A journey within through Dance

As a co-organizer of the “Shemakhinskaya Bayaderka” Festival, allow me to express my personal opinion about the dance of Anastasia Boyko, who performed on our stage for the first time in December 2022.

Even on the day of the concert, I noticed this performer. Burdened by organizational concerns, I could not fully enjoy her performance at the time. However, after devoting two full days to editing Anastasia’s video for our YouTube archive, I experienced truly unforgettable pleasure and, I admit, rewatched the dance about 50 times. Being a follower of the Rohini nakshatra, I simply cannot help but respond to the earthly, in some sense even animalistic, yet gentle energy of this talented dancer.

In this dance, Anastasia demonstrates not only the outward charm of a woman but also the intimate depths of the feminine soul — even if this choreography is the work of several choreographers and a product of collective fantasy. Anastasia succeeded in expressing the most important thing: the archetypal essence of the power of dance, something beyond verbal expression.

As the dance unfolds, so too does the development of the image. If at the very beginning we see a lonely, humble wanderer with a staff in one hand and a lit lamp in the other, then in the next second we are faced with a skillful hunter, a trapper, armed with a poisoned spear. Or perhaps a warrior, whose image takes us back to a time when a human had to know how to survive in the wild, hostile environment; when, walking an untrodden path of destiny, one continuously felt upon oneself the icy, bewitching gaze of death, perceiving its encounter as the completion, the final outcome of earthly trials.

A moment later — and before us emerges another image: that of a matador, teasing a young, enraged bull with his bloodied muleta. This person is brave and passionate, and thus easily flirts with death, testing his spirit’s strength and death’s unruly nature for constancy. But this is by no means recklessness, for the urge to express one’s potency, to subdue the mighty energy of death, is manifested by the very nature of his consciousness in his deliberate actions. He already knows — death is not the antagonist of life; rather, it plays the role of an imperative in human existence, embodying the transition into another state.

However, this vivid image is soon replaced by the image of the creative feminine principle, the image of the woman-mother, who with her love alone sets matter into motion, transforms it, fills it, and inspires it with energy — without which no creative process, including life itself, is possible. The final part of the performance vividly demonstrates this: the figure of the dancer dissolves into the warm, golden glow of the stage lights, symbolizing the Unfading Light. What is this, if not a complete embodiment of Psyche, brought to life on stage! 

And the light, pleasant smile on the dancer’s lips is the essence of that part of the soul that responds with gratitude to the Heavens for the granted opportunity to come back to itself.

Thus, this dance can be perceived as a living illustration on the theme of the formation of human personality and, at the same time, as a reflection of universal deep processes. In any case, each viewer will see what his own mind gravitates toward the most. But unequivocally, Anastasia’s creation is a beautiful testimony to how harmonious a woman can be when she is aware of the masculine part of her soul on the path to individualization. In essence, the dance draws the viewer’s attention to how beautiful a human can be in their manifestations when engaged in a trusting dialogue with the unconscious. In this context, the words of C. G. Jung come to mind: “Our psychic structure repeats the structure of the universe, and everything that happens in the cosmos repeats itself in the infinitely small and unique space of the human soul.”

S. Bukhtiyarov-Orlovsky