Fot. Bettina Stoess.
The Krakow Dance Theatre, Krakow Festival Office, and the Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw present the premiere of Nesting, a choreography by Idan Cohen. The project’s partners are: POLIN ? the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Polish Institute Tel Aviv, and the Jewish Culture Festival. The performance is taking place on 21 September 2015 (8 pm) at the ICE Kraków Congress Centre (ul. Konopnickiej 17). Subsequent showings are scheduled to take place in Warsaw in October.
Derived from the verb denoting the process of nest weaving, NESTING guides the audience down the cultural path between Poland and Israel, tracing the oft unnoticed cultural links between our past and present. The performance casts the long-discussed Polish-Israeli relations in a new perspective, featuring statements from new artists who present their discoveries and propose their thesis using vivid images, movement and sound. The dancers will speak with their bodies and emotions.
Choreographer?s assistant: Eryk Makohon
Lighting: Eryk Makohon
Dance: Paweł Łyskawa, Magdalena Skowron, Dominik Więcek, Katarzyna Węglowska-Król/Katarzyna Żminkowska-Szymańska
?NESTING? was produced in cooperation with the Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw under the programme “Choreographic Commissions” (2015).
NESTING/ the guiding principle
Based on the concept of family tree and nests woven of cultural memories, Nesting searches for a broadly defined home. People have migrated since time immemorial. They are like birds pushed by the primeval survival instinct, circling the globe in search for home.
Sometimes we have to flee in search of a safe haven? In the 1940s, Jews were forced to flee Europe, and thus millions of people were told they were not who they held themselves for. Stripped of their identity, they were made to believe their home is far from where they felt they belonged. Their addresses ceased to exists, new houses were built over those they used to own, often using the very same bricks. New families moved into places once inhabited by their near and dear. Jews left behind their synagogues, music, paintings, and poetry.
There is a hiatus between ?then? and ?now? which cannot be easily filled. Leafless branches in the family tree breed identity problems: who am I, where do I come from, what made me?
Before the tree dies, its roots will have pierced through the asphalt, shaping it into forms which will last for years. Many generations will continue to walk on this disfigured, bulgy surface, even though the tree will have disappeared. Will they think what formed the ground beneath their feet? Whose roots helped to shape their reality?
The authors of Nesting are interested in these very bulges, sediments, traces. What was witnessed by the stones used as the foundation of our homes? What are our nests made of other than the history, memories, and heritage of the others? We are looking for answers to the questions about the sources of our identity.
/Idan Cohen/
NESTING/choreographer
Idan Cohen was born in 1978 in Kibbutz Mizra, a socialist commune in Israel. The kibbutz lifestyle has significantly influenced his artistic life. He received a scholarship which enabled him to study theatre and fine arts at the ?Art Colony? in Negev. Before joining the world-famous Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, founded by Yehudit Amon, Cohen became involved with a film and dance project by Lara Bersa, dancer of the Bat-Seva company (France). Cohen has performed across the globe, dancing to choreographies of such eminent artists as Rami Be?er, Inbal Pinto, Ania Brod and others. Since 2003, he has taught, performed and created as an independent artist. His work has been awarded in numerous international choreographic competitions, including the international contemporary dance competition in Sofia, Bulgaria, ?No Ballet? in Ludwigshafen (Germany), and ?Solo Tanz Theater Festival? in Stuttgart (Germany). In November 2007, Cohen won the 1st prize for the original interpretation of a musical composition at the international contemporary dance competition ?Margarita Arnaudowa? in Sofia for his choreography to Arabesque Dance Company?s Half cup sesame seeds. In March 2007, he won his second award for A year in a fish life at the ?No Ballet? competition in Ludwigshafen. In March 2008, he was awarded the 1st prize for his performance My sweet little fur at the ?Solo Tanz Theater Festival? in Stuttgart. Cohen has presented his work around the world, from the USA through Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Bulgaria, Poland, Thailand and Greece. He has collaborated with a number of institutions as a visiting artist, choreographer and teacher, among others the Cullberg Ballet (Sweden), UCLA, D.N.A & CPR ? Theatre New York, AU Washington DC, ACDFA Boston, Amherst College MA, University of Massachusetts Dance Department, Smith College Dance Department, Mount-Holyoke College (USA), the Scottish Dance Theatre (Dundee, Scotland), Impactt (Wilrijk, Belgium), the Arabesque (Sofia, Bulgaria), the International Contemporary Dance Conference and Performance Festival in Bytom (Poland), the Jerusalem Academy and the Suzanne Dellal Dance Center in Tel Aviv (Israel).
More information available on the choreographer?s official website:www.idancohen.com
***
The premiere ofNESTINGwill also include the presentation of Quadriga for THREE by the Krakow Dance Theatre, choreographed by Eryk Makohon.
Quadriga for THREE is a performance choreographed by dancer Eryk Makohon. Previously associated with the Silesian Dance Theatre, Makohon presently works with his own company and towards his own aesthetics. In line with its title, Quadriga for THREE refers to the classical ideas of beauty based on harmony and perfect proportions. It is a narrative on the beauty as conceived by the classical art of the ancient Rome, whose manifestations included the male body.
“The choreographers mastered the difficult art of performance which strayed from gender ambiguities. Dressed solely in black trunks, the male trio resolutely took us back to the world of ancient heroes and Greek vase-like muscular bodies injected with the energy of parkour masters. Well deserving of the frequent bursts of enthusiastic applause. /dziennikwschodni.pl, 12 December 2012/
Quadriga for THREE performance takes exceptionality to another level as dancers Jan Lorys, PawełŁyskawa and Tomasz Urbański seem to defy gravity when they run on top of a diagonal table. The choreography sreams all things splendid in the world of ancient heroes. The form, the rhythm, and the dynamic combine seamlessly as if pervaded by the idea of the golden ratio. Incredible precision meets maddening yet strangely tamed energy as the artist dazzle with the vividness of their bodies and fluidity of their moves. Sometimes resembling a jousting match, their dance then turns into brotherly cooperation guided by the struggle to come up with invisible yet spectacular wonders of architecture.” /Teatralia, April 2015/
Choreography: Eryk Makohon
Dance: Jan Lorys, Paweł Łyskawa, Tomasz Urbański
***
Tickets (PLN 40-80) are available online at Eventim.pl and at the InfoKrakówinformation points in ul. Św. Jana 2, Wyspiański Pavilion (pl. Wszystkich Świętych 2), Cloth Hall (Rynek Główny 1/3), as well as the Centrum Obsługi Ruchu Turystycznego
