Between two fires

Curatorial Note

Alaina Lemon’s Between Two Fires is an ethnographic study of Romani performance, memory, and identity in Russia, tracing the cultural history of “Gypsy” representation from the literary imagination of Pushkin through the Soviet period and into post-socialist society. Drawing on fieldwork among Romani actors and performers in Moscow, Lemon examines how theatrical and musical performance mediates between externally imposed stereotypes and Romani forms of self-representation, while also exploring the ways historical memory, ethnicity, authenticity, and social belonging are negotiated on and off the stage. The book is particularly significant for its analysis of the complex relationship between Russian cultural constructions of the “Gypsy” and lived Romani experience, situating performance as both a site of stereotype reproduction and a means through which Romani identities and historical memories are articulated and contested.