MARIIA KONDRATIEVA

Mariia Kondratieva (Ukraine) is a choreographer, performer, teacher andorganizer of cultural events in contemporary dance and performance field. She isco-founder and educational program curator of DniproBodyProject – a publicorganization of independent artists of Dnipro region (since 2016). Also, she wasthe founder and director of Breaze Dance Centre (2009-2019). During the few years before quarantine, Mariia has been a co-organizer of some international contemporary dance and performance festivals in Dnipro: DniproBodyProject (2016), Choreography territories (2018), Zelyonka (2019). 
Since 2019, Maria has been doing PhD research and teaching contemporary dance techniques at the Department of Directing and Choreography of Lviv National University. 
Because of the war in Ukraine, in March 2022 she with her three-month-old daughter received temporary shelter in Utrecht (Netherlands). Being an artist and a fresh mom during the war gives her totally extreme experience, but so useful for art practice. That's why her conceptual solo performance "Survivor syndrome" was born. Mariia was working on it during a few residencies in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Budapest and Bratislava with some breaks for living her life with the family in Ukraine.
As a professional dance performer, she worked in many projects. The most important of them: 2012-2014 – Ukraine. Point G. (Ukraine); 2012-2014 – Homeproject (Ukraine-Moldova-Belarus-Sweden); 2016 – #letmepleaseyou (Ukraine-Lithuania); 2016-2019 – Laboratory work №9 (Ukraine-Belarus); 2018-2019 –#ifthereisawill (Ukraine); 2022 – STILL LIFE IN THE PARK (Netherlands). 
Since 2003, as a choreographer and dance teacher, she has been working with children and adults, with professionals and amateurs. Her most important dance pieces: 2010 – Somnambulisation; 2013 – Alice; 2015 – Red threads; 2016– Comfort zone; 2017 – Girl and the ball; 2018 – Only mine; 2018 –#ifthereisawill (in collaboration with other independent choreographers); 2020 –Meeting. Acquainting.

 

"My professional interest lies in the fields of contemporary dance, physicaltheater and performance art. Recently I have been going through two hyper-strong experiences: 
the experience of motherhood and the experience of war. 
Both at the same time. 
Such opposite experiences and such opposite energies. One is about life, joy, growth and development; the other is about uncertainty, instability, destruction and death.
What is privileged in my body? 
What is privileged in my mind? 
And what then isreflected in movements and thoughts, words? What comes to the fore and grows inactions and what is thrown into the garbage dump of consciousness? 
This is what I’m currently interested to explore. And that's the only thing I ought to do now. Because, answering the question "what should I do as an artist at a time when my people are fighting for freedom with weapons in hands?" I say to myself to raise a child and to do my job - discovering new meanings using the metaphorical language of art.
"In the process of creating a solo, I take as a basis intuitive ideas built on thereality that surrounds me now. I transform these ideas into visual, audial and physical material. Practices are practiced in the studio, corrected, mixed and transformed into ready-made scenes of the performance. I don't force these processes, I go with the flow. I allow this solo to be the way the space needs it tobe - the way it makes sense not only to me but also to someone else. And, hearingthe audience's feedback after the work-in-process sharing, I see that it works."