Choreographer · Dancer · Butoh Artist
Anna Garafeeva is a choreographer, dancer, and performer working at the intersection of butoh, contemporary dance and poetry. A three-time nominee for Russia’s prestigious Golden Mask Award, she has established herself as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Russian performance.
Trained in butoh dance under the legendary Min Tanaka at the “Do Dance” company in Japan (2001-2008), Garafeeva spent formative years at Body Weather Farm, developing a practice that bridges Eastern and Western approaches to movement and embodiment.
From 2001 to 2015, she worked as a physical actress with Anatoly Vasiliev’s renowned School of Dramatic Art in Moscow. Her choreographic work has been featured at major Russian theaters including the Electrotheatre Stanislavsky, Taganka Theatre, and the Meyerhold Center.
Currently based in Paris, Garafeeva continues to develop her unique artistic language—what she calls the “choreography of the unconscious”—exploring the liminal spaces between dance, theater, and psyche.
2024 | FESTIVAL ANIGEL, GENÈVE
The project was emerged during the pandemic and period of intensified political resistance. We explore the phenomenon of breath as an archive of the emotional and physical states of human and society, as well as of the ‘political body’. Breath is the protagonist of the performance – a kind of manifesto of vitality and freedom. It forms the foundation of the performance’s sound and choreographic score.
Choreography: Anna Garafeeva, Dina Khuseyn
Dramaturgy: Anna Semenova-Ganz
Sound ::vtol::
Scenography: Polina Bakhtina, Dina Borovik
Light: Elena Perelman
Dancers: Taras Burnash, Alexandr Shuyskiy, Ekaterina Kaliuzhnaia, Alyona Shutova, Katya Volkova, Alexey Narutto, Natalya Obelchak
AWARDS:
2 nominations for the Russian National Golden Mask Award, 2022
best contemporary dance performance/ best contemporary choreography
With the support of the Festival Diaghilev, Pro Helvetia, GARAGE, Institut Français, festivals “Brusfest”, “Territory”, Museum of Moscow.
2022 | GES-2, MOSCOW
The project was born shortly after the outbreak of the war. I wanted to create a safe space for the audience, in the spirit of Japanese Zen garden: a place for solitude, reflection and meditation. Through the movement of their bodies the dancer enact a mediation (lat. mediare) between nature, sound, imagination and public, immersing them in a contemplative state of consciousness. The dancer’s body becomes a medium.
Concept, choreography: Anna Garafeeva
Dancers: Vladimir Ermachenkov, Ekaterina Kaliuzhnaia, Boris Borisov, Alena Shutova, Nikita Petrov, Lelyana Stanishevskaya
Music: Oleg Gudachev
Scenography: Ira Novichkova
Video: Xenia Phillipova
With the support of GES-2 residency for the new generation of artists “In Their Own Words”
2018 | DIAGHILEV FESTIVAL, PERM
A haunting butoh solo performed in semolina, honoring sculptor Camille Claudel and all women artists lost to history.
Concept, choreography, dance: Anna Garafeeva
Music: Alexey Retinsky
Scenography: Ksenia Peretrukhina
Light: Ivan Matis
Producer: Nika Parkhomovskaya
AWARDS:
4 nominations for the Russian National Golden Mask Award, 2019
best contemporary dance performance / best contemporary dancer / best composer in a musical theater / best set designer in a musical theater
With the support of the French Institute in Russia and Alliance Français – Perm, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Evolution Dance Project
2016 | KAZAN YOUTH THEATRE
The project grows from Vincent Van Gogh’s early paintings (1879 – 1885) and his letters to Theo, where dim, rural canvases are answered by writing filled with light. Van Gogh writes of miners deep underground – from the abyss, de profundis (lat.)- where darkness is total, and asks what it means to move trough it toward light. From this tension we begin a bodily research: the ‘dark body’ and the spark that might rise from within. Against today’s ‘city body’, we search for an elemental body – of earth and sky – able to rediscover the beauty of everyday life.
Choreography: Anna Garafeeva
Music: Elmir Nizamov
Light: Ivan Mathis
Scenography: Lilia Imamutdinova
Idea: Tufan Imamutdinov
AWARDS:
4 nominations for the Russian National Golden Mask Award, 2019
best contemporary dance performance / best choreographer in the contemporary dance / best composer in a musical theater / best set designer in musical theater
With the support of Ministry Culture of Russia and Tatarstan Republic, Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation, French Institute in Russia and Alliance Français Kazan
2013 | SCHOOL OF DRAMATIC ART
A dance performance inspired by Ovid’s “Heroides” and Roland Barthes’ “A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments”— five “dance letters” from mythological women to their absent lovers. An exploration of longing, love, and the transformation of the body in emotional states.
Concept, choreography: Anna Garafeeva
Dancers: Alina Tchernobrovkina, Olga Bondareva, Olga Khoreva, Ekaterina Alikina, Anna Garafeeva
Music: Colin Roche
Costume: Galya Solodovnikova
Light: Taras Mikhalevsky
Video: Xenia Phillipova
With the support of French Institute (Embassy of France) in Russia
2010 | SCHOOL OF DRAMATIC ART
Dance monologues of café visitors, directed by Oleg Glushkov. An intimate exploration of solitude, observation, and the poetry of everyday gestures within urban space.
2015 | ELECTROTHEATRE STANISLAVSKY
Choreography for Alexander Ogarev’s production at one of Moscow’s leading contemporary theaters, bringing physicality and movement language to the dramatic narrative.
“I work at the boundary between dance, theater, and poetry. My practice explores what I call the ‘choreography of the unconscious’—a space where the body speaks what words cannot.”
“Through butoh, I discovered that dance is not about beautiful forms, but about transformation. It’s about allowing the body to become a landscape where inner experiences can manifest and be witnessed.”
Japanese dance of darkness. Trained under the legendary Min Tanaka at the “Do Dance” company in Japan (2001–2008). This practice forms the core of her movement language, emphasizing metamorphosis over form.
Intensive physical training system developed by Min Tanaka. Studied at Body Weather Farm in Japan (2004–2006), learning to perceive the body as a landscape responding to internal and external forces.
Foundation of her practice since 1994 at the Dance Improvisation Studio in Yaroslavl. Member of “Performance-Trio” (1997–2002), exploring the spontaneous emergence of movement and theatrical presence.
Physical actress in Anatoly Vasiliev’s School of Dramatic Art company (2001–2015). Integration of theatrical dramaturgy with embodied practice, working at the intersection of text and movement.