RUSALKI
"a complex initiation mystery play”
"Slow ceremonial rhythm and concisely reduced movements combined with a perfectly designed light staging.”
"a homogenous musical and scenic performance”
"Principles of the Apolline and the Dyonisian, the lyrical and the wildly ecstatic, recognizable mythical fragments and abstractions interpret with convincing expressiveness.”
"A remarkably imaginative version of a contemporary cultural ritual which works not only as an aesthetic-utopian remake of similar projects of Ancient Greece, but also as a full-blooded synthesis of mythical, historical and topical materials on which it is based.”
"It is hardly possible to do more – the final effect depends solely on the sensibility of the audience.”
Peter Rak, newspaper Delo
... restless souls ...
Rusalki
.songs of dark laughter
.an archetypal adventure
.a ritual beyond the limits of reason
.an erotic primordial bond between a human being and the nature
.metaphysics of the good and the evil
... songs between worlds ...
Rusalki
.based on the motifs of Slavic mythology
.inspiration from the ancient Greek treasury
.songs from soil and water
.screams, cries, laughter and songs
... between death and the dead …
Rusalki
.undead and deadly beings
.weavers of natural cycles
.miraculous female characters existing between death and the dead
.a symbol of potent, not yet realized female creativity
Rusalki are miraculous female characters of Slavic tradition. They appear in ancient tunes sang by old women in Russian, Slovak, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and many other European villages.
Rusalki are restless spirits of women who died accidentally or took their own lives: brides on the evening of their wedding, young mothers at birth of their child, newly-born girls, young women disappointed in love who took their own life.
Rusalki are a symbol of potent, not yet realized female creativity and transformed fertility. Rusalki are myths about death and the dead.
Rusalki are weavers connecting human, animal and vegetal fertility, and natural cycles with weather changes. In folk art they appear with ghostly crowns or as incredible beauties, looking like sirens: half-women – half-birds, half-women – half-fish, young women with wild, unkempt hair …Their image changed according to the climate, the colour of the sky and water.
Pantecost, the period when rusalki come out of water, are marked by ancient rituals of pagan and Christian origin.
Rusalki are being connected with various unusual sounds which can be heard from their dwellings – lakes and forests. Green trees are shelters of the dead. When the Sun is not yet ‘out on the road of summer’, rusalki, the souls of the dead, stay in the dark and cold depths of the waters. But when these waters are warmed by the rays of the life-giving Sun, rusalki return to the trees, the shelters of the dead. And that is when their screams, cries, laughter and songs can be heard even more clearly.
Author of the project and conductor: Karmina Šilec
Performing:
Carmina Slovenica
Vasko Atanasovski, wind instruments
Zvezdana Novakovič, voice
Nino Mureškič, percussion
Direction, scene setting, visual design: Karmina Šilec
Costume design and styling: Belinda Radulovič
Movement design: Tina Valentan
Light design: Andrej Hajdinjak
Sound design: Danilo Ženko
Editor: Metka Damjan
Music assistant: Nadja Stegne
Photography: Dejan Bulut, Dorian Šilec Petek
Production: Carmina Slovenica – Attacca cycle
