The Yanka Rudzka Project: Polyphonies – Polish Days

We meet in the practice and we practice the meeting. Dancing on the shoulders of our ancestors, we delve in the present and transform the future.

Polyphonies is a performance which constitutes a continuation of a project realized in the spring of 2016 in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. It was inspired by the unexpected discovery of Yanka Rudzka (1916–2008), a Polish dancer who arrived in Salvador in 1956 to create the pioneering Dance School at the Federal University of Bahia, one of the most important performance art centres in Brazil. Yanka Rudzka, who until now has remained unknown in Poland, is considered one of major figures of Brazilian modern dance and the first person to combine the tradition of modern dance with local culture of Afro-Brazilian roots.

Her belief that contemporary culture cannot thrive without a broad recognition of its traditional sources became the basis for semente, a performance joining dancers from Poland and Salvador in a journey to these sources and back. We met within a dance practice stemming from the traditional, non-stylized dance cultures of the two countries: the Brazilian samba and Polish mazurkas and obereks. At the same time, the project repeated Yanka Rudzka’s programme gesture: by confronting both our own and foreign traditions we posed questions about the significance of these traditions for contemporary choreographic practice. This time, Yanka Rudzka guides us to the East, to Caucasus, and inspires us to propose an exciting meeting at the intersection of four cultures—Polish, Brazilian, Armenian and Georgian.

The musical concept of polyphony becomes an inspiration for a performance cocreated by artists from the four countries. Polyphony, as an interesting metaphor for our identity—which can be cultural, as well as national, personal and artistic, and which is polyphonic in the sense that it is constructed from many layers and often conflicting elements—leads us to the idea of the polyphonic body. A body which contains many voices, both individual and borrowed from contemporary and traditional culture, and a body which struggles with the excess of these voices, the noise, the cacophony. It also leads us to the idea of the polyphonic composition of movement—the “melody” of the dance composed by many different bodies (voices) united in constant motion. A thorough, multilevel analysis of the global traditional dance culture equips us with the tools and courage required to juxtapose such seemingly distant worlds of dance as the Brazilian samba, Polish oberek, Armenian kochari and Georgian perkhuli. We believe that choreography is a unique form of art which due to its multiculturalism and models of cooperation offers ready-made scripts for “being together,” for a community based on mutual respect for different traditions and a shared system of values. With this performance we hope to cultivate this polyphonic community, by giving ourselves over to the unifying, ecstatic and transforming power of dance.

The project is part of the international cultural programme polska 100, which is coordinated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and realized within the international cultural programme polska 100. Financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland as part of the multiannual programme niepodległa 2017–2021.

Credits:

Idea: Joanna Leśnierowska

Composition Joanna Leśnierowska & Janusz Orlik in cooperation with the dancers

Dance: Anderson Danttas / Helena Ganjalyan / Karen Khachatryan / Agnieszka Kryst / Kote Liparteliani / Janusz Orlik / Neemias Santana / Katarzyna Sitarz / Hasmik Tangyan / Megi Zarkua

Factual support and training: Piotr Zgorzelski (Polish traditional dances), Artavazd Ayvazyan (Armenian dances), Soso Kopaleishvili (Georgian dances) and Katarzyna Sitarz (voice training)

Dramaturgy and set: Joanna Leśnierowska

Soundscape: Janusz Orlik

Visuals: Michał Łuczak

Technical production: Łukasz Kędzierski

Coordination: Harutyun Alpetyan (Armenia) and Salome Sordia (Georgia)

Production: Marta Harasimowicz and Mikołaj Maciejewski / Art Stations Foundation by Grażyna Kulczyk in cooperation with Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw and East European Performing Arts Platform

 

Photo/Video:Elene Rukhadze

Video Edit: Saba Rama

 

Date: 25 September
Hour: 20:00
Address: Movement Theatre

12, Agmashenebeli Avenue

Mushtaidi Garden

 

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