The day after the festival opens with Cossachka, its director Yuliia will make room for sharing her creative practice, which has been transformed during the war in Ukraine. After thousands of hours of humanitarian work, encounters with trauma and destruction, she rediscovered the power of art. Join us for an exploration of how art can serve as a tool for renewal - both for individuals and society.

Yulia Lopata's workshop invites us to find inspiration in the world around us - in its sounds, images, touches and the memories it evokes. How can the perception of reality shape our imagination? How can we create new stories and artistic visions out of the chaos of the surrounding world?

Anything that surrounds us can inspire us to create our own story, character or a whole world with its own architecture. The key is to be attentive to all the manifestations of this world - tactile, visual and auditory. In the workshop you will start from the outside to get in touch with your inner self. You will explore what is born within us and how we can communicate it to the world.

Bio

Yuliia is a professional choreographer, director, dancer and teacher, with higher specialized education and further training in directing, stage lighting, and graphic design. For 8 years she has been a member of the independent dance company PROcontemporary (Kyiv), which explores movement and the body through improvisational practices and creates performances. She is also member of the Apache crew, and took part in the filming of the first Ukrainian film ballet “Vodurudu” (directed by Anatoliy Sachyvko). With the beginning of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she stopped dancing, and has been and still is a volunteer. In the second year of the invasion, she began to return to artistic activity, and is now focussed more on directing.

Running time: 120–150 minutes

Language: Ukrainian, English

Workshop is for everyone who is interested in developing their creativity.