LOL. Fot. Nuno Santos.
SOLO PROJEKT is the first in Poland residency program created by Art Stations Foundation in 2006. Its mission is to support Polish dance artists in their search for their individual artistic language. The project’s main stress is put on the very process of creation and the artistic experiment, with the hope that this will lead to an attempt of reflecting over the art of dance and, perhaps, to redefine the very concept of contemporary dance in the search for the means of physical expression. With this idea in mind, we have decided to emphasize not so much the idea of “spectacle as a product” but rather focus on the creative process and, consequently, to support the young participants not only on production side but also by professional artistic assistance during the process. This has led to 17 different spectacles being produced at Stary Browar as part of the program within the period of the last years – each operating on completely different aesthetics and representing individual interests and personality of particular choreographers.
More about premieres:
Marzena Krzemińska: 5-7-5 HAIKU
Magdalena Ptasznik: surface.territory
Maria Zimpel: Coming home
The program is directed at professional dancers and beginner choreographers whose interests reach beyond the traditionally understood “dance theater”. The program’s motto are the words of an English choreographer, Jonathan Burrows: “One needs two legs, two hands and, most of all, a head to create a dance.”
SOLO PROJEKT artists-in-residence list includes as far: Janusz Orlik, Anita Wach, Konrad Szymański, Dominika Knapik, Renata Piotrowska, Marcin Janus and Barbara Bujakowska, Tomasz Bazan, Karol Tymiński, Ramona Nagabczyńska, Małgorzata Haduch, Magda Przybysz, Aleksandra Borys, Anna Nowicka, Rafał Urbacki, Irena Lipińska, Iza Szostak and Aleksandra Ścibor.
From 2008 the residents have an artistic coach. In 2012the coaach is Ria Higler, the choreographer and the teacher permanently tied with Amsterdam SNDO school.
Marzena Krzeminska, choreographer and performer, graduated from SNDO (School for New Dance Development) in Amsterdam and Theatre Academy in Warsaw, where she studied Theatre Science. One of the main focus in Marzena’s work is constructing work on a high energy level. Tension and explosion of energy are important tools used in her pieces for deconstruction of the images, stereotypes, and cliches overwhelming our imagination. She worked as performer with such choreographers like: Deborah Hay, Benoit Lachambre, Rob List, and as assistant of choreographer with Maria Hassabi in New York and Jeanine Durning in Amsterdam.
Magdalena Ptasznik, performer, choreographer, graduate of School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam and Sociology at Warsaw University. She started her dance and performancepractice in Warsaw where she studied with Anna Godowska and participated in many workshops. In 2007 she obtained a diploma of Contemporary Dance Instructor (Mazowieckie Centrum Kultury, Warszawa). In 2010 and 2011 she did choreographic internships with La Ribot and Meg Stuart. In 2011 she received a DanceWEB scholarship which take place in the frame of ImPulsTanz Festival in Vienna. She is an author of mainly solo works ( eg. “exercises for a Hero”, “secrets”). She collaborates with Marzena Krzemińska as duet called “Two Beautiful Polish Artists”. Nowadays constantly on the way, without home. She thinks about choreography as a tool for facilitating creation of different experience of time and space. She considers body as a vehicle of this experience.
Marysia Zimpel is a dancer focused on movement research and dance improvisation. She studied Cultural Studies at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland and Dance at HÜTZPilot Project – Contemporary Dance, Choreography and Context, UdK Berlin. Her dance is influenced by somatic practices, release work, and meeting with Australian dancer and choreographer Rosalind Crisp. In 2009 she received DanceWEB Scholarship, Vienna Austria. Marysia Zimpel creates solo works, as well works as dancer for other choreographers (Isabelle Schad), since Fall 2010 performs with Viennese theater group God’s Entertainment. She curated dance/performance event “Serendypia”, which took place twice (2010, 2011) at Pasaż Kultury in City Gallery Arsenał in Poznań.
Ria Higler is a performance artist, choreographer and since decades a staff-teacher at the School for New Dance development (SNDO) in Amsterdam. The SNDO is an international School for choreography. It is a challenging 4-year program for young artists who want to design their own language in dance and become independent artists who contribute to the dialogue about dance and performance in the professional field. Ria Higler was co-director of the SNDO from1989 till 1998.Ria has studied and developed further a range of approaches and techniques to increase body awareness and the body-mind connection as a tool to enhance the creative process. Her work as a teacher and choreographer/performer has brought her to many countries all over the world and apart from Western ways of working, she adopted and integrated views and knowledge from the East as well. Specifically the ways to connect with and reflect on information we can receive from the body. In the last years Ria Higler has been one of the main performers in a 6-hour performance by Ibrahim Quraishi “Wild Life Take Away Station”.
It has been a great pleasure to work with Marzena, Magda and Marysia in this year’s Solo Projekt. The process of creating a new work brings along the need to challenge what is already known, and to investigate unknown area’s as well. This can be frightening and frustrating but also magical! In my job as a witness and coach I have seen it all!
Each of the 3 choreographers have taken on this journey in their own individual way, with the result of clearly different questions and approaches, which revealed the specific characteristics of each work. 3 new solo’s are born and I wish them to flourish and grow in the exposure to, and the attention of audiences.
Ria Higler
More info: http://www.starybrowarnowytaniec.pl/en/soloproject2012
