Fot. Alicja Byzdra.
Saturday, 24 October, sees the start of the 22nd CROSSROADS festival. This year, curator Janusz Marek has invited renowned UK artists to participate in the event: Company Wayne McGregor and Stan’s Café Theatre, the latter to give their first performance in Poland. The festival will confront two contemporary dance companies who blend dance, music and exuberant visual effects: Company Wayne McGregor of London and the Warsaw Dance Theatre; as well as two companies experimenting with images and space: Stan’s CaféTheatre of Birmingham and Lublin’s theatre Scena Plastyczna KUL, which celebrates its jubilee this year. During a press conference, the curator stressed that Wayne McGregor is considered one of the most outstanding choreographers of today and it is difficult to think of a Polish company that could “cross swords” with the British troupe (which is a guiding principle of the festival), nevertheless, the Warsaw Dance Theatre will take up the challenge. The team, led by Aleksandra Dziurosz, will presenting a stage event devised specifically for CROSSROADS which combines contemporary dance, movement, acting, music and video screenings.
The second confrontation of the festival will be Lustro [Mirror] by Leszek Mądzik andThe Cleansing of Constance Brown by Stan’s Café Theatre. Janusz Marek claims that watching of the show by the Birmingham company for the first time, he immediately thought of Scena Plastyczna KUL. Traditionally, the festival will include topical lectures. On Saturday, 24 October (4 pm), Emily Wienfield will talk about Wayne McGregor’s work. On 27 October (6 pm), director James Yarker will provide us with his reflections on Stan’s Café Theatre. Both lectures will take place at KinoLAB.
About the pieces:
FAR features a dynamic choreography by Wayne McGregor, co-created and performed by a group of dancers against the background of a moving screen displaying abstract paintings. Staged in a mesmerising environment of shadow and light (rAndom International, Lucy Carter), FAR binds cutting edge design with choreography made from a radical cognitive research process.
Inspired by the Age of Enlightenment, the piece touches upon an era which radically changed our approach to human understanding of the body. The creators were particularly inspired by Roy Porter’s book Flesh in the Age of Reason (the acronym lent the piece its title), which is an excellent account of the history of 18th-century studies on the body and soul. Ten dancers move to the suggestive music by Ben Frost (highly regarded composer, collaborator of Brian Eno), confronting present-day sensitivity with the deformations, sensuality and emotions typical of the 18th century.
The piece was co-commissioned by Maison de la Danse, Lyon, FR; Fondazione I Teatri, Reggio Emilia, IT; Belgrade Dance Festival, Belgrade, SE; Belfast Festival, Belfast, UK; Brighton Dome, Brighton, UK; Laban Theatre, London, UK and DanceEast, Ipswich, UK.
Next up, is the world premiere of Kolarz. Niepowtarzalne zderzenie z czasoprzestrzenią [Cyclist. A unique clash with spacetime]. Devised by Aleksandry Dziurosz, it is an interdisciplinary, multimedia stage event which combines contemporary dance, movement, acting, music and video screenings. Dziurosz, who is the author of the piece and one of the dancers, says that the sound, text and video images in the piece are compatible and often created live as real time improvisations. The audience witnesses an interplay between all participants in the event, each of them acting according to a different blueprint. The performers rehearsed individually ? the combined effect of all the media will reveal itself only during the premiere. Kolarz has been created by Aleksandra Dziurosz (concept, maps, dance), Aldona Nawrocka and Tomasz Woźniak (sound), Bartosz Martyna (text), Andrzej Kopeć (images/videos), Joanna Lichorowicz and Michał Łabuś (choreography).
The performance The Cleansing of Constance Brown from 2007 directed by James Yarker is one of the most valued shows ofStan’s Café Theatre. Action takes place in a long, narrow corridor of a building that resembles both an office building from the 1950s and a contemporary hotel, block of flats or a prison. The corridor is a place of passage, a peripheral spot for people lacking power; power that is exerted behind the doors and walls of the invisible rooms. The audience watches a series of micro-scenes and try to interpret the relationships between several dozen characters that appear in the corridor just for a while. The kaleidoscope of images reminds us of daily events or TV coverage of public or personal disasters.
The festival will close with Lustro [Mirror] by Leszek Mądzik, who continues to explore the imagination of Polish writer Bruno Schulz. Mądzik created many exhibitions devoted to Schultz, yet he was not able to showcase literary output fully before developed Lustro.Created in 2013, the piece is inspired by Schulz?s life and prose, above all his short story Loneliness (whose fragments will be read out during the performance). Live music has been composed by Piotr Klimek. In the words of its author, Lustro is ?less a reflection than a need to peer into emotions, sensitivities which solidify into obsessions, fears, fascinations or tragic fate fulfilled by the short life of Bruno Schulz?.
By Marianna Jasionowska
THE PROGRAMME
24 October 2015, 4 pm
Emily Wienfield?s lecture on Wayne McGregor
Centre for Contemporary Art ? Ujazdowski Castle, KINO.LAB
Admission free
Company Wayne McGregor (London, UK)
25 October 2015, 7 pm
Teatr Wielki ? National Opera, Moniuszko Auditorium
Tickets available at the Teatr Wielki ? National Opera.
Ticket prices: PLN 35 ? 200
27 October 2015, 6 pm
James Yarker?s lecture on Stan’s Cafe
Centre for Contemporary Art ? Ujazdowski Castle, KINO.LAB
Stan’s Café (Birmingham, UK)
The Cleansing of Constance Brown
28 October 2015, 7 pm
29 October 2015, 6 pm and 8:30 pm
30 October 2015, 6 pm and 8:30 pm
Klub Stodoła.
Tickets available on the day of performance and the preceding day at Klub Stodoła.
Ticket prices: PLN 50 (full price ticket), PLN 30 (reduced ticket)
Warsaw Dance Theatre(Poland)
5 November 2015, 8:30 pm, stage I
6 November 2015, 7 pm, stage II
Centre for Contemporary Art ? Ujazdowski Castle, W. Krukowski Hall, Laboratory
Tickets available on the day of performance and the preceding day at the Centre for Contemporary Art ? Ujazdowski Castle
Ticket prices: PLN 30 (full price ticket), PLN 20 (reduced ticket).
Scena Plastyczna KUL, Leszek Mądzik (Lublin, Poland)
9 November 2015, 6 pm, 8 pm
10 November 2015, 6 pm, 8 pm
Centre for Contemporary Art ? Ujazdowski Castle, W. Krukowski Hall, Laboratory
Tickets available on the day of performance and the preceding day at the Centre for Contemporary Art ? Ujazdowski Castle
Ticket prices: PLN 40 (full price ticket), PLN 25 (reduced ticket).
All performances will be followed by meetings with artists.
To download:
Curator: Janusz Marek
Presented by Centre for Contemporary Art ? Ujazdowski Castle, Teatr Wielki ? Polish National Opera, and Klub Stodoła
Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the City of Warsaw.
Collaboration: Teatr Wielki ? Polish National Opera
Partner: British Council Poland
