Hopak

Since 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been accompanied by a cultural conflict whose aim is to eradicate all Ukrainian identity. Russia's official discourse insists that properly Ukrainian culture does not exist.

The Hopak project is based on research into traditional Ukrainian dances. Distinguishing Ukrainian dances from Russian ones is not easy, due to centuries of forced cultural assimilation, territorial expansion, repression and linguistic oppression. What would these dances be like today if they had been able to develop freely? What would they look like without having been stifled and dominated?

Hopak is a play between historical heritage and a minimalist approach that tends to reduce each dance to its starting point. From there, it creates new ones. And it's possible that these waves, these constant back-and-forth movements between past and future, may free the path toward metaphors, imagination or unpredictable meanings.

Distribution / Team

• Olga Dukhovna: choreographer & performer
• Dennis Weijers: composer
• Éric Allard-Jacquin: accordionist musician
• François Malbranque: performer
• Érik Houllier: lighting director
• Simon Hatab: dramaturge
• Denis Malard: technical director
• Amélie-Anne Chapelain: production manager
• Enora Floc’h: production coordinator
• Special thanks to François Maurisse, Julien Monty & Nicolas Marie

Premiere

• 2024, May 25 — Théâtre Louis Aragon, Tremblay-en-France, France

Partners

• Production C.A.M.P
• Co-produced by Théâtre Louis Aragon – Conventioned stage of national interest in Art & creation of Tremblay-en-France, Mille Plateaux - CCN La Rochelle, Le Triangle – Cité de la Danse in Rennes, Chorège – CDCN Falaise Normandie, Les Rencontres Internationales de Seine St-Denis, LA MAISON CDCN Uzès, Le Petit Écho de la Mode. With the support of the Caisse des dépôts et consignation, Théâtre de Vanves, and CCNRB – Collectif FAIR-E.