Type: Workshop · Oral History / Dance Heritage
Date: 1–6 December 2025
Context: Oral History for Dance Heritage
Location: National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
Role: Workshop Leader · Oral Historian · Choreographer
Duration: Six-day intensive
Participants: Dance researchers and museum professionals from Ukraine
Translator: Karina Solka
Organisers: Impulse Transformation Platform · Goethe-Institut Ukraine · National Art Museum of Ukraine
Status: Historical Record
Oral History for Dance Heritage was a six-day intensive in Kyiv exploring how Oral History can contribute to the documentation, preservation and activation of dance heritage.
The workshop brought together dance researchers and museum professionals to consider the particular challenges of documenting an ephemeral art form. It connected artistic experience, Oral History, cultural memory and museum practice within the Ukrainian context.
The Workshop
The intensive drew on more than a decade of Viviani’s work as an Oral Historian in the performing arts, together with his experience as a dancer and choreographer.
A central concern was the relationship between spoken testimony and the knowledge carried through dance. Oral History can make aspects of experience, memory and artistic lineage visible and narratable, while recognising that embodied knowledge cannot be fully contained in words. The transmission of dance heritage also takes place through embodied practice, relationships and forms of knowledge that may remain only partially articulated.
The workshop therefore approached dance heritage as both documentary material and living cultural knowledge. Questions of memory, testimony, documentation, preservation and future access were considered in relation to the specific conditions of dance and to the Ukrainian cultural context.
Kyiv and the Ukrainian Context
The workshop took place during a period in which questions of cultural memory, heritage and continuity have particular significance in Ukraine. The encounter brought international Oral History experience into dialogue with Ukrainian dance researchers, museum professionals and practitioners working within conditions shaped by war, displacement and cultural transformation.
The exchange also highlighted the importance of recognising dance as part of cultural history rather than treating it solely as an ephemeral performance practice.
From Workshop to Collaborative Work
The intensive formed part of a wider collaborative process concerned with the development of approaches to documenting and preserving dance heritage in Ukraine. This process contributed to the Protocol for Archiving Dance, developed in Kyiv in 2025 by Daryna Yakymova, Viktor Ruban and Ricardo Viviani.
The resulting work addresses the relationship between documentary records, Oral History, embodied knowledge and the continuing life of dance heritage. Further methodological and working materials remain part of the associated research archive.
Archival Material
Primary and related sources:
Official invitation dated 24 November 2025; workshop documentation; presentation materials; Oral History interviews conducted in Kyiv; Protocol for Archiving Dance, Kyiv 2025; related project documentation.
Post Scriptum — 1 September 2026
The workshop has become an important point of reference within Viviani’s continuing work connecting Oral History, dance heritage, embodied knowledge and archival practice.
Its significance lies in the encounter between artistic and institutional forms of knowledge and in the development of a shared context for thinking about how dance heritage can be documented while remaining understood as living and embodied cultural practice.
Contribution / Ertrag:
The intensive brought Oral History practice, dance research and museum work into dialogue and contributed to a wider collaborative process concerning the documentation and preservation of dance heritage in Ukraine.
Assessment / Relevanz:
The workshop represents a significant stage in Viviani’s continuing development of Oral History in the performing arts. It extended this practice into a new cultural and institutional context and strengthened the connection between dance heritage, embodied knowledge and archival work.
Keywords:
Oral History; Dance Heritage; Ukraine; Kyiv; Embodied Knowledge; Dance Documentation; Museum Practice; Cultural Memory; Archiving; Dance History; Heritage Transmission; Archive Activation
External Links
Goethe-Institut Ukraine
Ukrainian Crisis Media Center — Press Conference Video
Suspilne Kultura — Archiving Ukrainian Dance
Oksana Bohdanivna Lan Participation
Internal Links
Journey to Kyiv
Kyiv Press Conference
Voices from Kyiv
Archival Note: This page forms part of an ongoing personal archive documenting Ricardo Viviani’s professional work and activities over more than four decades. Names and other personal information appear where relevant to the documented work or collaboration. If you believe that information concerning you has been published incorrectly or should be reconsidered, please contact me.