Artists Taking Part in the “Yesterday-Tomorrow-Today” Dance Festival

For nearly two weeks, the National Dance Centre in Bucharest hosted two dance shows, representing momentous achievements for Polish contemporary dance.

România Internațional, 19.04.2014, 14:10

For nearly two weeks, the National Dance Centre in Bucharest hosted two dance shows, representing momentous achievements for Polish contemporary dance. The shows were presented to the public as part of the Days of the Polish Dance Festival, under the slogan “Yesterday. Tomorrow. Today”.

The Days of Polish Dance kicked off with the performance of “Unreal Duets”, a show staged by the Dada von Bzdulow Theatre in Gdansk, a dance company founded by Leszek Bzdyl and Katarzyna Chmielewska, in 1992. The show is focused on the meeting between a man and a woman, and everything that entails. Many of the shows staged by the two Polish artists have a literary layer. While the two artists use their bodies to tell the story, short texts are screened in the background, adding a second narrative line to the show.

Responding to the invitation of the Commune//Warsaw Independent Theatre in Poland, dancer and choreographer Mikolaj Mikolajczyk paid homage to Henryk Tomaszewski, one of the leading figures of Polish Theatre, who was also his mentor. The show “RE//MIX Henryk Tomaszewski” was staged in Bucharest as part of the Polish Dance Festival. Mikolaj Mikolajczyk says that, unlike his mentor, who valued aesthetics and technique to a great extent, for him the most important thing is the relation with the audience and the emotional layer of the show.

Mikolaj Mikolajczyk: “I am largely myself in the show, although without Tomaszewski, who is my artistic mentor, this show wouldn’t have existed. My professional life began when Tomaszewski instilled this passion for dance onto me. And this is exactly what I try to depict in the show: the fact that I embody Tomaszewski’s passion for dance. On the other hand, I’m trying to break away with Tomaszewski. 20 years ago he invited me to join his theatre. He took my hand and set me free. This is what I want my audience to experience: the same emotion I felt 20 years ago, when Tomaszewski invited me to join his theatre”.

Commonly seen as the father of Polish contemporary dance, although largely neglected by dance historians, Vaslav Nijinsky wrote in his journal: “Deep inside I am God. Everyone shares the same feeling, it’s just that no one uses it”.

The journal underlies the dance show “Nijinsky. The celebration of dreams”. Staged by a team of three artists, the show is grounded on an idea put forth by stage director Slawek Krawczynski, who drew on process-oriented psychology theory developed by American-born therapist and writer Arnold Mindell.

The Days of Polish Dance came to an end with two solo shows staged and performed by two young choreographers: Agata Maszkiewicz and Agata Siniarska. The shows are representative of the current status of contemporary Polish dance, at present facing severe under-financing and many of the choreographers choosing to perform their own shows. Held under the slogan “Yesterday. Tomorrow. Today”, the festival was organized by the National Dance Centre in Bucharest in agreement with the Polish Institute. This year’s edition highlighted the relation between Romanian and East-European contemporary dance.