Three dance projects, two solos and a trio, selected for the Residency/Premiere 2016 programme, will be created between February and April 2016 at the Żak Club in Gdańsk. The project will provide PLN 3,000 for each solo and PLN 8,000 for the trio, technical assistance (sound and light technicians), pre-premiere promotion, rehearsal space and two weeks of mentoring by Máté Mészáros (trio) and Orly Portal (soloists). The project, a part of the Gdańsk Dance Festival, is sponsored by the City of Gdańsk. This year, it attracted 14 submissions, including six solos and eight trios.
The winners, selected by a jury composed of theatre curators Maria Miotk and Agnieszka Fortenbach, and Żak Club director Magdalena Renk-Grabowska, include:
Trio with Máté Mészáros
Szron/Frost / Liwia Bargieł / Irad Mazliah / Stefano Silvino
The show will premiere 28 February 2016.
Solos with Orly Portal
Nie dziękuję, [nie piję alkoholu.]/ No thank you, [I don?t drink alcohol.] / Dominik Więcek
Check.point / Małgorzata Suś
These projects scored the highest numbers of points.
About the winners
Liwia Bargieł ? dancer and choreographer, graduate of the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. After graduation she collaborated with the Warsaw Dance Theatre. In 2010-2012, she was part of Mala Duet duo with Magda Grabowska. Their works Tam o piątej (There at Five) and Co widzisz? (What Do You See?) have toured festivals in Poland and abroad. Bargieł has choreographed Ce bordel fORmiDaBLE/extravaganza and Joanna Szalona. Królowa (Joanna the Mad. The Queen) directed by Waldemar Raźniak. In 2012, her first-time participation in the Residency/Premiere programme resulted in O mnie i trochę o Tobie (About Me and a Bit About You), a solo created in collaboration with Pia Meuthen and later presented at a range of Polish and foreign festivals. When Bargieł was selected for the project again in 2014, she produced Love Song, a show/installation inspired by the life of Sylvia Plath and created under the mentorship of Martin Sonderkamp. In 2013-2014 she was a dancer in the Groteska Theatre in Cracow, performing in Przemiany (Transformations), a show choreographed by Caroline Finn-Fischer. Since 2012 she has collaborated with the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. There, she has created stage movement for diploma performances Zimowa opowieść (The Winter?s Tale, directed by Cezary Morawski) and Ecce Homo (dir. Krzysztof Majchrzak).
Irad Mazliah ? choreographer and dancer, a graduate of the Sadna Dance School in Israel where he studied classical and contemporary dance. In 2003-2005, he received numerous awards for dance and choreography, as well as scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 2010 the Polish Institute in Israel awarded him a scholarship that marked the beginning of his ever-growing collaboration with Polish choreographer Rafał Dziemidok. A show they created together was presented in January 2012 in Gdańsk and in the Theatre Institute in Warsaw. Since 2003, Mazliah has collaborated as a dancer and creator with a number of dance theatres in Israel. Since 2008, he has also performed dramatic roles in the Tmuna Theatre Ensemble, appearing in the plays Everything in the Bathtub and The System. He has created several shows, including Foreign Work as part of the Contact Point Art Festival 2011 for the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Mazliah has co-founded the Sadna Dance School in Haifa in Israel, a professional three-year course for dancers and performance artists. In 2011-2012, he was the artistic director of the Intimadance Dance Festival held by the Tmuna Theatre in Tel Aviv.
Stefano Silvino ? a dancer in Rozbark Theatre who started his dance education at the age of 15, studying in Sicily under different teachers of classical and modern dance technique. In 2011 he moved to Rome to study under Caterina Felicioni, Erika Silgoner, Roberto Salaorni and Veronica Peparini. He explored contemporary dance, learning from Medhi Walerski (choreographer in the Nederlands Dans Theater), Christopher Roman (former dancer in the Frankfurt Ballet and the Forsythe Company led by William Forsythe), and Maeva Berthelot (dancer in Hofesh Shechter Company). He collaborated with Luc Petit Creation show and event company at the Amway China 2012 event in Munich and took part in the international tour of Karol Wojtyla, la vera storia (Karol Wojtyla: The True Story) directed by Duccio Forzano. He also danced in the Il paese del sorriso (The Land of Smiles) operetta choreographed by Sandhya Nagaraja in Trieste, Italy. Now he is a member of Rozbark Theatre, where he works with choreographers Johan Gerben, Uri Ivgi and Anna Piotrowska.
Dominik Więcek ? a student of the Ludwik Solski State Drama School in Cracow, the Faculty of Dance Theatre in Bytom, and recipient of a scholarship from the Folkwang Universität der Künste in Essen. He has performed in numerous shows, including Ubu król, czyli Polacy (Ubu the King, or the Poles) directed by Jerzy Stuhr, Working Title Ego choreographed by Jens van Daele, Kocham tylko i wyłącznie całym sercem nie-rozłącznie Magdalenę (I Love Magdalena Exclusively Wholeheartedly and Non-separately, chor. Jacek Łumiński), Inaria (chor. Giorgio Maddamma), and Nesting (chor. Idan Cohen). His solo Złota rybka (Gold Fish) at the SoloDuo International Dance Festival in Budapest was recognized Best Solo Dance Performance 2015 and received an audience award. In 2015 he won second place and an audience award for his solo Dominique (chor. Maciej Kuźmiński) at the Solo Dance Contest 2015 during the Gdańsk Dance Festival. This performance also won him first prize at the Warsaw Dance Platform and an award of distinction at the Sense of Move Choreography Competition during the Fifth Open Stage International Dance Theatre Festival. He is also interested in fashion photography and has published his works in a number of magazines in Poland, Britain and the United States.
Małgorzata Suś ? an actress of Sztuka Nowa physical theatre. In her work, she combines physical theatre with contemporary dance. She has worked on artistic projects in Poland and abroad, including in collaboration with the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Portuguese performer Paulina Almeida, and Freedom Theatre in Palestine. She regularly works with Dawid Żakowski and Sztuka Nowa Association. She teaches physical dance at the Lub/Lab theatre education centre in Warsaw. A graduate of the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. In the 2014/2015 academic year she studied at the Tel Aviv University in Israel.
Residency mentors
Máté Mészáros ? a graduate of the Hungarian Dance Academy in Budapest. As a student, he joined the Szeged Contemporary Dance Company, a leading ensemble in Hungary. Over four years of work there, he received numerous awards, including Maria Keresztes award (1999), Best Dancer award at the Fourth National Arts Festival (2001) and Zoltan Imre award (2002). In the spring of 2003 he joined Carte Blanche, and in 2004 he danced in the experimental Spanish company Lanonima Imperial. He has danced in shows by dance companies Ultima Vez and Zero Visibility Corp. Mészáros also creates his own projects; one of them will be presented at the Gdańsk Dance Festival 2016.
Orly Portal ?a choreographer, dancer, teacher and choreotherapist with 25 years of experience, who bases her work on years of research of the body. She combines contemporary dance, contact, improvisation, Feldenkrais Method and belly dance, delivering a unique blend of softness and strength, and translating traditional dance into contemporary language. A graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, she has danced in Israel?s Kol Udmama (Sound