Nataliia Zhdan
«Drowning in Drawing»
Location:
Berlin
Self-description, education & work experience:
Nataliia Zhdan is a 22 years old dancer, performer and choreographer from Ukraine. She was born and got her school education in Zaporizhzhia. After graduating from high-school, she moved to Kyiv, where she later graduated from the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts (specialisation: Dancer and Choreographer; 2016-2022). During that period Nataliia was one of the students, whose group was led by Tetyana Vinokurova and Radu Poklitaru. She also attended different classes, workshops, laboratories from teachers, such as Daniil Zubkov, Gala Pekha, Anastasia Kharchenko, Marina Kushcheva, Lal Tessarini, Link le Neil, Kenan Dinkelmann, Xaba Varga, Nir de Volff, Patrick Williams and others.
As of November 2022, she is a member of different dance groups and Ukrainian companies, such as PIZDEC, n’Era Dance Company, Insha Dance Company, Baza Art People, etc. Nataliia collaborated with different artists (Suzane, MOZGI, KAZKA BAND) and choreographers to create performances or material in commercial sphere.
Since the end of March 2022 she lives in Berlin due to the war and continuously attends workshops (Tanzfabrik, Marameo, Tanzhalle, Katapult etc.), as well as participates in residences (“The Green Room” in Köln; “TANZWERKSTADT EUROPA” in Munich). She has also been giving workshops herself in various dance studios (Flying Steps, Motions).
What’s more, Nataliia had different projects in Berlin:
1) shooting for charity project “Motherland” (directed by Konstantin Koval, 2022);
2) shooting in film (by Marichka Lukianchuk, as of November 2022 still in development);
3) art-project (by Alexandra Gordiiash and Kseniia Gordiiash, as of November 2022 still in development);
4) shooting in music video (UZEE, as of November 2022 still in development).
Furthermore, she participated in dance JAMs, local and international battles (Top 16: KoresponDance Battle). Nataliia became the finalist of the CROSSOVER DANCE BATTLE (Club Oval) and winner of the “Open Your Mind” during IBE Dance Festival.
Introduction to the project:
Dancer, performer and choreographer Nataliia Zhdan will work with such materials as colors in her research. By doing that she wants to explore possibilities to use them in different ways to express emotional conditions, tell stories and, as a result, make such type of art of expression that can cooperate with the given materials (here: colors) without the violation of the main idea.
Description of the project:
Philosophy of the concept consists of the endless flow of influence that people are gaining and exerting every moment. Nataliia explains that most of us are living without thinking about the fact that everyone affects a certain sequence of occurrences throughout their life path. Each of us has already created a lot and continues to create, but still does not admit that for real. The main idea is to let people know, to prove and remind that they are already artists.
Nataliia aspires to research the ways the dancers’ movement and bodies can interact with paint, simultaneously creating a picture with their movements. The idea is that any action, as a result, has a consequence. Therefore, we can interpret our life path in the picture that is being written all the time during one’s lifetime, even when almost no one thinks about that. Nataliia will be searching for the paths to reveal the topic more publicly and so that everyone can see it in one’s own way.
Cooperation, opposition, compromise, gradualness, avoidance are the main concepts for the movement research. Nataliia will reflect on how these statuses can correlate with each other in space, who and how they can affect. Maybe they can be independent of each other? These are the questions which she believes are worth to be interpreted in motion.
Nataliia will use the principles above to find a new way to move and explore how the actions can affect the further course of occurrences in the moment. Through improvisation, interaction, independent existence she wants to use the space to explore how new connections can be created.
Contact information:
https://instagram.com/let_nat?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Following the links you can easily take a glimpse of Anastasiia‘s creative work:
1) https://youtu.be/Xn5Kr3eaR-w
2) https://youtu.be/UGN2h9sXZiU
3) https://youtu.be/TsjE-bXerto