Round Dance #7 — Studio Note

These notes are written from within a shared space of practice. They do not aim to interpret or evaluate the work, but to stay close to its emergence in time. The writing appears occasionally, shaped by proximity, co-existence, and lived process.

Round Dance #7 30" x 30" oil on canvs, January 2026

I work together with Vadim Puyandaev. He paints. I do my research work, which means I think, dance, and write. Sometimes we talk about each other’s processes. Sometimes we interact. Sometimes they intra-relate. What forms is an accumulative presencing through improvisational sessions, if I think about it through the lens of our co-existence in a living composition mode.

I witnessed the emergence of one of the “fast and easy” works, with an aha moment and a breakthrough. These kinds of paintings are the most memorable and are surely special for Vadim. There is a moment of discovery in the process and a certain ease of knowing, after something has already happened.

When Vadim creates, I sometimes ask him about this or that in the paintings he has done or is doing, within our shared space of practice.

His recent Round Dance #7 was this kind of work, marked by breakthroughs and discoveries. I asked what felt essential for him in allowing the work to agree on its finity, which is always unstable and indeterminable. Vadim explained that, for this painting, he felt a sense of blessing when he started to paint the patterns of the dancers’ dresses. He described it as a fashion walk, when movement and texture, or fabric, become more than the model.

This does not mean that faces and bodies matter less. It means that after this aha moment, everything became part of this “more,” and he followed this knowing-how in the process. The faces and figures in this work are painted with a muted expression, or what I might call an inwardly restrained one, creating subtle shifts in color and hue.

Written by Erika Tsimbrovsky, from within a shared space of practice.

Erika Tsimbrovsky works with choreography, writing, and interdisciplinary artistic research.