Ritual as Dance. Dance as Ritual

Performance–research–immersion (2016) · 60 minutes

A living inquiry into the ancestral pulse that moves through song and dance rituals across cultures — an attempt to trace their invisible threads, their shared essence, their root.

The piece was inspired by Marina Batyukova’s photographic exhibition devoted to the ancient Belarusian ritual Pakhavanne Suly — the “burial of the lightning arrow.” Her images awaken something archaic, pre-Christian, deeply resonant — a memory that speaks to the collective unconscious, to the ancestral field of those who still listen.

Through dances and songs of Africa, India, Cuba, Brazil, and Belarus, the performance explores the universal rhythm of offering, protection, fertility, and rebirth. It is a meeting of worlds — sneakers and saris, drums and folk chants, museum walls and summer air — bound by one heartbeat.

At its core lies a question:
Can traditions from distant lands sing in unison?
Can ritual become a space of freedom — where creation and remembrance dance together,
where earth, water, fire, and air exchange their energies,
where the body becomes prayer,
and dance becomes a way to remember life itself?