by Alena Papina

/ updated July 30 , 2026

My practice is located in a variety of mediums: artistic practice in the field of contemporary dance, performance and visual arts; personal movement development; education; curatorship; entrepreneurship; cultural nomadism; research.

As an artist I am particularly focused on topics of sensuality, erotism and post-porn (Female Gaze), as well as site-specific research of environments, both urban and natural (Movement Out). My point of unreleased interest lies in designing and creating experiential environments - such as performative installations, sets and scenery (“Female Gaze” current development).

As a movement practitioner I am focused on training floorwork and soft acrobatics techniques. Besides that, I continuously gather knowledge and skills from other sport and movement disciplines (martial arts, calistenics, yoga, pilates, etc). In my dancing training I am looking for a way to imply physical virtuosity into the state of flow. My main interest lies in improvisation and real-time composition that deeply and directly speaks with the music, the audience and my inner state, creating performativity and deep emotional engagement.

As a dance and movement teacher I am focused on developing my own educational system Mixed Movement Arts. It combines contemporary dance anatomical and research approach to body and movement with a variety of sports disciplines, kinesiology and neuroscience. My goal is to make dance and movement accessible and physically safe for adults - beginners, amateur dancers and movement lovers - not cutting on physical complexity, virtuosity and stunts. Additionally, I am interested in finding a way on how to teach state of flow while dancing; how to get into a performative state of channeling.

As a curator I now work on building an eco-system that encompasses theoretical and practical knowledge on dance, performance, training and community I gathered throughout my last 10 years of work experience in the contemporary dance and performance field (Dance Is A Spectrum). Additionally, being based in Georgia since 2022, I work on developing contemporary dance and performance culture in Tbilisi (community events, workshops and lectures), as well as building bridges between Georgia, Russia, Europe, the US and international dance community (“Georgian dance: from traditions to nowadays" podcast).

As an entrepreneur in the cultural sector, I am seeking for the ways to make contemporary dance sustainable as an art practice and movement training (Spectrum Studio) and accessible for anyone curious outside of the field (Dance Is A Spectrum).

As a theorist and researcher my main interest lies in gathering knowledge around site-specific practices, sensual and feminist manifestations in contemporary dance dance, performance and visual arts, analysing and decoding dance and movement as aspects of social and cultural phenomenon.

As a cultural nomad (Been ) I consciously travel around the world in search for local authenticity and various angles of human existence, creating international bridges between art and people.