Join us for a day-long event filled with music, dance, performance art, immersive installations, wearable sculptures, bright costumes, meditation and rituals. Intermingle with the art, gather with friends by a bonfire, have a picnic, enjoy delicious food by HAND CRAFTED, participate in an interactive performance for families with children, a collective art project, or a workshop.
This is an incredible opportunity for adults and children alike to come together with friends in a fun and transformational setting.
The Summer Festival is a part of TurnPark's relief effort for Ukraine and will offer additional opportunities to support Ukraine, through direct donations and the purchase of unique merchandise.
Open Heart is a term to describe a willingness to engage with people through a genuine and authentic connection that comes from love and compassion. For us at TurnPark it speaks to staying receptive, vulnerable, sincere, courageous, and continuing to live and create.
If there is anything we can do to oppose the war - and all evil - it is to support those suffering, to resist indifference, create art, and to be together. We hope everyone will be able to find something healing and encouraging at the festival.
For the Open Heart Summer Festival TurnPark plans to collaborate with artists, musicians, and performers from different parts of the USA and other countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia, Russia, Israel, and others, including: Sergei Isupov, Olga Rabetskaya, Victor Romanul, Uta Bekaia, Natasha Mirny, Dima Klim, Sasha Drey, Volga Bo, Luna Go, Maidibor, Slava Yasser, Aliya Kamenshikov, Inna Zhukovsky-Zilber, Alisa Rodny, and others.
Together, let’s embrace the creative power of Open Hearts this Summer!
Please note: Schedule is subject to change!
OPEN HEART PERFORMERS GREETING GUESTS - 3pm
Brussels square
FATAL THINGS - 4pm
quarry lake
(visual storytelling)
FATAL THINGS is a colorful and ardent performance aiming to process the grim realities of the war in Ukraine. Inspired by Slavic fairy tales and their occasionally grisly characters, this surreal multicultural extravaganza blends performative fiber arts, puppetry, music and dance in an attempt to answer the questions of life and death, free will and fate.
Concept by Luna Go
Directed by Maidibor and Luna Go
Written by Katya Brezgunova
Costumes and Makeup by Luna Go
Costume Engineering by Igor Gomberg
Aliya Kamenshikov
Slava Yasser
Jean Furman
Luke G
Dancers and musicians: Dima Klim, Sasha Drey, Max Guselshchikov, Maria Vasilevsky
Natasha Mirny, Fima Furman, Tatyana Nagaeva, Bob Brazhkin, Olya Brazhkina, Sasha Brazhkina, Masha Dubov, Masha Dimov
THE EARTH IN BETWEEN, US IN A CUBE
Piazza del Campo
Carolina Muñoz Awad
Interaction with an artist 5-5.30pm
Station Open: 5-8pm
The earth in between, us in a cube, is a piece that questions the geometries of the places we build, inhabit, and are all around us. With the structure of the cube, and the contrast of our bodies' complex forms, creases, and irregularities enhanced by the wearable pieces on them, the artist creates an ongoing performance of these relations.
Carolina Muñoz Awad invites the audience to wear the see-through handmade wearable pieces that will be filled with the earth from TurnPark, and to use the cubes as they best see fit, like a seat, a plinth, a stage, for the body, the human earthy-bodies.
Open Heart Festival, is the setting for which this performance was created, in an attempt to turn out attention to the core component, our bodies, as all fragments, together, with the earth.
CONTEMPORARY DANCE PERFORMANCE - 5.30pm
Big Meadow
DUET
The story of partnership, of two “whales” swimming nearby each other. Together they feel as good as they do apart. They need each other, but there is no fear of being alone.
Choreography: Olga Rabetskaya
Dancers: Kevin Pajarillaga and Olga Rabetskaya
SAND
We are all different. We have distinct views, opinions and idols. "Sand" is a work-in-progress which explores how individuals from different cultures and worlds get along and find peace with each other and harmony within themselves. How beliefs can be unsteady like sand.
Choreography: Olga Rabetskaya and dancers
Dancers: India Hobbs, Rachel Heinkel, Justin Daniels
Music: Slava Yasser, Maria Vasilevskaya
Everyone is invited to move around between stations
SHORT MOVIE SCREENING - 6.30pm
Big Meadow
"TELL ME - ÄÅ ÒÈ?"
