Choreographing eyes in Ukrainian staged folk dance
Choreographing eyes in Ukrainian staged folk dance

Author(s): Andriy Nahachewsky
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences, Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts
Published by: Етнографски институт САНУ
Keywords: presentational dance; folk-staged; eyes; gaze; Ukrainian
Summary/Abstract: Dancers use their eyes very differently in participatory contexts, as opposed to performances on proscenium stages. In an earlier publication I demonstrated that, during social dances, eyes are very often unfocussed or used casually as in regular interactions. In staged folk dance, the participants are often instructed to sustain strong eye contact with each other (an intra-diegetic gaze), which is used in part to reinforce the illusion of the dance’s imputed setting “there and then” (often in an idealized traditional village in the past), and to help the audience to follow them in their imagination. A second dominant gaze strategy is extra-diegetic (making eye contact beyond the proscenium with the spectators). This option emphasizes the “here and now” of the shared performance event. In this article I extend that exploration and introduce complexity, to focus on how Ukrainian staged folk dance choreographers, Pavlo Virsky and Vasile Avramenko, have manipulated these two dominant and contrasting options differently in their compositions. Standards for intra- and extra-diegetic use of eyes have changed over time in Ukrainian dance. I introduce suggestions on how the cultural and political environments influence choreographers’ decisions on gaze.

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