»Metelyk« – Theatre performance

METELYK – the Ukrainian word for butterfly or moth… And the title of an intercultural theatre project in which refugee women from Ukraine as well as women from Russia and Poland unfold their individual ‘womanhood’ in a play.

METELYK is about the painful process of finding one’s own essence. The women who fled from Ukraine to Dresden attended the METELYK theatre workshops for several months and found a voice. Their biographies, fates and experiences, their feelings, longings, insecurities, doubts and hopes flowed into one another. Personal stories were collected and together they developed a theatre play. Now the participants are bringing the play to the stage together with actors from the ellemonh theatre group and are appearing in several performances at the projekttheater.

“Yes, it makes sense that the wild butterfly woman is ancient and enormously full of life; after all, she carries the underworld in one breast and the forces of nature in the other. Her backbone is the arc of the globe itself; the sun rises over her left shoulder and sets over her right. Her belly harbours all beings that will ever be born.”
“The Wolf Woman” Clarissa Pinola Estes

An evening of theatre on the subject of femininity and ‘being a woman’

Together with the women on stage and the spectators in the audience, we take a look at the role sexism and discrimination play in everyday life – for individuals and society, with experiences from Ukraine, Poland, Russia and Germany.

The audience can recognise themselves in the play and healing processes can be triggered in them, which seems very valuable and existential to us in today’s turbulent and fast-moving times. The individual, with all its facets and beauty, takes centre stage and should be seen again.

WITH

Rosa Anna Gafurova
Dragon Eduardo Carrillo
Stella 1 Kseniia Yakunenko
Stella 2 Iryna Davydenko
Catrina Izabela Furczyk
King Timo L. Richter
Mariposa Olena Kiprova
Elektrinova Nataliia Zhyzhyrun

AND

Theatre group “ellemonh”

The theatre group “ellemonh” uses atmospheric images to tell stories about mythical themes, people and their dreams and fears. The plots are characterised by poetic scenarios, imaginative costumes, grotesque characters, quirky humour and the melancholy of material transience. Various theatrical elements such as acting, dance, music, singing, light and sound effects are combined to create a total work of art.

ARTISTIC DIRECTION
Anna Yaryga (concept, direction, set and costume design, lighting concept)

Born in the Ukraine, theatre multi-talent Anna Yaryga left her home town of Odessa in the Ukraine in 1994 and moved to Germany. Here she learnt a new culture and language. The question of identity, the answer to which she seeks both in the culture and history of her old homeland and in the confrontation with her new living environment, crops up again and again in her work as an artist. The idea of founding an intercultural theatre group came to her in 2015 at the end of her studies at the Dresden University of Fine Arts, where she studied stage and costume design. Since 2016, numerous cross-genre projects have been created with the theatre group “ellemonh”.

“I take the themes for my plays from my own life. And then I realise that these are topics that affect everyone. They then say to me, thank you, through your play I was able to process this and that. Theatre is a kind of cleansing ritual for me.”

“Anger, pain, struggle and agony – there will be all that on stage.”
DNN 2017 Barbara Stock on “La Catrina’s Secret”

MUSICAL DIRECTION
Leandro Rasz (guitar, baritone charango, electric guitar, percussion)

Leandro comes from Lanús, a suburb on the immense outskirts of Buenos Aires. This foreigner by choice has been sharing his life with the vibrations of the six strings for around 24 years. During this time, other instruments such as the charango and the ronrroco or baritone charango were added, which broadened his musical horizons and served as bridges to other musical worlds and continue to inspire him.

In his music projects, he mainly deals with music from the Americas as well as his own pieces, which reflect his diverse influences.

In addition to his work as a guitar teacher, he is currently active in various projects such as ZamboRey (light-hearted imaginary folklore with a pinch of social awareness), Río-Mar Tango Trio, Duo Karras (tango) and Salamandro (South American folklore).

CHOREOGRAPHY
Jaroslawa Hratsch

Jaroslawa was born in the Ukraine. She studied in Germany and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and a Diploma in Design in 2011. During her studies, she developed a strong interest in dance and was involved in dance at the University Sports Centre at TU Dresden.

In 2018, she successfully completed her training at the International Academy for Vocational Education (Bielefeld) in the subjects of artistic and contemporary dance as well as dance pedagogy. Jaroslawa completed workshops in Ohad Naharin’s Gaga technique, William Forsythe’s improvisation techniques, further training for dance teachers at the Palucca University of Dance in Dresden and the Berlin Opera.

DATES

14 December 20:00
15 December 20:00
16 December 20:00

TICKETS

VVK 18 € / 12 € (reduced*)
Tickets can be purchased at the projekttheater.

*Pupils, students, severely disabled persons, trainees, unemployed persons and pensioners are entitled to a discount. Tickets cost €8 on presentation of the Dresden Pass or the Ehrenamtspass.

The project METELYK is funded as a small project by Weltoffenes Sachsen support programme under the title “METELYK – Interkulturelles Theaterstück (UA/DE) zu Frau-Sein und Sexismus”. This measure is co-financed with tax funds on the basis of the budget passed by the Saxon state parliament.