(5th Floor Theater, Sandro Garibashvili, Maria Korenev)
How does our body respond to the violence of war? How does the psyche wrestle with the ultimate threat to our wellbeing and security? How does it feel to leave home, not knowing whether you will ever return? This short dance film is an exploration of the visceral after-effects of the war in Ukraine. Four dancers delve into the difficult emotions and borderline states that the war leaves us with, expressing them through dance, poetry and visual storytelling.
FATAL THINGS
Concept by Luna Go
Directed by Maidibor and Luna Go
Cast: Aliya Kamenshikov, Slava Yasser, Kaila Pelton-Flavon
Music: Dima Klim
LOVE WARRIOR
(Tatyana Nagaeva)
This project is a first step for my upcoming film, my way to unite everything I love and to share my vision on what is love and beauty: my passion for music, dance, film, photography, fashion aesthetic, painting, all those magical things which are the most important of all. Things which are the reason we are here on Earth. Love is a freedom- a freedom to choose love
Tatyana Nagaeva
OPEN HEART PERFORMERS 7.00pm
Big Meadow
+dj set
PYROTHERAPY PROJECT BURNING - 8.00pm
Big Meadow
OPEN HEART MEDITATION - 8.30pm
Amphitheater
(Sasha Drey, Dima Klim, and Slava Yasser)
KlimToT & Drey project LIVE MUSIC CONCERT - 9pm
Amphitheater
(A concert of ethnic, ambient, meditative sound)
Dima Klim and Sasha Drey
PYROTHERAPY
Big Meadow
(community art project)
by Lidia Mikhailova, Inna Zhukovsky-Zilber, and Igor Gomberg
Station open 3-8pm
Burning - 8.30pm
Take part in a collective art project! expression of emotions with this cathartic art project. Write or draw without any hesitation on a large canvas to release pent-up negativity, as the canvas will be burnt when finished. This highly spiritual and therapeutic process is called to create a sense of unity, allowing participants to create something beautiful out of their raw emotions.
GRIEF AND RELEASE STATION
North meadow
(Volga Bo, Natalie Knurenko, and Gabe Turetsky)
Station open 3-6pm
Workshop: 4.30-6pm
This year we would like to continue what we started in 2022 and deepen the experience where there is time to hold the grief, and release and perhaps transform these heavy emotions; we will be making prayer ties with organic earth materials and PEACE altar; and finally we will elevate our collective prayer for peace and unity via a journey guided dance - souldance, supported and elevated by live harp.
Big Meadow:
SUPPORT UKRAINE STATION
FOOD COURT
GIFT SHOP
VISUAL INSTALLATIONS:
Collateral Damage - Victor Melamed)
Ukraine 2022 - Dima Gomberg
Defiance – Marc Zaref
Angel of Death Contemplates the Passage of Time – Alisa Rodny
Haley Law - Crash Bend Slap Kiss
TurnPark Summer Festival Participants:
Olga Rabetskaya is a U.S. based artist originally from Belarus. She is a dancer, choreographer, director and photographer whose work spans film, choreography and photography, multimedia production. Olga’s artistic research and exploration focus on the deep knowledge of the body and how to share our emotional experience, memories, and body intelligence through movement.
Kevin Pajarillaga is a Dance artist most curious about the process of sharing the lived experiences of the body through time, space and movement fused with a little bit of fantasy and imagination. He is currently an artistic associate with Gibney Company, most recently performed at MTV VMA’s with Doja Cat, and recently collaborated for a Museum Exhibition "Vegyn" with Dan Colen and Claude Cj Johsnon.
India Hobbs is a professional dancer currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Graduate of Boston Conservatory’s 2021 class, majoring in contemporary dance. Most recently, India joined Andrea Miller’s dance company, GALLIM, to perform a re-debut of BLUSH at The Chelsea Factory, originally curated fifteen years ago by Miller herself. As an artist, India is thrilled to continue the expansion of her portfolio, making global connections with artists of all walks of life.
Rachel Heinkel was born in Dayton, Ohio. She moved to New York City in 2016 and graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with her B.F.A. in Dance in 2020. There she had the opportunity to perform works by Andrea Miller, Adam Barruch, Michael Waldrop and more. Since graduating she has performed works by Hussien Smko and Olga Rabetskaya. She has created and presented work with her creative partner Madeline O'Donnell. Currently, Rachel is dancing with Project TAG Dance Company and Tabula Rasa Dance Theater.
