The performance is supported by Das Land Steiermark in collaboration with D.ID Dance Identity, WUK Wien and Theater im Bahnhof.
It is a musical tour through the dreams of Anna Karenina that crashes with Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky, and Bulgakov. What Leo Tolstoy did not write but Anna Karenina dreamed. The performance opens with a fictional report about the artists visit to the especial musical town Kandalakscha in the north of Russia close to the Finnish border. They figured out that playing music and Russian classical literature has a very strong influence on the life of Kandalakshian people. This inspired Oleg and Jasmin to create a music performance related to the rich cultural heritage of Kandalakscha. In “Dreams and Tears of Anna Karenina” Anna Karenina escapes from the moral thinker and anarcho-pacifist Leo Tolstoy and identifies herself with important protagonists of Russian literature and ballet: Nastassya Filippovna of Dostoevsky's „Idiot”, Magarita of Bulgakov's „Master and Margarita” and “Swan Lake” of Tchaikovsky. Storytelling and songs, spoken thoughts and passionate dances are part of this performance.
Oleg is a narrator and plays e-guitar and balalaika. Sara Lanner sings, talks and plays different percussion instruments and the synthesizer.
The performance has been presented in Rhiz, Vienna, Theater im Bahnhof, Graz (2014), nadaLocal gallery, Vienna, during the festival Eyes On / Month of photography, at the Danse Festival Barents in Hammerfest, Norway (2016).
The Russian performance artist Oleg Soulimenko lives and works in Vienna. After studying engineering at the Moscow State Technical University, he decided to embark on an artistic career. He studied dance, acting and improvisation at the Theatre for Improvisation of Oleg Kiselev, at the Anatoli Vasiliev School of Dramatic Art – Department for Experimental Dance with Genadi Abramov (1985 -1990). In 90ies Soulimenko founded the international workshop Saira Blanche Theatre, whose provocative performances toured the globe. Together with Tanzquartier Wien he curated "East meets West" a dialogue between Russian and Austrian artists. In 2010 with brut Wien he originated the exchange project "Music here, Music there: Vienna Moscow" showed both in Moscow and Vienna.
He has been co-operating with artists like Lisa Nelson, Markus Schinwald, Alfredo Barsuglia, Anna Jermolaewa, Meg Stuart, Jennifer Lacey and Steve Paxton. His performances were presented in international venues and festivals as Festwochen, Tanzquartier Wien, brut Wien, Kunsthalle and Impulstanz, Wien in Vienna, Performa in New York, Steirischer Herbst in Graz, Sophiensaele and Tanz im August in Berlin, the Kunstverein Hannover, Theatre Festival Impulse in Germany, Kaai Theatre in Brussels, Southern Theatre in Minneapolis,Dance on Volga in Yaroslavl, Baltic Circle in Helsinki and Homo Novus in Riga.
Jasmin Hofer is a dancer and performer from Austria, currently based in Vienna. In 2014 she finished her MA in Dance Dissemination at the Cologne. Before she studied Contemporary Dance at the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance and Painting at the Masterclass for Painting at the Ortweinschule in Graz. 2016 she presented her solo “little worms trigger big changes” in Tanz Quartier Wien in the frame of Werkstück and she was also sharing her research at the teachers symposium idocde at Impulstanz. She has been performing and teaching in Germany, Italy, Palestine, Russia, Austria and USA. Presenting her own work and working with choreographers like Evgeny Kozlov, Willi Dorner, Oleg Soulimenko, Marta Ladjanszki.
Sara Lanner is a choreographer, dancer and performance artist. Her artistic work deals with performance in the field of performing arts as well as the visual arts. She studied Contemporary Dance and Dance Pedagogy (IDA Linz) and is currently studying Performative Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna .
She worked a. o. with Anne Juren , Michikazu Matsune, Barbis Ruder, Lilo Nein, LUX FLUX & Saira Blanche Theater , Nicholas Hoffman, Maya Minder and Akos Hargitay as a dancer and performer. Since 2015 in collaborations with researchers from the CPH/Medical University Vienna.
Her actual solo performance A Living Example premiered in December 2016 at WUK performing arts Vienna in cooperation with Huggy Bears/SUPERAMAS. Development during residencies at the ImPulsTanz Festival and Tanzquartier Vienna as well as during a Life Long Burning Residency at the Uferstudios Berlin, with a work in progress showing at imagetanz 2016, brut Vienna. 2015 she presented the solo AUSstellenENTstellen at the Werkstück-presentations, TQW Vienna. Sara Lanner recieved scholarships by the Tanzquartier Vienna as well as for danceWEB/ImPulsTanz and the STARTStipendium/BKA Österreich.