Dancing Through the Rubble

The 2014 Maidan revolution brought Kyiv’s nightlife to a complete stop. After the protests turned bloody and state security forces opened fire on civilians in the square, the country fell into a prolonged crisis—political, economic, existential all at once. The lights went out in a lot of ways simultaneously.

Slava Lepsheev had lost his job when the financial collapse hit in the war’s wake. Rather than sit still, he started Cxema—a raw, hard, hypnotic techno rave in the middle of the city. He broke into empty buildings, halls, abandoned apartments, hauled in sound equipment, and threw parties. That was the entire plan. Just dance until the problems recede, or at least until morning makes them manageable again.

Director Tom Ivin followed Slava and his crew underground for i-D, documenting the energy of a generation that had watched its country convulse and decided, consciously or not, to keep making something anyway. What comes through isn’t escapism exactly—it’s more like refusal. A refusal to let culture pause for catastrophe. The obvious questions get asked along the way: what does the future look like from here, what are these people carrying into those dark rooms with them, can any of this be rebuilt. The dancing doesn’t answer any of that. But it holds open the space where answers might eventually arrive.