Justin Daniels, Native of Atlanta, Ga began his formal dance training at Tri-Cities High School located in Eastpoint, Ga. From there he earned a B.F.A. in Contemporary Dance Performance minor in Psychology at The Boston Conservatory and abroad at The Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, China. Upon graduating the conservatory Justin has toured with RudduR Dance and various NYC based artists and choreographers. Now freelancing as an artist, choreographer, and photographer he has been able to work with amazing artist and choreographers such as Jon Batiste, MAX PRETENDS, Aszure Barton, Mia Michaels, Jemel McWilliams, and more. Some of his photography was published in a 2022 interview with Voyage ATL Magazine. Justin is nothing more than excited for What's to come next!
Dima Klim and Sasha Drey
The musicians bringing the "KlimToT & Drey project" to life are Dima Klim and Sasha Drey - multi-instrumentalist artists with a passion for ethnic, ambient, and meditative sound. Currently residing in New York (originally from the Soviet Union), they refined their musical skills through years of live-performance experience, including theatrical projects and work in the underground experimental music scene. As performing members of Petroglyph, AB OVO, Yantra, and Chingis Dub, Dima and Sasha’s music is a reflection of eclectic taste and artistic vision. It is a creative blend of shamanic, trance, and electronic sounds. Dima and Sasha presented the Chingiz Dub program at TurnPark’s Summer Festival last year, and now return with their latest project, KlimToT& Drey, which showcases the production skills and creativity of both artists, demonstrating their potential as an emerging force in combining live instruments with electronic sounds. The program is intended to be performed with a collective of other artists, providing the audience with a more immersive and shamanic experience.
Slava Yasser is a creator, medium, provocateur and inspirator-in-chief channeling the grace of communion and divine connection through music, performance and multimedia arts. Born in Moldova into a Jewish family, growing up in Ukraine and Russia, Slava brought his multicultural heritage to New York in mid-90s. Through the last 30 years he performed in several collectives, co-founded a few festivals and organized hundreds of events. His mission has always been to foster and empower community connections, to heal the collective trauma of separation with integrity, trust, and intimacy.
Natasha Mirny is a stage director, teaching artist, performer, and founder of Happy Theater (www.happytheater.com). She is currently working as an Arts Integration specialist at several theaters and educational programs in DC area - Arts for Learning, Dumbarton concerts/Inspired Child, and Wolf Trap – designing and implementing programs for teachers and students at public schools in DC, VA and MD. Her background is in pantomime, puppetry, and physical theater. For the past five years Natasha has devised and directed nine shows for children and adults. Her show for young audiences, that she wrote and directed for Arts On The Horizon, was nominated for Helen Hayes award in 2019 as an outstanding theater for young audiences production.
Volga Bo is a yoga-teacher, songwriter, performer, ritualist, and a Spirit embodiment guide.
She has been immersed in the journey of “above&below” exploration through dance, music, yoga, astrology, mystical and spiritual studies of various traditions and Indigenous cultures. She has been spreading consciousness for over a decade; in her classes and workshops, Volga fuses and mixes various genres of movement, breathing, and self-expressing. DANCING is one of her favorite ways to transcend and connect with the spiritual realms.
Natalie Knurenko was classically trained in the world known Moscow Gnesin Academy of Music with the focus in Harp and Piano and later continued to deepen her education in music history and performance in Tel Aviv University’s Musical Academy of Rubin. She has performed on many prestigious stages, theaters, TV shows and shared her talents and artistic gifts in various creative projects, across many countries, cultures and genres.
Natalie and Volga have been friends and collaborators for almost 25 years; they are absolutely thrilled to reunite and combine their energies and visions in this soulDance dynamic and modern media. They are so looking forward to offering a very creative, mind-expansive, and spirit-elevating experience.
Carolina Muñoz Awad is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY.
Carolinas practice has been dealing with the embodied experience of touch and close contact with materials (intimacy might be misunderstood, but it’s an intimate relation).
Through politics of care, repetition and the absurd, the artist is interested in the effects that playing can cause in us-moreover when we spend so much time alone, and our minds seem to be running out of our bodies.
With the pieces she will create and invite to perform with at the Festival, Carolina aims for these connections, with weight, touch, support, comfort, and discomfort, the inanimate can make us feel.
It is an invitation for a recognition of our physical presence in space through contrast with nature forms, textures, colors, and geometric shapes.
The artist experiences and experiments her practice through personal healing processes and understandings of her presence in space and place.
The project consists of wearable pieces and interventions to the landscape where attendees will be able to inhabit.
