LYUDMILA RUSOVA
"SHE'S STILL ALIVE"
15 minutes, 8/09/2001atPall Mall Club

by Denis Romanovski
The ritualistic side comes through strongest in Lyudmila's performances. What does ritualism mean in performance? Like in any other religious act, a specific space-time sphere is created, encompassing everyone around, but the ritual in art has an emphasised, individual and subjective beginning. Spectators may reject the subjectivity of the resulting space, since they might not agree with its inherent values and meanings. Whereas a religious ritual normally regulates social interaction, the ritual side acts as a self-regulator during an individual performance (in which subjective space is established as being dominant).

Dance is the main action in "She's Still Alive". The artist invites an ageing man from the audience to dance with her. A "white dance" with a stranger (i.e. the lady invites the gentleman). A feminist gesture, which is immediately striking due to its banal expression, quickly gives way to a gesture of intimacy and hope. Hope springs from hardship or when one feels the harshness of the world. For the audience, this leads to a reverse feeling while watching the serene, but rather awkward couple waltzing amongst them. Perhaps the spectators are expecting some original, even extreme act to take place, and are seized by the sincerity of what is going on, paying attention to the secrecy of their own lives. "She's Still Alive" - God knows what you might feel.

The ritual implications of dance were long ignored in art, meaning that it often ended up as an empty spectacle. In this context, the performance as a syncretic space often takes onto itself the impact of the development of civilisation, and wins thanks to its revelations.