The Residency/Premiere 2015 programme is part of the Gdańsk Dance Festival. Three projects (two solo pieces and one trio) will be developed at Club Żak between February and April 2015. Selected artists will receive funding to produce their projects ? PLN 3000 for a solo and PLN 8000 zł for a trio ? as well as technical assistance from sound and lighting experts, pre-premiere promotion support, rehearsal space, and the chance to participate in two-week mentoring sessions with Gundula Peuthert (the trio) and Helena Jonsdottir (soloists). The programme is sponsored by the City of Gdańsk. This year’s call attracted 17 submissions (10 solos and 7 trios).
Selection was made by a jury composed of Joanna Czajkowska (theatre curator), Maria Miotk (theatre curator), and Magdalena Renk-Grabowska (director of Club Żak).
The trio to be produced with Gundula Peuthert :
Pozostańmy in touch (Let’s Stay in Touch)/ Julia Walkowiak, Maja Grzeczka, Daria Nowak / premiere scheduled for 1 March 2015
The solos to be produced with Helena Jonsdottir:
Painkillers / Zuzanna Kasprzyk
Święto Wiosny (The Rite of Spring) / Piotr Wach / premieres scheduled for 26 April 2015
About the winners:
Julia Walkowiak studies dance at The Poznan School of Social Sciences (Wyższa Szkoła Umiejętności Społecznych). She graduated from the Fouette Academy of Dance and the Culture Promoter Training Collage (PPSKAK) in Kalisz, and has taken part in several dance and theatre courses. She dances with Teatr Ruchu and Stało Się, a group she founded. Together with Stało Się Walkowiak has organised two dance festivals in Pobiedziska and Gliwice, Poland. She works as a teacher and choreographer with Teatr Tańca in Pobiedziska, a theatre for children and young people, where she developed the performance Zaczarowana zima (Winter Wonderland). She has worked with Divadlo Continuo, Paweł Passini, and Witold Jurewicz.
Daria Nowak is a dancer, street performer, and third-year student of dance at The Poznan School of Social Sciences. She has taken part in several dance workshops, and was involved in a range of productions coordinated by Polish and international teachers. She is an experienced dance instructor, especially skilled in working with children. She is a dancer and choreographer with Poznań’s dance show Dance And Art.
Maja Grzeczka is a dancer and dance student at The Poznan School of Social Sciences and hones her skills participating in various dance workshops. She works with Natalia Draganik and is a long-time dancer of Monika Leśko-Mikołajczyk’s Teatr Ruchu. She teaches contemporary dance to the youngest ones.
Zuzanna Kasprzyk graduated with honours from the M.M. Szewczenko’s private ballet school in Gliwice, Poland, and holds a degree from the Bytom-based Dance Theatre Department of the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Kraków. She has been awarded the Erasmus for Placement scholarship at the Staatstheater Kassel, Germany. She has also taken part in a range of projects (Topologie, Twarze Medei) and such festivals as the International Contemporary Dance Conference in Bytom, Gdańsk Dance Festival, Your Chance in Moscow, SoloDuo in Budapest, and M1 Contact in Singapore. In 2013 she won the first prize of the Solo Dance Contest in Gdańsk.
Piotr Mateusz Wach (1990) studies at the Dance Theatre Department of the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Kraków. He graduated from Kraków’s Lart Studio, and was presented with the Złota Maska (Golden Mask) Award for choreography. He debuted as performer in 2011 in Czyżnie dobija siękoni?(They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?) directed by Waldemar Raźniak. In 2013 he danced in Anna Piotrowska’s Transdyptyk (Transdiptych), 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; 2014), Operculum ?Looking for Heimat (2013), and Jetzt/Teraz (Now; 2014). He assists stage director Błażej Peszek while he produces Superbohaterowie10/9, to premiere in 2015.
About the mentors:
Gundula Peuthert is a German choreographer, stage director, and teacher. She studied dance in Leipzig as well as choreography and stage directing at the Palucca School and the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch in Berlin, where she subsequently taught choreography and improvisation. In 1991?96 she was a dancer and choreographer with the Freies Tanztheater Berlin, then joined the ballet company of the Voglandtheaters Plauen, whose artistic director she subsequently became. In 2006?2011 she led the Tanztheaters Görlitz, and the festivals Interface and TanzArtFestival Görlitz.
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.