Ina Zhukovsky-Zilber
Artist Quote: "Art sparks the magic in our inner child, playfully weaving wonder, curiosity, and endless fascination into the colorful tapestry of our lives, like a catchy tune we can't help but dance to."
Artist Statement: Ina Zhukovsky-Zilber's artistry in textile design embodies her journey through time and places, evoking cherished memories and heartfelt connections. Inspired by her childhood experiences at Lithuania's Kaziuki festival and her professional training in Israel, Ina creates wearable art pieces that celebrate the beauty of color and texture through her unique visual language.
Artist Training Ina Zhukovsky-Zilber began painting and studying art in art school at an early age, developing her artistic talents through her formative years. She furthered her professional training by obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Haifa University in Israel, where she expanded her understanding of the art form and refined her creative voice. In addition to creating her own wearable art pieces, Ina also shares her passion for art by teaching the craft to others.
Jean Furman is a professional coloratura soprano turned financial consultant. While Furman has performed and won competitions throughout the U.S. and internationally, she has found that she prefers the stability of a 9-5 which gives her the flexibility to choose when and how she performs. She has experience in various mediums of performance such as opera, musical theater, acting, dancing, TV, and most recently narration/emceeing. Throughout Furman career she has frequently performed as a hired soloist/emcee at private events, concerts, and professional recitals.
Lidia Mikhaylova will lead the community art project during this year’s Summer Festival.
Born and raised in Russia, Siberia, Lidia built a successful career as a lawyer in the corporate world. However, after many years of working in this field, Lidia made the decision to move to Riga, Latvia in search for new ways to fulfill her dreams.
Latvia was the place where Lidia became inspired by the colorful imagery of her surroundings and completely fell in love with painting.
“The fall of 2019 was one of the happiest and most fulfilling periods in my life,” Lidia says. “I had the opportunity to travel across the ocean and witness the incredible beauty of the east coast of America, and my art was seen by the eyes of distinguished American viewers. Three years in America taught me how to enjoy the changes, and anticipate transformations of the world around me. I continue to transfer the beauty of reality which surrounds me onto canvas or silk, and I get incredible pleasure from it.”
In addition to developing her artistic practice, Lidia currently teaches, and leads master classes for children and adults in painting on silk and clothing.
Alisa Rodny is a Boston based mixed media artist. She creates mixed media paintings and sculptures that have a conceptual foundation in historical objects of narrative - mostly books and maps. Arrangements of symbols and objects instead of words or predictable images, offer the possibility of experiencing a space that is in concept larger on the inside than on the outside. While each viewer is able to interpret the symbols and “connect the dots” in their own unique way, the big ideas in the art pieces remain constant, addressing the great, simple, unanswerable questions of death, love, war, and ways in which knowledge is arranged in the spaces of the world.
Sandro Garibashvili
Sandro Garibashvili is a musician, performer and filmmaker. Originally from Russia he immigrated and grew up in the US. He studied physical theater at the London International School of Performing Arts. He has staged multiple original plays, directed several music videos, and has led ‘actor devised physical theater,’ workshops in the States and Europe. He writes music for his own collective as well as original compositions for others’ staged works.
Over the past six years he has undertaken a journey into the world of ritual and shamanic theater, with artist Konstantin Zorkin. During the process multiple performances were staged, some to intimate crowds, others to large open air audiences. Each performance was supported by the creation of a set of unique tools and costumes that acted as keys to the given territory/ theme. Each performance dealt with different archetypal aspects of the human psyche, the spread was wide, ranging from the Epos of Gilgamesh to modern Video Games.
‘The Hill,’ is a culmination of the work and shows the unconventional artistic style and method of storytelling that has been developed. Often reminiscent of a dream-like state, where one is confronted by a shadow, or a reflection, of a deeper self, we search for a truthful representation of who we are, in order to ultimately reach a state of inner artistic freedom.
Maria Koreneva
Maria Koreneva studied Lecoq based physical theater at the London School of Performing Arts. In 2005 she co-founded the Eleffant-Foot theater company with Sandro Garibashvili in Chicago, USA, which contributed four original productions to the local independent theater scene. After a short US career, she decided to return to her home town in Kharkiv, Ukraine, where she has been developing original work since 2013. Maria has adapted an improvisational approach to
theater and film creation, with an emphasis on physical presence and the uncontrived personal stories of the actors.
Aliya Kamenshikov
Max Guselshchikov
Tickets: $30 through March-April, $35 through May, $40 June 1–9, and $45 day-of $25 for members