Mary Brennan talks to the creative forces behind a groundbreaking Russian-Scottish collaboration.

For days now, The Arches in Glasgow has been alive with the sounds, the sights, the sighs, of dreams coming alive. And though the collaborative journey that brings two of Russia’s leading dance companies to Scotland still has a few hurdles to negotiate (just think what might go adrift with flights and visas and equipment en route), the buzz that percolates from basement to foyer is electric with a heady, determined energy.

“This is what I’ve been dreaming of for ages.” Jackie Wylie, the venue’s artistic director, sounds almost disbelieving as her space fills up with not one globally acclaimed Russian company but two. Derevo and Akhe have joined forces with the Arches-based Conflux project, which focuses on street arts and physical theatre (see panel), to create a new, site-specific performance that will drag the audience’s imagination through the brickwork vaults and down to the below-stairs warren where few productions venture. Al Seed, artistic director of Conflux, is more than satisfied with the way Scottish performers will have the chance to be involved in Natura Morte.

“Brian Hartley, Tony Mills and Skye Reynolds will be working with the Russians,” he says, “but both companies have also been holding masterclasses here in The Arches, and that has given around 15 people a chance to access the different styles and methods they use. Conflux is all about professional development and training, so to have this opportunity for our artists to explore new directions, acquire new skills just ticks all the boxes. We especially want to support our artists in evolving the kind of physical theatre work that Derevo is renowned for – and from the Conflux perspective, the timing of this project is definitely fortuitous.”

One of the lessons the Scottish participants are about to learn – not just in theory, but in practice – is the difference between pain and discomfort. Those who’ve seen Derevo in action, either on the Edinburgh Fringe or at The Arches, will know that director Anton Adasinskiy creates searingly intense, visually striking movement that demands total concentration of mind and muscle, sinew and spirit. Of course, any injury demands treatment and rest – his own knee problems forced him to take time out a couple of years ago. But aching joints, bruised limbs, a blister – it all comes down to working through the discomfort, learning from it and working out how to avoid such drawbacks by mastering the moves to the nth degree.

Incisive intellect

Does this sound like a school of hard knocks? You need to put it in the context of Adasinskiy’s own rigorous training and the unrelenting work ethic he acquired during his Leningrad days with Slava Polunin’s mime company in the eighties. His own temperament – an incisive intellect, curious to analyse why and how we behave – probably inclines him to put his own body on the line, ferreting out the physical tics and expressive gestures that convey the turmoils of inner states and the shifting textures of external sensations.

If audiences rejoice in the visceral impact of what Adasinskiy achieves through perception and self-discipline, there are – fortunately for those audiences – other thrillingly accomplished performers who are willing to embrace his vision, his process and his standards. They line up as Derevo and they attract accolades the way a magnet attracts iron filings. Their many awards include a Bank of Scotland Herald Angel and an Archangel, the latter in 2006 to recognise their consistent brilliance on the Edinburgh Fringe.

For this Arches project, Adasinskiy has arrived with a concept in mind – but, as he says with a smile, it can change from day to day. His words are echoed by Pavel Semchenko and Maxim Isaev, the co-founders of Akhe. They’ve worked with Adasinskiy before, but what really connects them isn’t their mode of artistic expression – Akhe come from a fine art, not a theatre or dance background – but their shared roots in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and the alternative arts scene that reached out to them 20 years ago.

Audiences who have seen Akhe on the Fringe, or at the Arches – sparks flew, literally, when they performed Plug’n’Play there in 2007 – will recall how mind-blowing their use of unlikely objects can be. Semchenko will describe this in terms of dynamic sculptures or an alphabet of objects, musing that it’s “interesting to find a language where you can show something – or have a meeting of emotions with an audience – without showing, or imitating, a character. But actually, for this project, Anton has said it would be good not to work in the way that is our habit, but to search for new combinations.”

Travelling through dreams

Isaev, who has been tasked with prowling round the Arches in search of found objects chuckles at the prospect of cooking up new compounds of clown-mischief, original music, artwork and sudden surprises. “We have ingredients for the cocktail,” he rumbles gleefully. “But we don’t know for sure what the cocktail will be – but not Molotov...” Maybe not, but Adasinskiy’s groundwork thoughts do have an incendiary edge as well as a hauntingly poetic turn.

He sketches an outline that centres on a character called The Weatherman. “You never see him, he is just a voice. We have come to his house, but what we find in the rooms are these little shows – we are like shadows, travelling through his dreams. He dreams of being a dancer, an artist, a writer, a musician, a rock’n’roll man – passionate dreams, powerful dreams, the kind of dreams we can all have. But unfortunately, a lot of people are just dreaming those dreams and they are lazy. They want to be successful, as much as possible, as soon as possible, but they don’t want to stay hard at work or to spend the years to get the qualities they need.

“People are in a hurry. They don’t want to take time to think, to learn, to push themselves. They don’t even want to try for their dreams. Life is life – not everything is good or nice. At 30, 35, if the big childhood dreams haven’t happened, they give up on them. Why? There is still time for having dreams. For making even small changes to your life. But to change, you have to work a lot – this is what is going on inside the soul of The Weatherman.”

It’s worth mentioning that Adasinskiy has been taking his own advice. When problems with his knees meant no dancing, he didn’t slump into lethargy. “I’ve started my own group – the Positive Band – and I am not a young man [think late forties]. I put my guitar back on – [shades of his 1986-88 days as frontman and director of rock group AVIA] – wrote a couple of songs, played a concert. People came. Liked it. “ Have a dream, live it – that’s the Adasinskiy mantra.

Natura Morte premieres at The Arches, Glasgow, on November 10 at 7.30pm and runs until November 14.