ONCE I PLAYED AT WAR

“Once I Played at War” is a contemporary dance performance by Ukrainian choreographer Anton Ovchinnikov about play, fractured perception, and the impossibility of remaining stable while living between war and everyday life.
Premiere - April 29th, 2026Kaunas Chamber Theater, Kaunas, Lithaunia

What this work is NOT

This is not a performance about war.And it does not try to explain anything.
It does not ask for empathy.And it certainly does not offer a position to agree with.
This work does not heal.It is not careful with the audience.
It does not try to make the experience easier.If anything happens — it is rather the opposite:some things become less stable.
I do not represent anything here.Not a country. Not a community. Not a point of view.
Not even myself - consistently.
This is not an attempt to speak “on behalf of.”And definitely not an attempt to be understood.
The body in this work does not illustrate ideas.It interrupts them.
It repeats what should probably be skipped.It gets stuck in movements that lead nowhere.It returns to places where nothing works anymore.
Sometimes it feels like it knows more than I do.
Play here is not freedom.
It is a way to keep things from collapsing completely.And at the same time - a way not to look directly.
This is not a finished work.But not because something is missing.
It is unfinished because it cannot be resolved.
Any attempt to make it wholefeels like a simplification.
This work does not need to be understood.It does not need to be liked.
And perhaps it does not even need to be watched until the end.
What remains is a sequence of attempts.
Some of them fail.Some of them repeat.
None of them fix anything.

Process

This work did not begin with an idea, but with a state. A state of prolonged internal tension experienced by a Ukrainian man living abroad during the war. This tension is not heroic or dramatic, it is rather mundane. It is made of responsibility for one’s own life and the life of one’s family, uncertainty about the future, and guilt without a clear addressee.
I`m living among people who continue their lives — planning, celebrating, making mistakes. I try to be part of this rhythm, but the war is constantly present as a background that cannot be switched off. The choice - not being there- is often read as wrong or unworthy. It is not always spoken aloud, but it is constantly felt through the body.
In this work, I am not interested in finding justification, but in the state in which justification no longer works. A state in which you continue to live, but every action is accompanied by doubt: do you have the right to do this? Is it possible to simply be here without explanations or defense?

Team of the project:

Anton Ovchinnikov - producer, choreographer, performerYana Shliabanska - composerJulia Hudoshnyk - dramaturgJoanna Lesnierovska - dramaturgical assistance
The Project having benefitted from the "la Fabrique Chaillot" residency scheme.