Andrii Onopriienko

«Communication through Improvisation in Dance» (joint project with Anastasiia Goncharenko)

Andrii Onopriienko

Location:
Frankfurt am Main

Self-description, education & work experience:
Andrii Onopriienko is 34 years old and was raised in Ukraine. He is a dancer, teacher, organiser of one of the biggest hip-hop dance events in Europe – «The Vibe» (since 2017). He has been dancing for 20 years, teaching experience around 15 years.
Andrii has taken more than 100 of classes from dancers all around the world, such as: HENRY LINK (USA, hip-hop, 2010), Mamson (France, house dance, 2010), HIRO (Japan, house dance, 2011), Michael NIAKO (hip-hop, 2011) and many more.
Each year Andrii participates in competitions and festivals around the globe to show his style and vision of dance. Some examples:
1) «United Session» (Poland, 2022);
2) «Juste Debout» – 1st place in House Dance (in Düsseldorf, Germany; 2019);
3) «Juste Debout» – 1st place in Hip-Hop (Bangkok; 2019);
4) «Nothing 2 Looz» – 1st place (France, 2018).

In teaching, Andrii and his colleague Anastasiia Goncharenko put a great emphasis on studying the capabilities of their body, constantly complicating technical tasks. They also balance between technical developments and imagination, develop thinking in dance with the help of imagination. Andrii and Anastasia hold a belief in their teaching that everyone who absorbs information is able to generate it on their own and share it with others. The two know all about the dance battle scene, as well as are professionals in leading workshop, judging championship and presenting their own events.

Introduction to the project:
Andrii Onopriienko is a dancer, teacher, organiser of one of the biggest hip-hop dance events in Europe – «The Vibe». Together with his colleague Anastasiia Goncharenko he wants to get acquainted with the German dance scene and exchange ideas about the expertise of «cypher», the process of education and training.

Description of the project:
As an introduction, Anastasiia and Andrii put some of the most significant questions in the dance community out there: how can dance promote communication? How do people understand each other without spoken language? What do they understand about each other? What is the function of the body in this? What forms of collective knowledge do the individuals draw on? And what methods of improvisation do we know from conversations to first find out where the common ground is?
Anastasiia Goncharenko and Andrii Onoprienko are newcomers to Germany and have been performing artistic battles together in Ukraine for over 15 years, bringing people together through battles, understanding and celebrating the form of the battle as a form of communication. Since 2022 they are in Germany and want to investigate what kind of battle culture exists here, what dance forms are in demand, what dance forms people personally find exciting in German dance culture and what Anastasiia and Andrii themselves can bring to this culture.
Together they will use the structure of the battle to approach and communicate with an artistic community they do not yet know. After they have dealt with the scene itself in the first step, they want to take a look at the younger artists (their second step) and encourage them to dance together. They want to share their knowledge with the young generation of dancers and try to create a space for their self-development, as well as give them as much information as possible. In doing so, they see „cypher“ as an important form of exchange and communication in hip-hop improvisation. People communicate with each other through dance, showing their ideas, technique and feeling for the music. Anastasiia Goncharenko and Andrii Onoprienko are curious about the German dance scene and look forward to the exchange.

Contact information:
https://instagram.com/andreystylez?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Links:
1) trailer to the event, organized by Andrii, «The Vibe» https://youtu.be/5UYTHEajZBU
2) Andrii dancing https://youtu.be/WkFciYPptqY