Russian Contemporary Dance
In the biography of Olga Pona on the company website, it states how she had little contact with dance growing up in communist Russia and no association with contemporary dance. She clearly defines contemporary dance in a western perspective in regards to its long standing history:
“Russian contemporary dance doesn’t have this history, but Russia is no longer a country which is shut off from the West: Russian artists use elements of Western tradition, but they often don’t use the Western “rules”.
When the company was initially established, they performed a type of visual theater with included combinations of short entertainment sketches. As the biography describes, Pona was aware of the detachment from western contemporary aesthetic but also knew she was pioneering the way for Russian contemporary dance.
Here is a video of the company’s piece Three Girls by the Window from 1999. This piece includes many theater elements including a clear set, spoken dialogue, and smoking onstage.