Press Suspilne Kultura Kyiv- Ukraine
How NAMU Works on Archiving Ukrainian Dance
In early December, the National Art Museum of Ukraine (NAMU) hosted an unexpected event: a six‑day intensive workshop dedicated to developing methods for preserving Ukraine’s dance heritage. As the article notes, “Dance researchers and practitioners, museum workers and historians worked to create an approach to preserving Ukraine’s dance heritage” .
The project, “Oral History for Dance Heritage,” was organized by Impulse Transformation Platform with support from Goethe‑Institut and NAMU. It brought together Ukrainian dance researchers and museum specialists under the guidance of Ricardo Viviani, dancer, choreographer, and oral historian of the Pina Bausch Foundation. The team worked on adapting the oral history method to document embodied knowledge in the Ukrainian context. As Viviani explains, the challenge lies in the fact that “There is very little verbal articulation around the dance itself… The challenge is to create a way to talk about it”.
The workshop highlighted long‑standing gaps in Ukraine’s dance documentation. Historian Taras Samchuk emphasized that dance remains an under‑researched field, while curator Viktor Ruban pointed out that Soviet‑era constraints left much of Ukraine’s experimental dance heritage undocumented and nearly lost. Ruban notes that this missing history contains “Gaps in historical memory that we now need to fill in the context of our identity” .
Artists such as Khrystyna‑Maria Slobodyaniuk described contemporary dance in Ukraine as a “basement art form,” vulnerable to disappearing without a trace. NAMU’s earlier project “Dance in the War Zone?” marked the museum’s first attempt to present dance as an artistic medium rather than an auxiliary program, laying the groundwork for the current collaboration.
NAMU now plans to develop protocols for archiving dance, using oral history as a core tool. Curator Daryna Yakymova stresses that museums lack trained dance researchers and that archiving dance requires new institutional infrastructure. She notes: “We will develop collection storage protocols… the oral history method… can help this heritage to be recorded and archived” .
The article concludes that archiving dance is not only a technical challenge but a cultural necessity. Dance carries embodied memory, identity, and knowledge essential for Ukraine’s cultural continuity. As Viviani remarks, documenting Ukrainian dance contributes to national identity formation and helps international audiences understand how much remains undiscovered about Ukraine.
The workshop addressed a fundamental challenge in documenting dance: much of dancers’ and choreographers’ knowledge is embodied and has traditionally received little verbal or archival articulation. The work therefore focused not simply on recording testimony, but on developing ways of helping practitioners articulate the depth and specificity of their knowledge of dance.
The project also situated dance heritage within contemporary Ukrainian cultural identity. Participants discussed gaps in the documentation of Ukrainian dance, including practices and histories that had remained largely within personal memories and private archives, particularly as a result of Soviet-era cultural frameworks. The workshop considered Oral History as one means of making these histories visible and contributing to their preservation.
Following the workshop, NAMU began developing a methodology and protocols for preserving dance within a museum collection, including the use of Oral History as a tool for documenting an ephemeral art form. The project therefore extended beyond the workshop itself toward an institutional approach to Activating Archives and incorporating contemporary dance into museum and heritage practices.
Title: Oral History for Dance Heritage
Date: 1–6 December 2025
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
Role: Lecturer, workshop leader, oral-history practitioner
Context: National Art Museum of Ukraine (NAMU) / Impulse Transformation Platform / Goethe-Institut Ukraine
Project Description
A six‑day intensive workshop bringing together Ukrainian dance researchers, museum specialists, and oral historians to develop methods for documenting and preserving Ukrainian dance heritage. Led by Ricardo Viviani, the project focused on adapting oral history to capture embodied knowledge, tacit memory, and lineage transmission within Ukrainian dance culture.
Significance
This project marks an evolution in Ricardo Viviani’s long‑term work: moving from Oral History as documentation toward Activating Archives — applying accumulated knowledge from dance, choreography, and oral history to a new institutional and cultural context. The collaboration with NAMU demonstrates how embodied knowledge can reshape museum practice and with the potential to alter how dance heritage is documented, collected, and preserved.
Institutional Context
NAMU hosted the workshop as part of its emerging initiative to integrate dance into the museum’s cultural and archival mission. The project builds on NAMU’s earlier program “Dance in the War Zone?”, which first introduced dance as an artistic medium within the museum.
Outcome
Following the workshop, NAMU initiated the development of protocols for the preservation and museum collection of dance, including the use of Oral History as a documentation method. This marks the first institutional step toward creating a sustainable framework for archiving Ukrainian dance as immaterial cultural heritage.