Decolonisation of Corporation in Ukrainian Dance: Postcolonial Analysis of Soviet Legacy and Body Memory

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyse the influence of Soviet colonial cultural policy on the formation of normative bodily aesthetics, educational models, and repertoire strategies in the choreographic art of Ukraine, as well as to identify contemporary trends aimed at the return of bodily autonomy, the activation of bodily memory, and artistic subjectivity. The research methodology. A comparative method was used to compare Soviet normative bodily models and modern Ukrainian decolonisation tendencies in dance, which allows us to identify transformations in the interpretation of corporeality, repertoire, and pedagogical approaches; a postcolonial approach (analytical optics) to interpret the mechanisms of colonisation of corporeality and the norming of movement codes in the Soviet cultural paradigm; a hermeneutic method to understand bodily and movement codes as carriers of cultural, ideological, and memory meanings; and a culturological analysis to identify the relationships between corporeality, cultural identity, ideology, and representational strategies in dance art. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the comparative analysis of Soviet normative bodily models and modern Ukrainian decolonisation practices in choreography. The concept of normative bodily memory as a consequence of imperial cultural pressure is substantiated and the role of somatic practices in the processes of decolonisation of the body is determined. It is proved that modern Ukrainian dance currently forms an aesthetics of resistance, in which the body appears as a carrier of memory, trauma, and cultural identity. Conclusions. Based on comparative analysis, it was established that the Soviet colonial model of dance corporeality was aimed at unification, standardisation, and discipline of the body in accordance with ideological guidelines, which was accompanied by the suppression of individual, authentic, and traumatic bodily memory. In modern Ukrainian dance, an opposite paradigm is being formed – the body appears as a carrier of historical experience, memory and resistance, and somatic practices acquire the meaning of tools for decolonisation, restoration of subjectivity, and cultural identity. Thus, the decolonisation of Ukrainian dance turns out to be a cultural and political process that involves rethinking repertoire policy, educational models and the very logic of interaction with corporeality, transforming dance from an ‘art of loyalty’ into an art of resistance and self-determination.