About the Theatre
The Story. Conception |
The physical theatre «InZhest» (till 2002 — «Zhest» ( «the Gesture» in Russian) was founded in 1980 by the students of the Minsk Institute of Culture — by Slava Inozemtcev, Galina Yeryomina, Tatiana Tsurko, Sergei Masyko, Sergei Shvec with the participation of a Bulgarian student Ivan Minchev and others. Since that time more than 15 performances were presented to the audience. Every new performance turned out to be a new stage (as if at school) in mastering the art of the corpeal theatre. Having made a start from the classical mime («A Kaleidoscope» 1980, «Ways and Walls» 1981) we came to a carnival, buffo theatre (comedia del'arte «A Cheerful Soul» 1982, «Adventures of a Brave Soldier Shveik» 1983). As to «Adventures of a Brave Soldier Shveik», unfortunately, it was staged only two times and then banned by the authorities of the Institute of Culture as a great number of «political mistakes had been found out. Later on, there was a careful investigation of the clownery in such performances as «Drops» (1986) and «It's not Funny» (1987), after wards — a serious studying of the body improvisation and fighting arts of the East in the play «A Game without Rules» (1988). Meanwhile, we made improvisations and presented such performances like «happenings» just in the streets, parks and indoors. After that there was a phantasmagoria in the manner of «a social art» — «Still Waters Run Deep» (1990), then — the tragicomedies «A Traditional Kitchen of Rewkew Island» (1993) and «A Secret Rendezvous» (1995), combining theatrical and movement traditions of the East and the West. Thus, step by step the creative principals and special preferences of the theatre «Zhest» were formed. In general they can be presented in the following way:
Sinсе 1995 the actors of the «Zhest» theatre have been working out an original system of training which was called «Dances of Animals». 1998 a performance «Reversio» (Part I) was staged on the basis of that training. A Latin word «reversio» means «a return back», «a reflexive process», «a rotation movement in a circle» or «a movement in a circle». Theatre «ZHEST» was on tour, took part in international theatrical festivals and joint projects in Belarus, Kiev , S.-Petersburg , Moscow, Riga, Odessa as well as in Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, organized in Minsk the festivals of mime «Blazan» (1987, 1989), the festivals of physical theatres «X-Tradition» (2001,2002) and Butoh dance projectes with theatre «Tatoeba» (Germany-Japan) in 1999 and «SU-EN Butoh company» (Sweden) in 2001.The «Zhest» theatre had the opportunity to learn the BUTOH DANCE technique at workshop Yumico Yoshioka in Germany and since that the theatre uses this technique and style in different joint projects, such as: «OstWest» (1998, Bonn, Germany), «Ex...it!» (1999, Germany, Poland), «Things-time-theatre» (1999, Holland), festival of performances «NAVINKI» (1999 and 2000, Minsk), «Festival sztuki bialoruskiej» (Poznan, Poland, 2000), Winter and Summer Camp by SU-EN Butoh Company (2001, Sweden-Belarus), «Art Session» (2001, Vitebsk), «Karagod» (2002, Gomel), «Resonant Wave» (2002, Berlin) etc. Viacheslav Inozemcev since 2001 year take part in the international Butoh dance project «TEN PEN Chii Art Labor» by Yumiko Yoshioka and Joachim Manger in Shloss Broullin (Germany). Performances «TEST LABOR Z0005», «MINUS ALPHA», «KETSUI», Interdisciplinary Workshop project etc.In February, 2000 the actors of «ZHEST» and musicians of group «PLATO» by help from Theatre of the young spectators realize the Butoh-action «Yolka U». On Mai.27.2001 we celebrated our twentieth anniversary with new performance – «DK Dance». From that time we are called «InZhest». It’s possible to understand as «INOJ ZHEST» (Russian) — «OTHER GESTURE», The last activity of «InZhest»:
Author of music — Vitaly Artist (leader of beZ bileta band) Video — Matvei Saburov (Plato band) Duration — 1,5 hours
The reason is simple and painfully familiar — on January 22nd, the play «DK Dance» was attended by senior pupils with their teacher whose very being was revolted by the presence of a naked body on stage — the fact of which the Ministry of Culture was operatively informed in a written form. The unhappy lady’s heartfelt cry was heard, and the Ministry did react in no time, and now, due to the decision of director of the Youth Variety Theatre V. Rainchik and deputy director V. Nasen, the play «DK Dance» shall never take place on this theatre’s stage... It is amazing how years of work of the theatre acknowledged not only in Belarus, tens of reviews and TV programmes, as well as hundreds of enthusiastic responses from spectators, can be crossed out without ceremony by one denunciation of a person totally crushed by the system of secondary education! Leaving aside all culturological discussions, we simply wonder what has happened to a human body during one million years that it cannot be shown to the pupils not even as a visual aid for a lesson of anatomy?
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