Picture from rehearsal. Photo: Marta Ankiersztejn.
On Thursday 23 June 2016 at 7 pm, the Nowy Theatre in Warsaw (106 Madalińskiego St.) will present the premiere of the performance Golden Demons, as part of the Dance Activism. Spaces of Choreography series. Golden Demons were initiated by Maria Stokłosa who in the spring of 2015 invited choreographers and performers Magdalena Ptasznik and Marta Ziółek to collaborate. In the project, they use dance therapy methods, books by Anna Halprin (a choreographer practicing body therapy), shamanic dances of the elements and tarot cards.
Golden Demons is a performance that does not seek crystallization or a final version; instead, it keeps developing, updating and transforming. It focuses on the returning question about what is hidden under the surface. Coming closer and withdrawing. It is a search for the relationships between the unconscious, movement, female body, its representation, choreography and life.
?We are summoning the golden demons so that they cast their light on our longings and fears. We strive for fulfilment and happiness. We are fascinated with the garbage dump of images and emotions that we have no time to pay attention to, that leave us restless ? a garbage dump of archetypes, pop culture icons, fairy-tale characters that live inside us. We venerate the golden demons, we summon them. We mock them, we are scared?.
After the premiere, the performance will be presented again on 24?25 June at 7 pm.
Tickets: 30 PLN, discount 20 PLN, standby 15 PLN
Concept: Maria Stokłosa
Choreography/performance: Magdalena Ptasznik, Maria Stokłosa, Marta Ziółek
Production: Nowy Theatre
Co-production: Burdąg Foundation, Centrum w Ruchu (Centre in Motion)
Supported by: Wawer Culture Centre, Culture Department of the Warsaw City Office as part of the Centre in the Process project, and Szene Salzburg as part of APAP network.
The premiere will be accompanied by the following events:
26 June 2016, 2 pm
Mezze
An original format of post-performance meetings developed and practiced by the Veem House for Performance in Amsterdam.
Free admission, registration required, limited number of seats
27 June 2016, 6 pm
Dance workshops
Open workshops for anyone interested
Free admission, registration required, limited number of seats
*
Dance Activism. Spaces of Choreography
Curators: Maria Stokłosa, Magdalena Ptasznik, Eleonora Zdebiak
A series of six works by Polish choreographers Alex Baczyński-Jenkins, Ola Maciejewska, Anna Nowicka, Magdalena Ptasznik, Maria Stokłosa and Marta Ziółek. Performances will be accompanied by discussions, open original workshops with the artists and a series of articles published in Dwutygodnik.com.
Dance Activism
When we talk about choreography, in the context of invited performances, we are referring to the concept of activism ? an approach favouring activity and change over stability and permanence. Activism is not understood here as social or political engagement linked with focusing on certain themes. What we have in mind is an attitude that concentrates on provoking motion and setting in motion. The choreography we want to present takes changeability and instability as a prerequisite. It does not follow a single theatre convention, but it seeks and offers ways of embodiment that follow the logics of consistent search. It strives to expand the limits of forms that create meanings. It provokes and activates different ways of perceiving and experiencing movement, and, consequently, the body, space, time, the object and their relationships. We propose to shift attention from what movement in dance may represent, may mean, to how it achieves that ? how it is formed and manifested, how it changes and is subject to change. We are wondering in what fields choreography can function in current times.
Spaces of Choreography
The goal of this series is not to (re)formulate the definition of dance, but to ask the question what dance may be and what it may do, what performative force it manifests. We also want to put in circulation and develop the concept of choreography in a more conscious way.
Choreography, which literally means writing down the dance, is presently being appropriated by different fields, from social sciences to exact and natural sciences. In biological sciences, there is talk about, for example, molecular and cellular choreography; in physics ? about n-body choreography; in programming, there is the Web Service Choreography Interface ? a specification that describes the dynamics of interaction between Internet services. In his book Social Choreography: Ideology as Performance in Dance and Everyday Movement, Andrew Hewitt writes about choreography as a method of practicing ideology; and the Institute of Social Choreography in Frankfurt am Main explores the ways choreography may contribute to the development of non-standard social practices and systems.
In its relationship with dance, choreography often remains in the background. For example, until recently there were no choreography schools that admit candidates without educational background in dance. For us, it is interesting to shift the attention from dance to choreographic processes and practices. We see choreography as a technology of action, composing the directions / manifestations of movement in specific conditions ? navigating the processes, forming actions, providing the framework for events, organising the movement of elements that make up the situation created.
The series we offer sets the concept of choreography in the centre of attention.
Dance activism is a space for choreography.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/210445039329747/
Nowy Theatre: http://www.nowyteatr.org/pl/event/aktywizm%20ta%C5%84ca
Ticket reservation: tel. 22 379 33 33
Media patrons: taniecPOLSKA.pl, Dwutygodnik.com
