Check republic) and others” — comments communication manager Let the Body Speak project Viktoriia Khoroshylova.
The UA Contemporary dance platform invites viewers to support the project and dancers by placing a link to a Patreon account and a link to the dancers’ social media accounts under each video. In this way, viewers, colleagues, and institutions, can contact the project participants personally and invite them to
cooperate.
More than 200 videos were received for the moment. Since the beginning of the project, more than 170 videos were published and watched at least 30 000 times, during 1300 hours from all over the world.
The organizers will accept videos until the last day of the war, creating an opportunity for dancers to work and develop their practice. The UA Contemporary dance platform continues to do what it started back in
2015 — to support the development of the dance community in Ukraine.
The Let the Body Speak project organized by “Contemporary Dance Platform” (Ukraine), which is supported by the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and the organization “Trust for Mutual Understanding” (USA).
