Mercy

Contemporary Trio | Promotion Audition Piece | Lviv National Opera

The Silence of the Pandemic

The pandemic split the Lviv ballet company into seven isolated groups of five to six dancers. Ensemble work became impossible. Wandering through an empty Kyiv, the choreographer confronted the paradox of the human condition: the complete isolation of city-dwellers in their apartments and the absolute silence of the streets. This sensation became a vision. At his own expense and without institutional support, he travelled to Lviv and created Mercy — a small production that elevated corps de ballet dancers to the status of principal soloists in a professional advancement competition. This dance is a manifesto of what remains when so much has been taken away from a human being.

Max Richter · Voices · The Chain of Meaning

Choreography set to Max Richter's score from the album Voices (2020). The work is inspired by the historic reading of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1948. The Declaration, in turn, draws upon the Roerich Pact — the first international treaty for the protection of cultural heritage during wartime, signed in Washington, D.C. in 1935. A ballet born of pandemic-era isolation, set to music centered on human rights and rooted in a treaty that elevated culture above military necessity. A project with the potential for large-scale production.