80 years ago this autumn, Nazi occupying forces murdered more than 33,000 Jews in the ravine of Babyn Yar in the suburbs of Kyiv, Ukraine, over just two days. In the following two years of Nazi occupation, Babyn Yar became the site of over 100,000 deaths.
This month, Dash Arts marks this anniversary by premiering a new music theatre production, Songs for Babyn Yar, in London and Ukraine with a work-in-progress sharing in Berlin. This performance sees three Ukrainian musicians explore the legacy of these massacres, drawing on survivors' testimonies, traditional Yiddish and Ukrainian folk songs, poetry and storytelling, and asking how we can move forward.
This podcast episode reveals the story of the making of the show, its vision and the creative journey we have experienced as we explore how to commemorate atrocity through the medium of performance. Featuring interviews with the show's director Josephine Burton; musicians Yuriy Gurzhy, Svetlana Kundish and Mariana Sadovska; and Dr Uilleam Blacker, Associate Professor of Comparative Russian and East European Culture at UCL.
Music credits
Songs featured: Mipney Ma and Rabbi Yuriy's Dance from Songs for Babyn Yar
All the music was created and recorded in the rehearsal room with Yuriy Gurzhy, Svetlana Kundish and Mariana Sadovska for Dash Arts
Intro music: Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi
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