Russian President and former KGB chief Vladimir Putin has been welcomed to Britain this week in an enormous display of pomp and ceremony. The first Russian leader to visit since Tsar Alexander II in 1874, the red carpet was rolled out for Putin as he was led through four days of processions, guards of honour and lavish banquets.
Critics have pointed to the absence of discussions between the meeting dignitaries on the war in Chechnya, or the ongoing reports of extra-judicial execution, rape and torture by Russian forces in the region. Interestingly, as Putin met Prime Minister Tony Blair and dined with the Queen, a small group of young dancers from the Chechen capital of Grozny also touched down in Britain, to begin a national tour. The group, whose members continue to live and train in Grozny, have been moving audiences to tears around Europe with their exuberant dances.
There is a poignant story behind the formation of the Chechen Children’s Dance Ensemble, Diamohk (meaning ‘ancestral land’). In 1998, Ramzan Akhmadov, a former dancer with the Chechen National Ballet, founded the company and set about transforming a disused building in Grozny into a dance hall.
Six months later, war broke out again and the dance hall was all but demolished in the bombing of Grozny in 1999, and many of the children and their families fled the city. Or disappeared.
Returning to Grozny from Ingushetia after the bombing, Ramzan and his wife set about trying to find the children. Through Unicef, Akhmadov was put in touch with Chris Hunter, a co-founder of a British humanitarian organisation working in the North Caucasus, the Centre for Peacemaking and Community Development (CPCP).
Hunter appealed to the CPCD’s funding partners to assist the ensemble to buy costumes and to embark on the group’s first tour to Germany.
Camilla Carr of CPCD first saw Diamohk perform at a conference in The Hague in 2001, attended by several thousand delegates. ‘Everyone was in tears,’ Carr recalls. ‘Everyone was on their feet, because of the energy…They give of their whole being. I’ve never seen anything to surpass it.’
Carr has witnessed the situation in Chechnya first-hand, recalling the vivid memories of Chechen children dancing against a bleak backdrop of destruction. Arriving in Chechnya in 1997 to establish a centre for traumatised children, an assignment which was to last about two months, Carr was kidnapped and held hostage for the next 14 months. She recalls drawing inspiration from the children dancing amongst the ruins, noting the dignity and professionalism with which they performed.
Diamohk bases their performances on traditional dances from the North Caucasus region, incorporating somersaults and swords. Chris Hunter is equally in awe of the talent and professionalism of the dancers, aged from eight to 15 years, emerging from individuals who face up to the harsh realities of war day after day.
While there are several similar groups in Moscow, Hunter notes, Diamohk is the only group whose members live in Grozny.
‘These kids actually continue to live in Grozny and go to school in Grozny,’ Hunter says. ‘They’re faced with the horrendous conditions which is what life in Grozny is about, unfortunately.’
After completing a Russian degree, Hunter travelled to the former Soviet union as part of a delegation for peace after the outbreak of war in 1994. After meeting with youth, human rights and women’s groups, as well as co-ordinating a peace march from Moscow to Grozny in 1995, Hunter was drawn to the needs of the people in Chechnya and established CPCD the same year. The organisation runs several programmes and support services across the North Caucasus regions, including Little Star, an initiative promoting rehabilitation for traumatised children through music, art, drama, games and individual consultations.
The activity of dance, Hunter says, is actually a form of therapy for the children involved in Daimohk.
‘One of the tragic things for children and young people now in Chechnya is that they have no real focus in life,’ Hunter observes. ‘The schools are barely working. Some [young people] go to the colleges and Universities, but many don’t and they’re unemployed. It’s a very demoralising life.’
‘So this [Daihmok] is actually giving them a very positive and creative focus within that. It saves the kids from that despair,’ Hunter explains, adding that there are significant problems with alcoholism and drugs, especially amongst young men.
‘It is very hard work, Ramzan does work them [the dancers] hard and in a very professional way,’ Hunter points out. ‘The creative focus is so important when everything around them is so destructive and negative.’
But while organisations like CPCD – the only British non-governmental company based in the region – continue to work towards improving the livelihood of Chechyna’s people, the troubled region is largely absent from the international agenda. Talks this week between Blair and Putin have focused on the post-war effort to rebuild Iraq, including rhetoric on behalf of Putin highlighting the inability to find weapons of mass destruction. Yesterday, meanwhile, a huge energy agreement was signed between Russia and Britain to build a pipeline under the Baltic for Britain to import Russian natural gas.
Putin’s UK visit also comes just days after the Kremlin pulled the plug on Russia’s last independent television station, TVS. Like Chechnya, this worrying development also appears to have been met with silence.
The Russian president’s visit has sparked some forms of protest about the situation in Chechnya. In Scotland, the Scottish Socialist party hung a banner protesting against Russia’s involvement in Chechnya as Putin’s entourage proceeded down the Royal Mile, while another protester shouting about the war threw himself in front Putin’s car, according to a report in the Guardian.
So can a 33-strong children’s dance ensemble raise awareness about the ongoing atrocities in Chechnya? Hunter thinks perhaps so.
‘I think people are tired of hearing about war and suffering,’ he replies. ‘But I think the children [touring] does raise awareness and it does it in a much more subtle way – in a positive way instead of doom and gloom stories.’
‘I think the people who come to see them, or read about them, they do see this very inspiring dancing. But they are also reminded of the conditions these kids live in.’
Daimohk will perform at The Drum in Birmingham tonight, June 27, 7.30pm. Bookings: 0121 333 2426/27; Budehave School, Cornwall, July 2, 7.30pm, bookings 01288 381799; The Barbican, Plymouth, July 4-5, 7.30pm, bookings 01752 267 131; Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London, July 8-10, 7.45pm, bookings 020 8237 1111. Funds raised through the tour will go towards rebuilding Daimohk’s dance hall in Grozny
Related Links
www.cpcd.org.uk
