BECAUSE OF GRAVITY
BECAUSE OF GRAVITY
Teaching & Facilitation
Youth & Community Projects
Theatre / Film / Digital /Music
TEACHING & FACILITATION
TEACHING & FACILITATION
Performance & Research
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
2018-2019
'Counting Sheep: Staging A Revolution'
CHOREOGRAPHIC DIRECTOR. MOVEMENT DIRECTOR. REHEARSAL DIRECTOR
"Counting Sheep is immersive theatre at its finest... ”
Theatre Weekly
'Counting Sheep: Staging A Revolution' is a deeply personal retelling of the revolution in Ukraine, where creators Mark and Marichka Marczyk met and fell in love on the barricades of Maidan Square in Kyiv in 2014.
VAULT Festival London 2019 headline Production. Presented by Selfconsious Productions & Wild Yak, in association with Hot Feat Productions. Created and written by: Mark and Marichka Marczyk. Directors and co-writers: Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin. Music: Balaklava Blues.
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
2018
'Trustees'
MOVEMENT DIRECTOR
“...a furious and insightful work about the mechanics of authority, the media, self-censorship, and freedom of speech in Australia.”
Australian Arts Review
'In a major policy shift, the government has announced a moratorium on funding for performing arts organisations Australia-wide. The Trustees of Melbourne’s fictional Lone Pine Theatre Company gather to assess the damage. Amid the chatter and outrage and belligerence of public conversation lies a void: the Great Australian Silence. What are we afraid of hearing? Who are we afraid will say it?’
Written by: Natalia Kaliada & Nicolai Khalezin (Directors of Belarus Free Theatre) with Daniel Schlusser and the cast. Directed by: Natalia Kaliada & Nicolai Khalezin. Cast: Tammy Anderson, Natasha Herbert, Niharika Senapati, Hazem Shammas, Daniel Schlusser.
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
2016-2019
'Burning Doors' with Pussy Riot's Maria Alokhyna
CHOREOGRAPHIC DIRECTOR. REHEARSAL DIRECTOR
*Winner ‘Best Ensemble’ Off Westend Awards
*Listed in the New York Times Best Theatre of 2017
“The astonishment of Burning Doors is its ability to translate political rage and impotence into an art of indirection that is often as complex as it is powerful.”
The New York Times
Shining a light on the total suppression of artistic freedoms just a three-hour flight from London, the production illuminates the role of contemporary artists in dictatorial societies and examines what happens to people when they are declared enemies of the state simply for making art. BFT explores the psychological impact of imprisonment, exile and forced migration, casting their gaze towards the displacement of people due to political persecution and conflict arriving in Europe today.'
Premiere: Leicester Curve (Leicester, UK). Touring to: Soho Theatre (London, UK) and various UK venues, VIE Festival (Modena, IT), Melbourne Arts Centre (Melbourne, AUS), Theatre der Welt (Hamburgh, DE), Tampere Theatre Festival (Tampere, FI), On The Boards (Seattle, USA), La MaMa (NYC, USA), The Clarice (Maryland, USA), Luminato (Toronto, CA) and Ivan Franko Theatre (Kyiv, UA).
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
2012-2015
'Trash Cuisine'
CHOREOGRAPHIC DIRECTOR. REHEARSAL DIRECTOR
*Winner 'Total Impact Award' at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013, assigned by the Italian Cultural Institute
“Once again, Belarus Free Theatre prove their capacity to stir our consciences through their sensuous theatricality”
The Guardian
'Provocative and urgent, ‘Trash Cuisine’ pierces the imagination with moments of the darkest humour as it challenges the ongoing existence of capital punishment in the contemporary world…BFT serve up food, music, dance and Shakespeare as true stories from inmates, executioners, human rights lawyers and families of the executed take centre-stage.'
Originally commissioned and presented as part of The European Cultural Foundation’s ‘Imagining Europe’. Premiere October 2012: Stadsschouwburg (Amsterdam, NL). Touring to: Schouwburg (Rotterdam, NL), Swedish Biennial for Performing Arts (Jönköping, SE), Mayfest Tabbacco Factory (Bristol, UK), Young Vic (London, UK), Pleasance Courtyard - The Grande, Edinburgh Fringe Festival (winner of the 2013 Impatto Totale Award) and La MaMa (New York City, USA).
Watch some of the final scenes of 'Trash Cuisine' on BBC Arts: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p038x5sq
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
2014-2015
'Red Forest'
MOVEMENT DIRECTOR. REHEARSAL DIRECTOR. INTERNATIONAL RESEARCHER
"...Nicolai Khalezin uses an imaginative range of theatrical devices and choreographed movement by Bridget Fiske to create scenarios with real power..."
What's On Stage
'Red Forest is a modern epic that explores the impact of war and environmental crisis on some of the most vulnerable people in the world.'
Premiere: Young Vic for LIFT Festival (London, UK). Touring to: MOT Festival (Skopje, MK), VIE Festival (Modena, IT) and Le Vie Dei Festival (Rome, IT).
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
Role: Choreography, Movement and Rehearsal Director
2013
'London Eyes'
MOVEMENT DIRECTOR
A three-week project with young people from London
A Young VIC Parrallel Production
A youth led process using the total immersion theatre methods of Belarus Free Theatre, personal stories and case studies. Directed by Natalia Kaliada, Nicolai Khalezin & Vladimir Shcherban of Belarus Free Theatre.