Helena Ganjalyan is a director, actress, and choreographer. She graduated from the Ludwik Solski State Theatre School (currently the Stanisław Wyspiański Academy for the Dramatic Arts) in Cracow, where she majored in acting. She has developed original projects in film (commercials, video clips, social awareness campaigns) and theater, and collaborated with other directors as a choreographer in video clips, photo shoots, commercial videos, and dramatic pieces. She is also active as a photographer, working principally with street and portrait photography.
Helena Ganjalyan approaches the field of her activity as a system of interconnected vessels, and strives to merge and intertwine her experience and abilities acquired in each of these fields. Interested in details and analogies in apparently incongruent domains, she seeks for appropriate perspectives, believing they are capable of changing everything. Inspired by non-obvious tensions and combinations between the respective elements of her narratives, she aims to activate the viewer’s imaginations through distinctive juxtapositions that establish new contexts and, consequently, new meanings.
Helena Ganjalyan’s original pieces include, among others, Melt, Une femme masculine, Private Maps, April 31, Glorious Summer, and Ha(e)user.
As an actress/dancer, she has collaborated with such directors as Romeo Castellucci, , Guilherme Botelho, Sabine Harbeke, Mariusz Treliński (Polish National Opera), the Paris-based collective Les Gens d’Uterpan, and a number of theater companies in Poland. Her track record in film includes projects with established artists (Jolanta Dylewska and Andrzej Wajda, Borys Lankosz, Marcin Wrona, Waldemar Krzystek), as well as emerging directors (Kordian Kądziela, Michał Wawrzecki, Krystian Kamiński). She has become familiar to wider audiences as detective Selena Abar in the TV series Miasto Skarbów [Treasure City]. In 2017, she became a running member of the Polish instalment of the cult American comedy show Saturday Night Live – SNL POLSKA.
A laureate of the Grand Prix and the 1st Prize in the category Branded Stories at the papaya Young Directors 2020 (in a duo with Bartosz Szpak) for the Ja [Me] developed for the Tyskie brand. She is currently working on her feature film debut Jestem kim chcesz [I Am Who You Want Me to Be] together with Bartosz Szpak, co-funded by a Polish Film Institute development grant (awarded for project development and pre-production of feature/documentary/animated films).
Websites:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/helena_ganjalyan_photo
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/hbdirectors
FB: https://www.facebook.com/ganjalyanhelena
