Polish dance to be presented in Romania: dance//pl Yesterday. Tomorrow. Today

At the end of March, the Polish Institute in Bucharest is holding a series of contemporary dance performances in association with the National Centre for Dance in Bucharest (CNDB) called dance//pl ? Yesterday. Tomorrow. Today (dans//pl ? Ieri. Mâine. Azi) and embracing five performances portraying today?s contemporary dance scene in Poland. The audience will be shown works by Mikołaj Mikołajczyk, Dada von Bzdülöw Theatre, Anna Godowska & Sławomir Krawczyński (performed by Tomasz Wygoda), Agata Maszkiewicz, and Agata Siniarska.

Equally important has been the re//mix series produced by Komuna//Warszawa, featuring young artists  entering into dialogue with their masters and thus identifying their own aesthetic points of reference and sources of inspiration, which ranged from Merce Cunningham to Henryk Tomaszewski. The Bucharest showcase will feature one of the re//mix productions ? RE//MIX Projekt: Tomaszewski by Mikołaj Mikołajczyk. The programme also includes The Rite of Dreams, a choreography by Anna Godowska and Sławomir Krawczyński, performed by Tomasz Wygoda, and dedicated to Vaslav Nijinsky, legendary dancer and choreographer of Polish origins, along with Invisible Duets by founders of the Dada von Bzdülöw Theatre,  Leszek Bzdyl and Katarzyna Chmielewska. The Bucharest audience will also have a chance to get a taste of performance art by two young Polish artists, educated and now based abroad ? Agata Maszkiewicz with her solo Polska [Poland]and Agata Siniarska with Death 24 Frames per Second or Do It To Me Like in a Real Movie.

Apart from the performance programme, the Polish Institute and the CNDB have also prepared artists talks, workshop sessions for young Romanian dancers, and a round table discussion gathering production houses and dance promoters of both countries, who are going to talk about possibilities for mutual cooperation. Poland will be represented by Joanna Szymajda, deputy director of the Institute of Music and Dance, Magda Grudzińska, curator of the RE//MIX project, and Joanna Leśnierowska, curator of the Old Brewery New Dance programme of the Art Stations Foundation.

Additional events:

• after-show artists talks

• dance workshops for dance and choreography students lead by a Polish choreographer (possibly in the form of Dada Hub);

• a round table discussion gathering Polish and Romanian production houses, along with CNDB and IMiT representatives, devoted to models of dance performances? production in both countries, funding schemes and possibilities for regional cooperation. 

The Bucharest event is also designed to serve as a synthetic presentation of artistic trends and formats of performance production present on the Polish dance scene. It is the organisers? intention to underscore

relations with local tradition and the genealogy that the Polish dance scene is referring to. Another important aspect is looking for ways to set up a common, Eastern European space for reflection on dance. The first step of the process is providing Bucharest audience and artists with an opportunity to learn more about the artistic practices of the Polish dance community.

Calendar of events

30 March, 7:30 pm //  Invisible Duets // Dada von Bzdülöw Theatre

6 April 11 am // DANS/VIDEO/PL  // film screenings

8 April // RO/PL/DANS  // round table with Polish and Romanian production houses and dance promoters

8 April, 7.30 pm // RE//MIX Projekt: Tomaszewski // Mikołaj Mikołajczyk

10 April, 7.30 pm  // Nijinsky. The Rite of Dreams // Sławek Krawczyński / Tomasz Wygoda / Anna Godowska

11 April, 7.30 pm // POLSKA / Agata Maszkiewicz // Death 24 Frames per Second or Do It To Me Like in a Real Movie / Agata Siniarska