yurodifice
These days, there’s not a Russian song that isn’t about war. This latest imperialist oppression has dropped Russian citizens into a fundamental crisis of identity. The same person can be victim and aggressor at once; the sense of self dissolves and what remains is internal fury, despair and sorrow. In this situation, the fool (‘’yurodiviy’’, ‘’skomorokh’’) is the sole form of salvation and purification. In an interplay of madness and melancholy, the fool symbolises holy power, sacrifice and freedom. In this theatre-video performance, Tatar-Russian choreographer Nazar Rakhmanov investigates, in cooperation with queer-punk musician Leonid Kotel'nikov (aka fake_trailers), the consequences of being broken on the inside and internally displaced.
Credits
director Nazar Rakhmanov in colaboration with Leonid Kotel’nikov aka fake_trailers performers Nazar Rakhmanov, Leonid Kotel’nikov costumes and scenogrpahy Alexey Leont’ev, Nazar Rakhmanov montage and sound: Nazar Rakhmanov camera: Vadim Elichev, Nazar Rakhmanov, Alexey Leont’ev advise Francesca Lazzeri, Vadim Elichev shootings location Lori, Armenia
Nazar Rakhmanov (SNDO, ATD 2022) / Frascati Producties
Nazar Rakhmanov (Votkinsk, 1991) is a Tatar-Russian dance-maker. In 2009, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in ‘Comparative Religious Studies’ from the university in Moscow, where he developed a special interest in Hindu cultures and the religious kundalini yoga tradition. In 2010, he set up his movement practice as an assistant dance therapist for people with special needs. After coming into contact with nomadic butoh theatre and contemporary dance, he decided in 2018 to come to the Netherlands to further develop his autonomous practice. In 2022, he received a bachelor’s degree from the SNDO School for New Dance Development at the Academy of Theatre and Dance. During his studies, he undertook a work placement on the island of Java, to familiarise himself with the exuberant traditions of ‘Jaranan’ trance dance rituals, which had a great impact on his practice. Darkness, light spectrums, screens, rituals, animality, ‘being other’ and ‘the invisible’ are the topics and resources in his ongoing, interdisciplinary, artistic research.
A divine aversion to DYING
“I’m strapped to a table
I’m naked
There’s nothing to be ashamed of
I feel comfortable in this situation
Almost bored
If you endure something long enough
Everything
becomes bearable”
A pitiful little cell spends 2 billion years drifting through an endless, lifeless universe, without doing a single thing. The cell forms a multi-celled clump with other pitiful little cells. The clump slowly evolves into a lump of moving meat. The lump of meat develops into a mutated ape. These mutated apes were unable, even then, to imagine that their hard-won consciousness would ever end, so they dreamt up a god. Please god! Take me! Take me! But god is lying, bleeding from her head, on the ground and it doesn’t matter anyway. We play it safe, and depose her from her throne. Thank you for warming the seat.
A divine aversion to DYING is a dark-absurdist production about our finiteness and our inability to imagine what it’s like to not exist.
Just van Bommel (Toneelacademie Maastricht 2022), Diane Mahín (Toneelacademie Maastricht 2022 / Sandberg Instituut 2024)
Just van Bommel (Groningen, 1999) graduated in Performance from Toneelacademie Maastricht institute of performing arts in 2022. They then created the production The Midnight Special for Boslab Theaterfestival 2022, with Laila Claessen and Lieke van der Vegt. The graduation production Het Showtje, a co-creation with Emma van den Elshout, was chosen by Via Rudolphi as one of the three productions for Het Debuut 2022 and is currently touring the Netherlands.
Just attempts to tackle serious subjects with a light, personal and sometimes melodramatic touch, allowing them to maybe feel less heavy. In this production, Just works with Diane Mahín (Master Toneelacademie Maastricht 2022 & Sandberg Instituut 2024), a Dutch-Iranian artist with a background in sociology. Her relationship to death and nothingness inescapably seeps through into her visual and auditive work. She uses the materiality of the human body – whether the audience’s, the performer’s, or her own – as a medium to approach finality.
Just and Diane met at Toneelacademie Maastricht. They quickly realised they shared a fascination with death, and a similar taste for absurdist humour.
