Poznań: Solo Project Plus premiere night Agnieszka Kryst Scores, Paweł Sakowicz TOTAL

On Saturday, 12 December (6 pm), Old Brewery New Dance programme and Art Stations Foundation by Grażyna Kulczyk in Poznań will host an evening of premieres Solo Project Plus (Słodownia Studio +3, ul Półwiejska 42). During the evening, Agnieszka Kryst and Paweł Sakowicz will present their new solo performances created in collaboration with Dalija Aćin Thelander, the project artistic coach.

Agnieszka Kryst: Scores

Scores is a solo work derived from the movement practice in which the process of transformation ? constant re-forming, minimizing and maximizing, subjugating and liberating of a single gesture and emotion ? plays the key role. The practice of mindfulness allows us to notice the smallest change and decompose it into the prime factors. Thus it opens the way for conscious manipulations. Continuous construction and deconstruction, layering and reducing, reveals the body as a site of a never ending play of endless amount of meanings and emotions.

Choreography and performance: Agnieszka Kryst
Artistic coaching: Dalija Aćin Thelander
Technical realisation and lights: Łukasz Kędzierski
Production: Art Stations Foundation by Grażyna Kulczyk

Agnieszka Kryst graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics and the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw with a diploma in Choreography and Dance Theory. In 2013, she received a scholarship from the Alternative Dance Academy/Art Station Foundation by Grażyna Kulczyk. As a dancer and performer, she has collaborated with Karolina Kroczak, Tomas Nepsinski, Juan Dom?nguez Rojo, Małgorzata Haduch, Noa Shadur and Kondrad Smoleński , Sjoerd Vreugdenhil, Marta Ziółek or Rebecca Lazier. She was a finalist of the choreographic competition New Europe Festival 2013 in Prague, the Czech Republic, where she showcased her solo ?Pressure? and duo ?Liquid state of mind?. She is a member of Centrum w Ruchu, a space for performance art in Warsaw.

Paweł Sakowicz: TOTAL

Speculating about the virtuosity of dance means thinking that could be based on experience, but somehow cannot be empirically verified. The goal of such a speculation is to achieve a particular image of dance virtuosity through the use of predictable changes in economy, politics and metahumanistic approaches. A characteristic feature of speculation about the virtuosity of dance is taking a risk when building radical scenarios concerning the politics of desire.

Choreography, text and performance: Paweł Sakowicz

Artistic coaching: Dalija Aćin Thelander

Technical realisation and lights: Łukasz Kędzierski

Production: Art Stations Foundation by Grażyna Kulczyk

Paweł Sakowicz graduated from the University of Warsaw with a degree in political studies and holds an MA in Performance and Choreography from the London Contemporary Dance School. He has collaborated with Sasha Roubicek, Jeannie Steele, Paolo Mangiola, Maria Stokłosa, Ramona Nagabczyńska, Sjoerd Vreugdenhil, Mikołaj Mikołajczyk, Marta Ziółek, Iza Szostak, Rebecca Lazier, Alex Baczyński-Jenkins, and Isabelle Schad. He often collaborates with artists, curators and culture institutions in London, Warsaw and Berlin. His recent solo ?Bernhard? (2014) was selected to be presented at the 2014 Polish Dance Platform. Paweł was awarded a scholarship by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, a residency programme run by the Institute of Music and Dance, and by the Alternative Dance Academy of the Art Stations Foundation by Grażyna Kulczyk.

Text of  Dalija Aćin Thelander ? an artistic coach of SOLO PROJECT PLUS 2015

To be invited into another artist?s creative process is an immense challenge and responsibility. The endeavour to understand the origin of the desires and ideas, to follow, assist and be considerate and yet demanding, sometimes even tough, within delicate and vulnerable course of creation, is a tricky task. Questioning one’s own procedures and methods while being given the trust, is an exquisite learning process. Sharing the thrilling and scary moments of wavering and decision making, the uncertainty about the outcome, as well as witnessing the beautiful moments of imaginativeness unfolding, made us ‘partners in crime’, the crime of devising a performance. I am grateful for being a part of it.

Dalija Aćin Thelander based in Stockholm, Sweden. Works within the performing arts field as a choreographer, theatre maker and cultural worker. Her current work aspires to contribute to the notion of choreography as expanded practice, with the focus on interaction and participation. She has been developing her choreographic practices for children and babies since 2008. Since then she has been involved in creating, teaching and lecturing, aiming to promote the importance of the early encounters with art.

She has presented her works internationally on numerous festivals such as Impulstanz, Tanz im August, Les Particules, Perforations, BITEF etc. In 2008 she received Prix Jardin d?Europe for the performance ?Handle with great care? on 8:tension, ImPulsTanz Festival, Vienna.

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Solo Projekt Plus is the continuation of the first Polish residency program Solo Projekt created by Art Stations Foundation in 2006. Its mission is to support Polish dance artists in their search for individual artistic language. The program is directed at professional dancers and beginner choreographers whose interests reach beyond the traditionally understood ?dance theatre?. 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, redefine the very concept of contemporary dance in the search for the means of physical expression. The program’s motto are the words of an English choreographer Jonathan Burrows, who claimed that one needs ?most of all, a head to create a dance?, by which young creators are encouraged to take risks as artists, focus on (auto)reflection, and exploration of form and body.

In the eight editions of the program, 23 artists have received assistance in the area of production, promotion and consulting. The project was suspended in 2014 (due to intensive celebrations of Art Stations? 10th anniversary), which led to its evaluation and a deeper reflection on its possible development and progress paths. The organisers were aware of the fact that creating a program promoting solo art has contributed in a way to its popularisation in Poland, and believed that the choice of solo form should be most of all an artistic decision, not a necessity enforced by the rules. Therefore, in 2015 they decided to expand the Solo Project?s formula by making it possible to create a duet and a trio during the residency.