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On 13-14 December (7 pm), the Nowy Theatre in Warsaw (ul. Madalińskiego 10/16) will present Tekton, a solo piece by Ola Maciejewska produced as part of the Dance Activism. Spaces of Choreography cycle. The starting point for the artist?s choreographic speculation is the border between matter and the body, people, stones, and their representations. In ancient Greece, the term ?tekt?n? denoted craftsmen working with stone. In an interview with The Guardian, the renowned geologist dr Jan Zalasiewicz speculated that in the future Earth will be dominated by gigantic rats ? his dismal prognosis foresees the destruction of the human civilisation. The story of rats taking over the planet confirms the metamorphic qualities of things.

 

?Tekton? is a true cabinet of mineral curiosities. In stone, Ola Maciejewska traces our sublime, poetic, vain and pathetic attempts to curve a mark into Earth?s (hi)story.
Laurence Wagner

Ola Maciejewska is a choreographer and performer who lives and works in Paris. Having graduated from the Bytom Ballet School, she continued her dance education at the University of Utrecht and the Rotterdam Dance Academy. TEKTON is her choreographic debut, which premiered together with a short film COSMOPOL at Théatre de l?Usine in Geneva in November 2014. The piece has been presented at the Rotterdamse Schouwburg, the Actoral Festival in Marseille, and the Batard Festival in Bruselles, as well as at the Nowy Theatre in Warsaw. April 2018 will see the presentation of her latest work, BOMBYX MORI, within the frame of the Performatik Festival at Brussels? Kaai Theater. Since 2016, Ola Maciejewska has been an artist in residence at Centre Chorégraphique National de Caenen Normandie.

Concept and performance: Ola Maciejewska
Artistic collaboration / Stage design: Ieva Kabasinskaite, 

Artistic collaboration / Lighting design: Thomas Laigle, 

Artistic collaboration / Costume: Valentine Solé 
Music: Rene van Trier, Thomas Laigle, Carl Stone
Produced by: Elodie Perrin | so we might as well dance
Coproduced by: Productiehuis Rotterdam, Théâtre de l?Usine
In collaboration with: La Ménagerie de Verre (Studio Lab Convention), Centre National de la Danse (CND Pantin, Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers, Vivarium Studio, Montévidéo Créations Contemporaines

Duration: ca. 50 minutes

Tickets:
PLN 35 full price
PLN 25 reduced 
PLN 20 entrance cards
Bookings: bow@nowyteatr.org, phone no.: + 48 22 379 33 33

 

 

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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.

 

 

Media patrons: taniecPOLSKA.pl, Dwutygodnik.com

 

 

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