The basic idea of Solo Project, launched in 2006 by Art Stations Foundation, is to support Polish dance artists in the search for their individual artistic language. The program is directed at professional dancers and beginner choreographers whose interests reach beyond traditionally understood dance theater.The project’s main focus is put on the very process of creation and artistic experiment, with the hope that this leads to a reflection on the art of dance and, perhaps, a redefinition of the very concept of contemporary dance, or the search for new means of physical expression. The programme’s motto are the words of English choreographer, Jonathan Burrows: “One needs two legs, two hands and, most of all, a head to create a dance.” It encourages young artists to reject theatrical staffage and focus on physical and formal explorations solely. In these explorations they are assisted by dance professionals and authorities from around the globe.
To date Solo Project has featured solos by: Anita Wach, Janusz Orlik, Domnika Knapik, Konrad Szymański, Renata Piotrowska, Barbara Bujakowska & Marcin Janus, Tomasz Bazan, Karol Tymiński, Małgorzata Haduch, Ramona Nagabczyńska, Magdalena Przybysz, Aleksandra Borys, Anna Nowicka, Rafał Urbacki, Irena Lipińska, Iza Szostak, Aleksandra Ścibor, Marzena Krzemińska, Marysia Zimpel, Magdalena Ptasznik. They are now refered to as “generation solo” (Witold Mrozek, Pokolenie Solo, NowyTaniec.pl, 29.09.2008, ©Fundacja Performa).
On 5 October the group of resident artists who have created solos as part of the programme will welcome new members: Agata Siniarska, Korina Kordova and Baśka Gwóźdź. Their artistic mentor has been Bush Harstorn, artistic director of Dansehallerne Copenhagen, dance curator, dramaturge and performer. The night of Solo Project 2013 premieres starts at 7.
Agata Siniarska’s Death 24 frames per second or do it to me like in a real movie – delayed choreography in chapters is devoted to ideal women, film images, love, death and sexual relations. The artist explores differences between choreography and film: social/gender stereotypes and attempts at undermining them; movement and immobility in film and choreography; frames of the film image of infinite femininity.
Destiny’s Childby Baśka Gwóźdźfocuses on the subject of destiny, which is intriguing for her not as much in life as such but rather as regards her participation in the world of art. Describing the piece, Gwóźdź wrote: “Dance isn’t something I want. Dance is something I need to do.”
In her solo on 8th boulevard. right after sinuous curvesKorina Kordova talks about the body as a potential whose diversity extends from eroticism, to immunity, to sensitivity to catastrophe.
more:
About the artists:
Bush Harstron, artistic mentor of SOLO PROJEKT 2013
After a long and distinguished career as a truck driver, Bush graduated from Dartington College of Arts in 1982 with a degree in Theatre Language. From that time onwards Bush has pursued a career as a community artist, dramaturge, performer , theatre programmer and artistic director in UK, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland and now Denmark where he is the Artistic Director of Dansehallerne Copenhagen. In 2009 he qualified as a coach in Relational Dynamics which has informed his work in mentoring dance artists. This has all been underpinned by a lifelong commitment to Liverpool Football Club.
FELLOWS OF SOLO PROJEKT 2013:
Baśka Gwóźdźgraduated from the College of Voice and Dance affiliated to the Musical Theatre in Gliwice, and hold a diploma in art management from the University of Lower Silesia. She also studied at the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Krakow, Faculty of Dance Theatre in Bytom. She co-organised Movemet’s Active Culture Festival – Circulation in Wrocław and was assistant producer of Deltebre Dansa Festival in Spain. She received Alternative Dance Academy 2013 scholarship from Art Stations Foundation (Old Brewery New Dance program) in Poznań. She was also an apprentice at ZAR Theatre at the Grotowski Institute. She is an auditing student at the Grotowski Open University in Wrocław. Gwóźdź worked for a few seasons with the Musical Theatre Capitol in Wrocław, and currently collaborates with the Art Color Ballet in Kraków. She is also resident at Art Station Foundation (Stary Browar Nowy Taniec) in Poznań. She dances, creates choreographies for theatrical pieces, runs dance workshops and performs the ritual Lomi Lomi Nui massage.
Korina Kordova is a dancer and choreographer Korina Kordova worked in her native Brazil and in Holland before joining the Silesian Dance Theatre (PL). A member of SDT for 7 years, she worked with a number of Polish and international choreographers, performing in Europe, North America and Asia. She has worked with Jacek Łumiński (PL), Anna Piotrowska (PL), Barbara Bourget (CAN), Mihai Mihalcea (RO), Idan Cohen (ISR), Kuik Swee Boon (SGP), Suzana Gomes (NL/BR) Irad Mazliah (ISR) and Helena Ganjalyan (PL). She has also cooperated with Kokoro Dance (CAN), BalletMet (USA), Samovarteateret (NO) and Teatr Tańca Zawirowania (PL). She is the author of the solo pieces Mobile Variations, Night, Karolina and Borderline. She was a scholarship holder in the Alternative Dance Academy 2012 at the Stary Browar Nowy Taniec / Art Stations Foundation by Grażyna Kulczyk. In the same year, she started her own artistic collective Flesh System with the intent of collaborating with other independent artists. In the frame of Flesh System, she co-created the duets ± 30 we are here for you and Once/Twice Simultaneously with Przemek Kamiński. She’s a member of Centrum w Ruchu, an association of independent dance artists based in Warsaw.
Agata Siniarska:is a fictional character with many talents and a criminal past, consciously happening chapter after chapter inside a choreographic frame, fervently working on the idea of femme female personification. Having given a chance to different kinds of theatrical forms, currently she studies choreography in Berlin, yet she doesn’t forget past experiences and desires towards language and writing, cinema and animation. Addicted to fiction, she makes her investigations between life/death in image and life/death outside the frame, fashioning herself as tools of visual rhetoric, through cultural structures. Every image, fueled by the energy of profound theoretical hesitancy, she makes with passion and intense fascination. Often not alone but with some exquisite adventurers.