Aleksandra Borysis a dancer and choreographer. She graduated from the Ballet School in Łódź (2003) and the Codarts Rotterdam Dance Academy. She has collaborated with many artists in Poland and abroad, including Aitana Cordero Vico (3 ways to master a Kiss or twenty-five minutes kiss at your neck, 2010/2011), Ugo Dehaes (FORCES, 2010), Marysia Stokłosa (Let’s dance Chopin, 2010;Right hemisphere, 2009), Cora Bos-Kroese and Georg Reischl (Signals, 2008), Liat Magnezy (Route Atelie, 2008), Konrad Szymański (Solo 06.,2007), Ivan Schauvliege (Clow in a Box, 2008), Edan Gorlicky (Let’s not and say we did, 2008), Ola Maciejewska (Agency of god, Unemployed forces, 2006), Victoria Day Fox (Déjà vu, 2005), Jarosław Staniek (Opentaniec, 2003/2005).
In 2010, as part of the Solo Projekt residence programme for young choreographers coordinated by Joanna Leśnierowska (Art Stations Foundation), she choreographed her solo lost in details(produced by Stary Browar Nowy Taniec in Poznań) andDouble Re-act, acollaboration with mimosa|moise for World’s Listening Day (produced by Fruit for the Apocalypse in London). Also in 2010 she won a scholarship from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, while in 2011 she was received the DanceWeb 2011 scholarship (as part of the ImpulzTanz Festival in Vienna).
She has performed in Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the UK, Greece, Norway and China.
In the season 2010/2011 Borys was one of two Polish participants, along with Beata Mysiak from Lublin, of the programme for young choreographers Tour d’Europe des Chorégraphes financed by the European Union (programme Leonardo Da Vinci).
In 2011 a piece using Aleksandra Borys’ conception and directed by Joanna Leśnierowska premiered at Stary Browar in Poznań (Stary Browar Nowy Taniec/Art Stations Foundation), featuring Borys along with Janusz Orlik and Łukasz Kędzierski.
In June 2013 Borys made her debut in the RE//MIX series with UNISONO, selected for production in a competition organised by komuna//warszawa together with the Institute of Music and Dance. Initiated in 2010 by komuna//warszawa, the RE//MIX series features new productions referring back to classic pieces of theatre and dance, but also literature and film. UNISONO draws on the work of pioneer of dance improvisation, American Anna Halprin. Apart from Borys, the production features Marysia Zimpel and is presented in conjunction with a film featuring Marysa Stokłosa, reaslised by Justyna Calińska.
The artist about the project:
“In my RE//MIX I want to find out, together with my fellow artists, how Anna Halprin’s methods and modes of work translate into our reality. I am curious in how, after so many years of a very specific work in a closed studio, coming out into ‘wide open spaces’ will influence my body and its movement, and my choreographic practice. I want to find out how the observations and reflections taking place in the course of my work will correspond to and diverge from what Anna Halprin arrived at. Inspired by her work, I follow her motto that ‘a dancer is an element of a picture.’”
Since 2013 Aleksandra has been member of Centrum w Ruchu, an association of Warsaw-based choreographers and a space for performance art, set up by Burdag Foundation. Located in a former school made available to the artists by the authorities of Warsaw’s city district Wawer as part of their project of culture promotion, Wawer Sphere of Culture [Wawerska Strefa Cultury]. The facility hosts rehearsals, workshops and pre-premiere presentations. CwR is the first successful attempt at setting up a permanent work place for Warsaw’s independent choreographers.