Each year between Christmas and the New Year a festival showcasing local music and dance artists is held in the Tricity, or the combined metropolis of Gdynia, Gdańsk and Sopot, on the initiative of the Baltic Sea Cultural Centre. This time, The Day of Dance held as part of the festival Metropolis is Okay is taking place on 27 December, starting at 6 pm, at Teatr na Plaży in Sopot (Aleja Mamuszki 2). The programme features five productions which have premiered this year and which present a wide spectrum of tendencies observable in the Tricity. The line-up includes: the Sopot Dance Theatre, Helena Ganjalyan, Patrz Mi Na Usta Theatre, Dzikistyl Company and Katarzyna Pastuszak. ADMISSION FREE.
Hosted and coordinated by Bartłomiej Łuniewicz.
From the organizaers:
he Day of Dance held as part of the festival Metropolia Jest Okey [Metropolis is Okay] embraces five performances which have been premiered this year and which represent a wide spectrum of tendencies observable in the metropolitan area of Sopot, Gdańsk and Gdynia, or the Tricity as it is called. The event is a systematic round-up of the trends, methods and conceptions present among local performance art makers, showcasing productions that encourage a debate in times when performance art is making an ever stronger presence in postdramatic theatre.
You may ask yourself if a man who is thinking, standing, experiencing tension, leaning against a wall, lying on the floor, running on the spot, or – conversely – diving into contemplation, or freezes making an unconventional gesture – if such a man is dancing.
This is where dance and performance art come together: through the presence of a conscious body freed from the fiction of dramatic action, the actor/dancer is seeking to shape meaning engaging in dialogue with the audience who on their part are involved in interpretation.
The programme of this year’s Day of Dance reflects the most up-to-date tendencies of the Tricity’s art and confronts radical conceptual art with dance narration and performance art.
THE PROGRAMME:
Sopot Dance Theatre–TRANSmisja, 6 pm
TRANSmisja[TRANSmission] is a fluid theatrical vision focusing on CHANGE. The audience gets invited onto a world where nothing is certain and one value is hiding a string of others. The performance is not simply a showcase of the two artists’ personalities and their most secret stage dreams but their transformation.
Conception: Joanna Czajkowska
Creation, choreography: Joanna Nadrowska, Joanna Czajkowska
Visual effects: Natalia Osuch, Dominik Rudasz
Music: Grzegorz Welizarowicz, Bartosz Hervy
Helena Ganjalyan–Une femme masculine, 7 pm
The piece uses the formula of remix: it draws on the work of Dutch choreographer Ann Van den Broek, namely her Co(te)letteand We Solo Men. It dwells on a woman identifying with male mentality and male way of life. What does “female” and “male” energy signify, however? Is the division justified? Une femme masculineis a multilayered game of DOMINATION. It is a call for acceptance. It offers a reflection of those who never cease to play out their power. Oscillating between provocation and shame, the piece does not ask “who am I?”, but “who’d I like to be?” or “who am I afraid to become?”.
Choreography and conception: Helena Ganjalyan
Performance: Helena Ganjalyan, Korina Kordova
Music: Michał Mackiewicz
Patrz Mi Na Usta Theatre –Strefa zagrożenia, 8 pm
Strefa zagrożenia [Danger Zone] is inspired by Sarah Kane’s playBlasted. Two people locked in a hotel room in a wartime town are trying to get closer together, make contact with one another. Each of the performers operates in a strictly delimited space, trying to find a place for him/her, while respecting or consciously ignoring the needs of the other person. This way the dancers reminiscence on their long-lasting cooperation based both on compromise and enormous risk. The titular “danger zone” is the place where the performers’ energy cumulates, the space where lines are blurred, where anything may happen.
Choreography and performance: Krzysztof Dziemaszkiewicz, Anna Steller
Music: Tomasz Wierzchowski
Video: Maciej Salamon
Lighting, costumes: Krzysztof Dziemaszkiewicz
DzikiStyl Company– 7.2, 9 pm
7.2tries to capture nuances of human psyche, its power and vulnerability at the same time. It comes after such Dziki Syl Company’s productions as Dzieci innego Boga [Children of the otherGod],Streetwise, orGreat Dictator, this time focusing mainly on narration. It draws on the description of hell in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. The piece’s characters are people whose actions qualify as the cardinal sins. The production is based on acting and choreography and explores the most daring movement endeavours that humans may conceive.
Directed by Patryk Gacki
Choreography: Dziki Styl Company
Performers: Wioleta Fiuk, Helena Ganjalyan, Mikołaj Wieczór, Marcin Powszuk, Patryk Gacki
Music: Igor Herbut
Stage design: Beata Targosz
Visual effects: Andrzej Rajkowski
Katarzyna Pastuszak–Projekt2, 10 pm
Projekt2[Project 2] by Katarzyna Pastuszak is a thing about dialogue, becoming different when faced with difference, being in-between one and another, being one and another at the same time.
Projekt2is a part of Katarzyna Pastuszak’s original project 33_33_33 which embraces 33 performances and artistic actions taking place in the course of 365 days, staring on the artist’s birthday on 16 August 2013 and ending on 16 August 2014.
Conception, performance, texts, video: Katarzyna Pastuszak
Music: Joanna Duda