“Waiting in the Margins” addresses the situation of children that live in IDP camps in Georgia and who were forced to leave their homes in South Ossetia together with their families during and after the Georgian-Russian war in 2008.

The project started in 2014 with a series of workshops in the field of dance, physical theatre and visual arts for children from the IDP camps of Tserovani and Bazaleti. After the last workshop in March/April 2015, 7 children were invited to participate in the creation of a performance together with a group of dancers and actors from Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine and a visual artist from Syria. During a one-month period of rehearsals Benno Voorham created a delicate performance based on the stories, memories, dreams and reflections on what it means to be a refugee in your own country.

Waiting in the Margins is a visual attractive and poetic performance that speaks about the struggle to overcome difficulties caused by war and the strength of human compassion. Compassion and support are key elements of the interaction between children and adults in a series of duets in the performance.

The visual artists Abdalla Omari, himself a refugee from Syria, is drawing the contours of the children and adults in different scenes, as in an attempt to freeze, to document their stories. At the end of the performance he reveals a colourful painting he has made over these contours, as a promise for another future.

Waiting in the Margins premièred at the Royal District Theatre in Tbilisi on May 14th 2015.
Tour in Georgia: Rustavi, Akhmeta, Telavi, Gori, Kutaisi, Borjomi, Ozurgeti, Batumi, Zugdidi.
Tour in Ukraine/Moldova: Lviv, Uzhgorod, Lutsk, Zhytomyr, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Chisinau.

Participants:
Children: Salome Tabatadze, Keti Khachapuridze, Archil Botkoveli (Tserovani), Mariam Kakhniashvili, Barbare Maisuradze, Giorgi Tedeluri, Giorgi Tvauri (Bazaleti)
Adults: Nadia Tsulukidze, Nino Mitaishvili, Ana Kurtubadze (Georgia), Alexandra Soshnicova, Serghej Golovnea (Moldova), Daniil Belkin (Ukraine), Abdalla Omari (Syria)

Choreogrphy: Benno Voorham
Music: Nika Pasuri
Costumes: Maria Saphronova, Eka Ketsbaia
Set: Benno Voorham
Animations and visual art: Abdalla Omari

Pedagogues during the workshops: Madeléne Beckman, Pipsa Poukka, Benno Voorham and the team of adults.

Project produced by LAVA-Dansproduktion and TRAM
Producers: Benno Voorham, Sybrig Dokter (Sweden), Marta Tabukashvili, Sophie Bagauri (Georgia), Kateryna Radchenko (Ukraine)

Photos performance: Kateryna Radchenko

Project supported by the Swedish Postcode Foundation and the Swedish Institute

Photos: Kateryna Radchenko

Photos of workshops with children from IDP-camps.

Video: Lena Muchnaya