created and performed by: Tanya Kabarova, Yael Karavan
What are we made of? How many archetypes, memories, experiences and ancestors are moving within us, leading the choices we make in our life? With dance, physical and visual theatre, Somnambules is a magical and evocative performance inspired by The 7 Deadly Sins. A voyage through our emotional spectrum, questioning once again what it means nowadays to be human.
“We feel the need to react to an unstable world and a life devoid of values where money and power have taken the place of conscience and sensitivity, where the individual is worth what he earns and where we are overwhelmed by external distractions that detach us from nature, where we rape her resources while losing touch with our own souls and intuition. A world in which the media and television have become our new gods.” (Yael Karavan)
Tanya Khabarova and Yael Karavan have been collaborating artistically for over 10 years. They worked together in Derevo, of which Tanya is a founding member, and later created a performance in Italy which toured in various international festivals there. Then they created Somnambules for an exhibition opening in 2007 in Paris, but this year they have come together again to work on a new version of the performance.
Russian-born Tanya Khabarova first studied music, playing violin, but soon realised that being a music teacher was not her calling. In 1987 she turned to the performing arts and began to study in the artistic experimental class of Anton Adasinsky in St. Petersburg. Next year she became a founding member of Derevo and has since travelled the whole world as a member of the famous company. She has also created solo performances, in 1998 she performed Reflection at THEALTER. Now she lives and works in Italy.
Yael Karavan was born in Israel and grew up in France and the UK. At 13 she began a successful acting career in the theatre, television, radio and film in Israel. In 1995 she travelled to Europe, Russia, Brazil and Japan to study, searching to develop a contemporary physical language of expression bridging East and West, dance and theatre. Her work is often described as visual poetry, drawing on elements of Butoh, dance, mime, clowning, physical and visual theatre. She has created numerous solo shows and was a member of physical theatre companies. In 2009 she founded her own Karavan Ensemble, an award winning company of international performers with an exciting mixture of performance skills and backgrounds.