BARYSHNIKOV ARTS x The Playground NYC
Company:
The Playground NYC
Baryshnikov Arts x The Playground NYC
Lead by: Oleg Stepanov
Friday, 09/19 || 10:00AM-12:00PM
$10, Early-bird rate is first-come, first-served.
Baryshnikov Arts Center: 450 W 37th St, New York, NY 10018
6th Floor, Cage and Cunningham Studios.
The Playground NYC allows dancers to experience various choreographic styles and ideas, engage with a new community of dancers, and gather resourceful information and inspiration from the array of choreographers involved. In turn, established choreographers are paid for their creative investigations, are given free space to explore new movement with professional dancers, and are provided with the opportunity to establish relationships with new dancers and fellow choreographers.
Bio:
Oleg Stepanov is a versatile artist, excelling as a dancer,choreographer, musician, and filmmaker. Born in the Urals, Russia, he has been residing in Germany and Switzerland since 2016. After graduating from the Physics Department of the Ural University, Oleg devoted himself to art-making. He danced at Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch (Germany) for 7 years, Gothenburg Dance Company (Sweden) for 3 years, 2 years at Theater Basel (Switzerland) and for 5 years at Provincial Dances Theatre (Russia). He collaborated with renowned choreographers such as Dimitris Papaioannou, Saburo Teshigawara, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Alan Lucien Oyen, Richard Siegal, Constanza Macras, Bobbi Jene Smith, Fabrice Mazliah, Uri Ivgi & Johan Greben. Oleg was a long time collaborator and assistant to Russian critically acclaimed choreographer Tatiana Baganova. He assisted her in the production of «Rite of Spring», set to Stravinsky's music at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 2013, as well as in the piece «Sepia» commissioned by American Dance Festival in 2010.
Oleg has received numerous awards. From the latter he was proclaimed by the German «Tanz» dance portal as «Dancer of the Year» in 2022 for his role in Richard Siegal’s and Anish Kapoor’s «Ectopia». He was also nominated for the Russian National Theatre Award, «Golden Mask» as «Best Male Dancer» for his role of Rudolf Nureyev in Natalia Kasparova’s and Leo Shulman’s «The Point of No Return» (2008) and as «Best Choreographer» for «All That I Can Be» (2016) and «Object in the Distance» (2017). Oleg secured the 3rd place in the «Gdansk Solo Dance Contest» (Poland) and the Online Dance Festival «Side by Side» (Germany) for his solo performance «NoBodY».
In 2023, Oleg’s work in film also involved choreographing for director Tom Tykwer’s film «The Light». In 2024, Oleg’s short film «A moth on a bomb» won a prize at New York Tri-State International Short Film Festival, it also received an honourable mention for the best cinematography at Newfilmmakers New York Festival, and it was also officially selected for Tokyo, Seoul and Roma International Short Film Festivals. His short dance video, «Moverevermore», received the Jury Choice Award at the «EnRoute Dance Film Festival» (USA). Oleg is currently collaborating as a choreographer with film director Alla Kovgan on their next full-length dance film «Purple river». Oleg actively facilitates dance research laboratories and workshops. He regularly teaches at b12 festival in Berlin, DAF Academy in Rome, AN-TRE program in Porto.
Oleg leads his course at Palazzo Caprioli Academy in Gussago, Italy.
