On Sunday, 26 April (7 pm) Club ŻAK in Gdańsk will host the premieres of dance pieces by the winners of the Residency/Premiere competition produced as part of the 7th Gdańsk Dance Festival. We will see Zuzanna Kasprzyk’s Painkillers and Piotr Wach’s The Rite of Spring, developed under the artistic supervision of Helena Jonsdottir. The event will also feature WM2, a group of pre-professional dancers that is part of Canada’s W&M Physical Theatre.
PAINKILLERS / Zuzanna Kasprzyk / premiere
“Father, what should I do to gain salvation?”
” Stand on the verge of despair, and when you lose all your strength, go and have a cup of tea.”
Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov)
concept, choreography, performance: Zuzanna Kasprzyk / in collaboration with: Helena Jonsdottir / music: collage / premiere: 26 April 2015, Club Żak, developed as part of the 7th Gdańsk Dance Festival / 20 min.
THE RITE OF SPRING / Piotr Wach / premiere
A sudden impulse at the turn of March and April, making a sacrifice of your time and energy, falling victim to extreme diets ? this is the contemporary rite of spring. The piece focuses on the aestheticizing of the body and the powerful urge to regulate one’s image. In the era of the Internet, our appearance ? meaning a beautiful, toned, photogenic body ? has become the main subject and object of aestheticizing. This is not a moralising work, but an incredible physical, or even sporting, spectacle, which evokes Olympic emotions. This is a work that forces the audience to go beyond their role of a passive observer and become an active participant of the show, seating with compassion for the performer.
concept, choreography, performance: Piotr Wach / in collaboration with: Helena Jonsdottir / music: Le Sacre du Printemps by Igor Stravinsky / graphic design, visualisations: Przemek Jeżmirski / premiere: 26 April 2015, Club Żak, developed as part of the 7th Gdańsk Dance Festival / 20 min.
Come and meet the performers after the shows.
Zuzanna Kasprzyk completed the M. M. Szewczenko Ballet School in Gliwice and graduated from the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Kraków ? the Faculty of Dance Theatre in Bytom in June 2014. She has participated in the Erasmus for Placement programme at Staatstheater Kassel, Germany, as well as a range of projects (Topologie, Twarze Medei) and festivals (International Dance Conference in Bytom, Gdańsk Dance Festival, Your Chance in Moscow, SzoloDuo in Budapest, M1 Contact in Singapore). In 2013 she won the Solo Dance Contest in Gdańsk.
Piotr Mateusz Wach is a student of the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Kraków ? the Faculty of Dance Theatre in Bytom, graduate of Kraków’s Lart Studio, winner of a Złota Maska (Golden Mask) for choreography. He has been an active performing artist since 2011, when he appeared in Czyżnie dobija siękoni? ((They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?)) directed by Waldemar Raźniak. In 2013 he danced in Transdyptyk (Transdiptych) directed by Anna Piotrowska and starred in Jak wam siępodoba (As You Like It) directed by Brian Michaels. Currently, he is a member of the Polish and German collective called little:interference. Their productions include: Heimsuchung/Nawiedzenie (Possession), Operculum ? Looking for Heimat (2013), and Jetzt/Teraz (Now). He assists stage director Błażej Peszek while he produces Superbohaterów 10.
Helena Jonsdottir is a choreographer, filmmaker and video artist. She studied at the National Theatre Ballet School of Iceland and at Alvin Ailey, New York. She has performed on TV, in film, and theatre, as well as making numerous dance films, such as: Breaking voices with the Icelandic Dance Company; Zimmer, which won the IV Videotanzpreis of SK Stiftung Kultur in Cologne; Another, produced in association with Estonia ETV and Arte, and many more. Her art has made her a recognisable figure in Scandinavia, the UK, and the USA. In 2001 she was nominated as Best Choreographer at the Music Video Production Association Awards, Los Angeles. In 2006 she won the Grand Prix of the Cinessonne Film Festival in Paris. Her Open Source won the first prize in the Icelandic Dance Theatre Awards in 2003 and opened the Guangdong Modern Dance Festival in China. Helena has taught at the Art Academy of Iceland and the Icelandic Film School, as well as delivering workshops and lectures internationally.
FALLING / WM2
Falling is a piece by WM2, a preprofessional group that is part of W&M Physical. It is a bill of three choreographies on the same theme: falling. The first part, Falling,was devised by Wojciech Mochniej; the second, What Made us Fly, is inspired by a quote from Charlotte Brontë: “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me”; the third was developed by Helen Husak, a recognised choreographer whose works have been chosen to be presented at the prestigious Canada Dance Festival.
dancers: Cindy Chen, Emily Henley, Brittany Maddox, Tess Mark, Quinn Kliewer, Kate Van Kruyssen // Part 1. choreography: Wojciech Mocniej / soundscape: Wojciech Mochniej and fragments of music and samples by: Alva Noto, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Byetone // Part 2. choreography: Oriana Pagnotta / music: Nils Frahm, Anne Müller // Part 3. choreography: Helen Husak, music: Paganini ? 24 Caprices, Op. 1 by Ilya Kaler
TICKETS
PLN 25
Concessionary tickets: PLN 15 ? students* and holders of Karta do Kultury* / PLN 10 ? pupils* and seniors / PLN 5 ? holders of Karta Dużej Rodziny* / PLN 3 ? holders of Karta Tancerza*
*Please show the proof of eligibility at the box office when buying your ticket.
One ticket enables entry to two shows.
Bookings: kasa@klubzak.com.pl. Please collect confirmed reservations within 5 days of the confirmation. You may purchase reserved tickets by bank transfer by arrangement with Club Żak box office. The last 10 seats are not available for booking. Ticket returns are not accepted. All prices include VAT.
The seats are numbered. Recording and photographing is not permitted (except for accredited photographers).