OLGA RABETSKAYA
LA PLAYA

Together with the Dance Gallery Festival (DGF), Catskill Art Space (CAS) is thrilled to welcome back 2023 Ardsley Dance Residency resident Olga Rabetskaya for a culminating performance, first workshopped at CAS in the fall of 2023. In La Playa, four dancers embody the four elements of Earth - wind, Earth, water, and fire. This representation on stage demonstrates the performers' transition from the mind to the body and our emotions. The musicians alongside are like guides, connecting performers to the divine, to Pacha Mama and the universe. These musicians and performers share a close connection, listening to each other in harmony without hierarchy, breaking conventional music and dance relationships. Through dance, the audience is urged to reconsider their inner self and how they connect with the world around them.

About the Artist

Olga Rabetskaya (she/her) is a U.S.-based artist originally from Belarus. She is a dancer, choreographer, director, and photographer whose work spans film, choreography, photography, and multimedia production. Olga's artistic research and exploration focus on the deep knowledge of the body and how to share our emotional experience, memories, and body intelligence through movement. She was a soloist in the Contemporary dance troupe of the State Youth Theater of Belarus from 2014 to 2019. Her dance works and films have been presented at international festivals in the United States, Poland, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Portugal, China, Brazil, Bolivia, and Belarus. She has held four personal photo exhibitions in Belarus and USA, self-produced two New York shows presenting her choreographic works, and has been awarded residencies at the Monira Foundation (2022, 2023), The Cell Theater (2022), School of Visual Arts (2021), Gallim Moving Women+ (2021), El Camp (2021, 2022), Fellowship at SMUSH Gallery in Jersey City (2021), Kunstraum (2021) and Residence for Young Choreographers in Moscow (2018).