Tanya Khaborova / Derevo, Reflection

Review in Issue 16-3/4 | Autumn 2004

Kaleidoscopic images of creation, from alchemic cook to the final image of a bow-holding centaur within a prism of light, mesmerise us in this beautiful dance fable. Vital soundscape enriches and menaces – lighting lifts and holds. Although a solo show, with just one bare tree in the background, I never feel Khaborova is alone on stage. Phenomenal lighting (designed by fellow original Derevo member Elena Iarovaia) and soundscape give us suspension of time and split-second changes of scene from creation to destruction.

Tanya is a hieroglyphic being – a chameleon of creation with inhuman movement... We see a gravity-bound insect, a broken winged angel, a lady silent footed even in high heels. A teaming swampland of creation-theatre to be watched with the same heart that would absorb a poem. I saw Reflection performed five or so years ago as part of LIFT, but this time the show is far more succinct, sensual and essential. This is body-theatre that follows a non-narrative structure, an experience of mood, atmosphere, presence and invisible yet bodily-perceived rhythm. Theatre to be felt in the quiet spaces between our cells.

At the close of the show we are left within a cathedral of calm, leaving a muted ache somewhere behind our ribs; a sense of loss, a sense of remembrance, a sense of hope, that ripples out into the night and into our own nocturnal shadows.

Presenting Artists
Presenting Festival
Presenting Venue
Date Seen
  1. Aug 2004

This article in the magazine

Issue 16-3/4
p. 25