Portfolio
"It all begins with an idea. But first, with reading the text of the play."
When starting work, you read through the play — and after a while, faint outlines begin to form in the imagination, something impossible to express in words yet. As if from mist or darkness, fragments of visions and feelings start to emerge. Here, all of it can be captured by sketching. This is roughly how a scenography idea takes shape.
My main tools as a scenographer are space, time, form, colour, texture and light. What I find most compelling in my work is the endless possibility to juggle these instruments — telling a story and creating an illusory world for the audience, so that the viewer's imagination breaks through what they see on stage and creates in their mind a far richer and deeper image than the element that provoked it.
(Yana Khanikova)
Scenographer and costume designer based in Tallinn
Jana Hanikova works in theatre scenography and costume design as well as in festival and exhibition projects. Her work focuses on spatial dramaturgy and visual storytelling, combining architectural thinking with expressive stage imagery. She has collaborated with theatres including Rakvere Theatre, Ugala Theatre, Russian Theatre in Tallinn and Temufi.
She studied scenography at the Estonian Academy of Arts and at the St. Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy.
Education
Estonian Academy of Arts
Master's degree, Scenography
St. Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy
Scenography (equivalent to Master's degree)
Estonian Academy of Arts
Scenography courses
Tallinna Humanitaargümnaasium
Tallinna Kunstikool
Memberships
Estonian Scenographers' Union
Estonian Theatre Union
