Fot. Bettina Stöß.
On Sunday, 15 November (7 pm), the Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw (ul. Zamoyskiego 20) will present Jewrope, coproduced by the Polish Dance Theatre and the BODYTALK collective.
Jewrope is a collaboration between the Polish Dance Theatre and the German collective bodytalk, whose dancers and director, Japanese artist Yoshiko Waki, spring from the famous Johann Kresnik Choreographic Theatre. In Jewrope we can find the traces of brutal aesthetics characteristic of Kresnik which, besides the theatre of Pina Bausch, has been considered as the most invigorating trend in dance theatre. The creators of the performance ask themselves one question: what happens when dance collides with reality? The narrative motifs introduced by the artists refer to the Holocaust and show that we still have a lot to do before our reflection on Shoah becomes ingrained in our consciousness. Jewrope is a piece that gives rise to strong, sometimes extreme, emotions and provokes a discussion, dealing with a new topic for dance theatre, a topic that enables the international group of performers a chance to display their individuality.
The world premiere of Jewrope took place on 18 October in Cologne, Germany, and has been broadly discussed.
?’Would you shoot two panda bears to save one Jew?,’ the actors ask the audience, who quickly come back with an affirmative answer? Yet bodytalk do not stop halfway, the dancers and musicians test the limits and perhaps even a bit further. Their new production, Jewrope, an outcome of a collaboration with the Polish Dance Theatre, makes no exception: in the words of reviewer Thomas Linden ?it shows dance on the verge of pain?. Linden also emphasises that the piece is hardly comparable to anything else in German theatre.
Tickets at PLN 30/50 may be purchased at: www.powszechny.com
Choreography: Yoshiko Waki
Production: Rolf Baumgart
Music: Damian Pielka
Stage design and costumes: Petra Korink
Lights: Thomas Achtner
Cast: Kornelia Lech, Paulina Wycichowska, Urszula Bernat-Jałocha, Bartłomiej Raźnikiewicz, Paweł Malicki
Charlie Fouchier, Krzysztof Raczkowski, Mack Kubicki, SylvanaSeddig
World premiere: 18 and 19 October 2014, TanzFaktur Köln, Cologne, Germany.
Polish premiere: 18 and 19 December 2014, ZAMEK Culture Centre, Poznań, Poland.
Yoshiko Waki (*1965, Fukuoka/Japan) received her master?s degrees in dance and dance education in Germany (1986). Since then, she has danced as a soloist in German national and city theatres, including cooperations with major choreographers.
She also performed for alternative companies, taught at dance academies in Dresden in Frankfurt, and created choreographies for the Summer Festival of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since 1995, she has created her own pieces, first in Berlin as a member of the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz ? Hans Kresnik Choreographic Theatre, and then in North Rhine-Westphalia upon moving to the Bonn Opera, where she founded the bodytalk dance theatre (2008). She is married to Rolf Baumbart (co-author of her works).
based in Cologne, bodytalk creates dance theatre which is deeply rooted in the community in which it is produced. Lauded by the press as ?radically local? their work has garnered (inter)national acclaim. In the words of a critic, ?One rarely sees such intelligent rambunctiousness in independent dance… standing apart from the cult-like Berlin dance scene which playacts as adults, bodytalk displays a sincere but knowing forthrightness. Artistic directors of state and city theatres, please take care!?.
Dancer and Choreographer Yoshiko Waki and former members of the Choreographic Theatre of Johann Kresnik (Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin, Opera Bonn) founded bodytalk six years ago. Since 2012 bodytalk has been the recipient of the North Rhine-Westphalia ?SpitzenförderungTanz? grant. Their work has been awarded with several prizes, among others the Movement – Art – Prize for the best independent production of the year, and the Authors – and Producers ? Prize, Bremen.
Performance for adult audience only!
Implemented as part of the programme Teatr tańca w podróży. Interdyscyplinarne działania artystyczne na rzecz rozwoju i popularyzacji sztuki tańca w Polsce [Dance theatre on the road. Interdisciplinary artistic initiatives for the development and popularization of dance in Poland]
