Photo: Lauren Connelly (LALA Photography).
Public showing
When: Friday, June 10, 6pm
Where: The Mill Breakout, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta
Duration: 1 hour (including casual Q&A)
Cost: $10 (+ booking fee)
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Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, and a disability toilet is also available. View our accessibility information page.
You are invited to the work-in-progress showing of I am Root, a ritual performance piece by Olenka Toroshenko.
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Most of us are transplants. Uprooted from one country and resettled, making home in another's. Do you remember where you came from? What happens when culture, language and ancestry are left behind?
Seed. Water. Root. Grow. Harvest. Eat. Die. Decompose. Repeat.
Told from the perspective of a Ukrainian Canadian living in Australia, this ritual performance piece wonders how one might question, create and nourish culture in a globalised, colonised world. Olenka enlists her mother tongue (Ukrainian) and the mediums of song, dance, folk traditions and recipes, story, poetry and prayer to enliven the depths of the unspoken, mysterious places where spirit lives...if we're willing to cultivate it.
We are future roots.
The showing with be followed by a short Q&A with Olenka, presented by The Mill CEO / Artistic Director Katrina Lazaroff & Associate Producer Louie Dempsey. Audiences will have the opportunity to ask questions about the development and provide feedback about the performance.
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Olenka Natalia Toroshenko is a Ukrainian Canadian artist, writer and producer whose life is in service to a saner, meaningful existence. She is a multidisciplinary performer whose mediums include spoken word poetry, dance, clowning, song, storytelling and ritual performance art.
She is a Katonah yoga teacher, student of The Orphan Wisdom School and lover of coniferous forests. She has worked in news broadcasting and politics which helped shape her understanding of the current cultural paradigm. She was the co-producer of “wild”, “Shakti Showcase” and “Shakti Rising” multi-artist/disciplinary productions and has toured 4 different continents as a singer, poet and dancer.
She enjoys producing video projects, Burning Man theme camps, and multidisciplinary shows. She is inspired by collaborating with other artists.
Olenka currently resides in South Australia.
This residency is presented in partnership with Brand X, Sydney, supported by Arts South Australia.