Women's History Month: A Celebration of Ukrainian Women
To celebrate Women’s History Month, our intern Alysha Matthews has written her very first Dash Blog post:
March is Women’s History Month, and to celebrate we’d like to highlight some amazing, talented Ukrainian women we’ve had the pleasure and privilege to work with at Dash over the years. They have tirelessly worked over the last year, as artists and activists, to keep Ukraine at the forefront of our minds. They are true icons for us.
Olia Hercules
Olia Hercules prepares at summer salad at our Ukrainian Dacha at Rich Mix in 2016
Olia Hercules is an activist, chef, and author. Olia first joined us for our pop-up installation, our Ukrainian Dacha, back in 2016. Then in 2020, Olia and our artistic director, Josephine Burton, created a podcast episode together, cooking borscht and having wonderful conversation about memory, politics and the female perspective.
Olia has written 3 books:
Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine & beyond
Kaukasis The Cookbook: The culinary journey through Georgia, Azerbaijan & beyond
Summer Kitchens: Recipes and Reminiscences from Every Corner of Ukraine.
In 2015, Olia was named the Observer Rising Star.
Olia uses her platform to share the struggles of her family in Ukraine and call attention to the violence happening there. She and several other London chefs including Alissa Timoskina, another wonderful chef we have had the opportunity to collaborate with, teamed up to start a fundraising movement called #CookForUkraine. This movement aims to increase awareness and raise funds for affected children and families. Olia and Alissa were honoured with the Observer Food Monthly Editor Awards last year for their work with this movement. In an open letter published by Harper’s Bazaar magazine, Olia said this:
“Much like my ancestors, who survived so much; Ukraine has not died yet. We shall not give up hope.”
Olesya Zdorovetska
Olesya Zdorovetska performs her own musical compositions inspired by contemporary Ukrainian poetry at a Dash Cafe in January 2017
Olesya Zdorovetska is a performer, composer, and curator. We’ve had the privilege to work several times as a musician in our Dash Cafes. In January 2017, Olesya performed as part of our Dash Cafe at Rich Mix - Ukraine - An Artists View. This event explored a changing Ukrainian identity, post-maidan, facing constant Russian aggression in the east of the country.
Olesya is based in Dublin, but she is originally from Kyiv, Ukraine. She founded the Ukrainian Irish Cultural Platform and is the co-curator and producer of Phonica, a platform for new music and poetry. She has won numerous awards for her music, projects, sound designs and performances.
Olesya’s talents spread across several fields: Improvised Jazz, Afro-Caribbean, Contemporary Classical, traditional Ukrainian, and Sephardic Music, theatre and film. Since moving to Dublin in 2011, Olesya has become a well-known and dynamic figure on the music scene in Ireland. Cambridge Critique calls her “one of Ukraine’s most celebrated performers.”
She uses her platform and her music to start conversations about the crisis in Ukraine. In an interview with Independent.ie Olesya makes this comment:
"I truly think that a deeper appreciation of the arts and culture will encourage the critical thinking that ensures this never happens again."
Mariana Sadovska
Mariana Sadovska performing Songs for Babyn Yar at JW3, London, in November 2021
Mariana Sadovska is a singer, actress and composer, and one of the key performers in our production Songs for Babyn Yar, which is now touring. It tells the stories of the survivors of the Nazi occupation of Ukraine and attempted genocide of Ukraine’s Jewish people through personal reflection, testimony, stories and songs. Mariana performs alongside fellow extraordinary Ukrainian musicians and activists Svetlana Kundish (also a wonderful Ukrainian female Icon for us) and Yuriy Gurzhy.
Mariana was born in Lviv, Ukraine. She trained as a classical pianist at Lviv’s National Music Academy and later joined one of Ukraine's leading theatre companies: the Les’ Kurbas Theatre. Mariana spent about 10 years in Poland working as a principal, actress, composer, and music director. Since then, she has collaborated with other musicians to create vocal music for different international theatre and music ensembles across Euorpe and in the USA.
In 2013, Mariana Sadovska won the Ruth German World Music Award. Her training and experiences helped launch her global career and paved the way for Mariana to perform on stages across the world. Mariana uses her platform to share Ukrainian music and raise awareness for her homeland.
Natalka VorozhbYt
Natalka Vorozhbyt taking a break from our Renegade Orchestra workshops visiting the monestery in Kazbegi, Georgia, in May 2016.
Natalka Vorozhbyt is a prominent screenwriter, playwright, and film-maker from Ukraine. She was one of our two playwrights for Crimea 5AM, a personal, lyrical documentary-style production that highlights the stories of 10 prisoners and their families living in Crimea, alongside the wonderful Anastasia Kosodii. She also worked with us as librettist on our Renegade Orchestra project in 2016-2017.
Natalka was born in Kyiv, and she is a graduate of the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute and the International Writer’s Program. She started off working on a Russian TV series called Schools. Then she was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company to write The Grain Store, a play about a manufactured famine in the 1930s, the Holodomor, that killed millions of Ukrainians. Natalka has also written screenplays for films such as Cyborgs and Bad Roads. Both films are inspired by and tell the story of different military conflicts in Ukraine. Cyborgs talks about the defense of Sergei Prokoviev, and Bad Roads creatively expresses the reality of living through the Ukrainian-Russian conflict. Natalka directed Bad Roads herself. It made its debut at the Venice Film Festival and was Ukraine’s entry for the 94th Academy Awards in 2022.
In 2015, she created The Theatre of Displaced People to support those whose lives have been turned upside down in Eastern Ukraine and since the war began, she and other playwrights have established a new documentary theatre in Kyiv to provide a space for voices emerging from the current war.