Type: Press Conference · Video Transcript Summary
Date: 23 December 2025
Context: Presentation of the results and future plans of Oral History for Dance Heritage
Location: Ukrainian Crisis Media Center, Kyiv, Ukraine
Subject: Developing a museum protocol for archiving dance
Related Workshop: Oral History for Dance Heritage, 1–6 December 2025
Speakers:
Viktor Ruban
Daryna Yakymova
Ricardo Viviani and representatives of Ukrainian museum and dance institutions, as referred to during the press conference
Press Conference: Oral History for Dance Heritage
This page presents an English summary of the transcript of a publicly available video recording of a press conference held by the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center. The conference presented the results of the Oral History for Dance Heritage project and discussed the next steps following the December 2025 workshop at the National Art Museum of Ukraine (NAMU).
The conference focused particularly on the development of a protocol through which dance could be documented and incorporated into a museum collection. Project curator Viktor Ruban described the work as part of the broader DancePlan Ukraine initiative and as a pilot approach to preserving performative arts through the integration of oral testimony, embodied knowledge and contextual information.
According to Ruban, the protocol responds to the difficulty of preserving dance through conventional museum practices. Dance is not only a performance event but also a social and cultural practice whose histories may disappear when documentation is absent. He emphasized the need to preserve testimonies, archival evidence and research in order to strengthen historical continuity and the visibility of Ukrainian dance.
Daryna Yakymova, curator at NAMU, presented the newly developed three-part protocol for archiving dance:
- Metadata — title, authorship, performance history, dance category, format, structure, participants, documentation such as video, photography and audio, and material elements including costumes and props.
- Oral History Archive — interviews with performers, choreographers, scenographers, musicians and other contributors, creating a multidisciplinary body of embodied and contextual knowledge.
- Reconstruction Protocol — guidelines for preserving essential elements of a dance work, identifying variable components, and documenting rights, licences and technical requirements relevant to future re-performance.
Yakymova explained that museums traditionally work through the preservation of material objects, while dance presents the additional challenge of preserving an ephemeral artistic form. Within the project, Oral History provided a method for extending the museum record beyond physical objects and for incorporating the knowledge and experience of the people who created and performed the work.
The press conference also emphasized the importance of Ricardo Viviani’s experience with Oral History at the Pina Bausch Foundation. His decade of work with dance practitioners was presented as an important reference for adapting Oral History to the Ukrainian context and to the specific requirements of dance heritage.
The speakers described the need for a systematic and accessible structure through which dance could be documented, researched and, where appropriate, reconstructed. In this framework, museum collection, Oral History, archival documentation and future artistic transmission become interconnected rather than separate activities.
The press conference therefore documents a concrete institutional development following the December workshop: the work moved from methodological experimentation toward the formulation of a protocol intended to allow dance to enter a museum collection as a form of cultural heritage.
Archival Material:
Video recording of the press conference; transcript summary; documentation relating to the Oral History for Dance Heritage workshop; material concerning the development of the NAMU dance-archiving protocol.
Post Scriptum — 30 August 2026
This press-conference record is important in relation to the December 2025 workshop because it documents a subsequent institutional step: the development and public presentation of a protocol for incorporating dance into the collection and archival practice of NAMU.
Contribution / Ertrag:
The conference makes visible the practical transfer of Oral History methodology into museum practice. The work undertaken after the workshop resulted in a structured proposal combining metadata, oral testimony and reconstruction requirements, creating a framework through which dance can be documented not only as an event but as a body of artistic, social and embodied knowledge.
Assessment / Relevanz:
The press conference is relevant because it records a transition from workshop-based experimentation to institutional methodology. It provides documentary evidence of how questions concerning embodied knowledge and Oral History were taken up within a museum context and translated into a proposed collection protocol for dance heritage. In the context of Ricardo Viviani’s wider practice, it is a concrete example of Activating Archives through collaboration between practitioners, researchers and a collecting institution.
Keywords:
Oral History; Dance Heritage; Ukraine; Ukrainian Dance; Archival Activation; Museum Collection; National Art Museum of Ukraine; NAMU; Embodied Knowledge; Documentation; Reconstruction; Cultural Heritage; Cultural Memory; DancePlan Ukraine; Museum Practice; Ricardo Viviani
External Links
Ukrainian Crisis Media Center — Press Conference Video
Suspilne Kultura — Archiving Ukrainian Dance
Impulse Transformation Platform — Oral History for Dance Heritage
Dance Archiving Protocol NAMU, Ukraine
Internal Links
Journey to Kyiv — Dancing against Time in Kyiv
Oral History for Dance Heritage — Workshop Entry
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.