Arkadi Zaides (b. 1979, Homel, Belarus, former USSR) is a choreographer, performer, and researcher whose work investigates the effects of social and political contexts on individuals and communities, through the use of documentary materials. He is interested in the notion of the border—understood both literally, by identifying choreographies emerging in border areas, and metaphorically, by exposing discourses and apparatuses at work in relation to the figure of “the other.” For the past two decades, Zaides’ works have been presented worldwide, and he has received numerous awards, among them the Émile Zola Prize for Performing Arts (2013) for his engagement with human rights issues. From 2024 to 2027, he is an associated artist with the Montpellier Danse Festival in France.
Zaides earned a master’s degree from the AHK Academy of Theater and Dance in Amsterdam, from 2021-2025 he has been a doctoral researcher in the arts at the University of Antwerp, Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, Ghent University, and KASK & Conservatorium (HOGENT – Howest). At the period he was also a member of the CORPoREAL research group at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp and of S:PAM (Studies in Performing Arts), a research unit at Ghent University. In addition, Zaides continuously develops platforms that promote contemporary performance discourse. Together with scholar, curator, and dramaturg Sandra Noeth, he initiated Violence of Inscriptions at HAU Hebbel-am-Ufer in Berlin (2015–2018), a series of events that brought together artists, thinkers, and human-rights activists to negotiate the role of the body in producing, negotiating, and confronting structural violence.
Within his doctoral trajectory, 'Towards Documentary Choreography' has evolved into a series of encounters at various venues in Brussels, bringing together artists, scholars, and activists to examine how documentary materials can be embodied, reimagined, and performed.
(Image: Joeri Thiry, STUK Kunstencentrum)
Update: November 2025