Blog

April 2020: Voirelia
Q&A with Artistic Director Dr. Alina Sotskova

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Who is Dr. Alina Sotskova in a sentence?

Alina is a dancer, psychologist, and philosopher who is passionate about bringing different disciplines together in the creative process.

Tell us a bit about your company.

Voirelia is a non-profit dance hub with a strong value for interdisciplinary collaboration. Voirelia’s main focus is to create meaning-oriented contemporary dance and interdisciplinary art work influenced by humanistic and existential philosophical frameworks. We create performance art that invites people to think deeply & connect with one another.

What inspired you to form the company?

I wanted to create a family-like collective: supportive, encouraging of artistic risks – essentially a creative family that, through dance and art, makes the world a better place. I envisioned a collective that lifts each other up and creates performance art through collaboration with non-artistic disciplines. It is a family that gives back to the community, making each artistic work within a context of making a meaningful contribution.

How would you describe the work you do in three words?

Experiential. Inviting. Meaning-making.

Do you have any memories of moments or people that have influenced your artistic trajectory?

One that stands out right now is the experience at the Gaga intensives in 2019. There were many instructors who offered so much generosity and so many experiential tools for exploring the art of movement: Hillel Kogan, Nitzan Ressler, Ohad Naharin, Guy Shoromi, Yaara Moses, and many others. It was a very deep experience of connecting with other artists and with myself.

What are the core values of your company?

The framework of humanistic and existential psychology and philosophy underlies all our dance-making endeavours. This means that we value freedom, social responsibility, and authenticity. It means that we care deeply about psychological health of everyone involved – our artists, collaborators, and audience. We cherish creativity as a process of making meaning and helping people thrive.

Do you have any particular ritual that you carry out each day?

I work in two very rewarding and fulfilling careers: dance and clinical psychology. To strive towards work-life balance, I have recently been taking time to mindfully, while doing deep breathing, compose a list of all my activities for the day in a way that I can focus on only one task at a time, and transition smoothly from one thing to the next.

I am a Dance Centre member because…

I believe that it is very important to work together as a community, collaborating and supporting each other as dance professionals and organizations that support dance. Being a Dance Centre member is an important part of being a citizen of the dance community.

Photos: Jason Kirkness