Na zdjęciu: Marta Ziółek. Fot. Patrycja Płanik.
The 5th edition of the International Contemporary Dance Festival ?KRoki? will take place on 12-21 May 2017. The festival will feature 14 performances by artists from 10 countries, including 6 Polish productions. ?KRoki? will also present its co-production with the enfant terrible of the German dance scene, Constanza Macras and her company Dorky Park.
The International Contemporary Dance Festival ?KRoki? was established in 2013 as one of the flagship events of the newly founded Małopolski Ogród Sztuki [Małopolska Garden of Arts]. ?KRoki? enabled the Cracow audience to learn more about the latest trends in choreography, and the festival stage became a venue conducive to experimentation and close contact with the audience. Since its creation in 2013, the festival has been overseen by curators Jadwiga Majewska and Katarzyna Bester.
5th International Contemporary Dance Festival ?KRoki? ? idea
The 5th edition of the 5th International Contemporary Dance Festival ?KRoki?, titled Skonfliktowani? [Conflicted?], aims to present performances that examine the condition of contemporary human community. Is our being together always the same? Has anything changed recently? What does ?us? mean in a world dominated by ?me?? Together with the audience, and using the bodies and movement of dancers, we will try to identify ?communality? at the level of societies, nations, companies, groups, families, couples. Hot spots for conflicts; platforms for understanding; social unrest; reconciliations ? the political rhetoric of global conflicts reveals a reality grounded in the body, senses, and intimate contact.
When preparing this year?s festival programme, I was thinking whether its title could act as a symbolical and actual invitation extended to artists hailing from a range of trouble spots around the world, but also from the places that have provided shelter and home to those fleeing from violence and war. Are we only spectators, innocent onlookers, or rather conscious witnesses? Would it be possible for us to be mutually responsible for one another? Are we capable of creating true communities? And, last but not least, can dance spur one towards reflection, stir one?s conscience, and result in change?, asks Jadwiga Majerwska, curator of this year?s edition of ?KRoki.?
Programme
During ten festival nights, the audience will be treated to 14 performances, including 6 ensemble pieces, 6 solo pieces, a duo, and a performance for the youngest audience. Festival presentations will take place at several venues: the Małopolska Garden of Art (MOS), the Miniatura Stage at the Słowacki Theatre, and Dom Rzemiosł (formerly known as Lamus) in ul. Radziwiłłowska. The list of performers includes artists from Australia, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Israel, Ukraine, Egypt, and Poland.
This year?s edition of the festival features a particularly strong contingent of Polish artists. The authors of the festival intend to include a variety of latest projects by foreign and domestic artists, as well as international collaborations. This year, Polish dancers will perform under the guidance of Rosalind Crisp and David Zambrano. Also presented will be a co-production between ?KRoki? and the German-based Argentinian choreographer Constanza Macras and her company Dorky Park, developed in collaboration with the Egyptian choreographer and performer Adham Hafez.
Electrodomestics is a stage event that transcends generic boundaries and escapes easily definable labels, as does the remainder of Macras?s oeuvre. In this cabaret-like show, performed in household conditions, the unruly performer and surprising creator borrows extensively from a range of aesthetics and idioms of contemporary performing arts, deftly combining stark opposites. Lurking in the amusing revue of dances and songs is the tragic vision of contemporary world.
Several pieces utilise live music. Marcin Masecki will play the piano in the performative concert Mazurki [Mazurkas] featuring dance pieces by Ilona Trybuła, Małgorzata Haduch, Marysia Zimpel and Paweł Grala. Musicians will also accompany dancers in Constanza Macras?s Elektrodomestics and Anna Godowska and Sławomir Krawczyński?s Bataille and the Dawn of New Days. The solo pieces presented at the festival will showcase some of the best Polish performers, including Aurora Lubos, Leszek Bzdyl and Anna Steller.
The festival will open with a hypnotic piece by the Swiss company Cie Alias directed by the Brazilian Guilherme Botelho. Their brilliant Antes presents the return of the human being to the times in which it seemed a value in itself, and any potential conflicts were eliminated in the course of collaboration, necessary to survive. On the other hand, the fears and frustrations of contemporary society, filtered through the erudite writing of George Bataille, will be the focal point of Anna Godowska and Sławek Krawczyński?s Bataille and the Dawn of New Days. Concluding this thread of the festival will be the presentation of Back to Bone by the Australian master of choreographic improvisation, Rosalind Crisp, whose piece dissects dance through the practice of attentiveness, key to Crisp?s choreographic and dance output, i.e. the ability to always remain in the ?here,? to follow the impulses instigating individual moves, and to creatively utilise the slightest changes occurring in the body.
Direct references to global hotspots, along with documentary insight, inform two pieces presented at the festival: Archive by Arkadi Zaides, Belarusian-born Israeli choreographer, and Witajcie/Welcome by Polish choreographer and performer Aurora Lubos. Adding to these two will be Leszek Bzdyl who revisits his piece Strategy, reinterpreting it under new circumstances in Strategy (involuntary reactivation). In a reunion after many years, Wojciech Mochniej and Iris Hetzinger present a project examining the notion of relationship and its manifold shades (UJĘ(Ci)[Framed]). The festival landscape will be complemented by three intimate solos: Adi Weinberg?s Living Leaving, Anna Steller?s Solove and Daniel Belkin?s Leaning on, assisting the audience in their transition from the macro- to micro-world.
This year?s edition of ?KRoki? will be accompanied by the exhibition of Poruszenia by Marta Ankiersztejn, one of the best dance theatre photographers in Poland. As usual, the organisers have presented a selection of film screenings, including the documentary Mr. Gaga, recounting the life and art of Ohad Naharin, one of the top choreographers in the world. The audience will also be able to participate in Naharin?s GaGa classes for professionals and amateur dancers. Also presented during the festival will be a selection of entries from the dance film section of the Short Waves Festival, as well as screenings of pieces by Constanza Macras.
Małe Kroki is a segment addressed to children. This year, the youngest audience will be invited to participate in the interactive piece Up Side Down by Dalija Aćin Thelander and Keren Levi, and dance workshops Go & Draw (parents are also welcome to attend), designed as a response to the motoric and expressive needs of children. Created by participants and the author, Monika Kiwak, these performative workshops are a fusion of contemporary dance improvisation and graphic expression of children.
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