Oil on canvas, gouache on cardboard, hammered steel, cut marble, percussion and piano fugue, or bodies in light, text in motion, dance in sound? Can oil on canvas be transcribed into a kinetic oratorio? What will such a translation bring – loss or discovery? Is translation a dialogue or perhaps a compromise? Limited resources or new qualities?
This year’s edition of the Rollercoaster will explore the concept of translation.
Rollercoaster. Collectors of Sensations is an original dance showcase programme. Between April and December 2023, Cricoteka’s stage will host shows with diverse forms and aesthetics yet linked by a central theme. The overarching theme of this year’s programme is TRANSLATIONS, meant as the transposition of some artistic and scientific disciplines into choreography. In the coming months, we will be watching performances in which movement translates music or literature.
The theme of this year’s Rollercoaster indirectly alludes to the interdisciplinary nature of Tadeusz Kantor’s art. It is said that the artist, in the manner of Oskar Schlemmer, regarded theatre through the eyes of a painter and sought to align actors with visual aspects of stage compositions. Kantor’s multifaceted creativity also defies the rigid confines of disciplines within the traditional division of the arts.
In the upcoming edition of Rollercoaster, we will delve deeper into the connections between choreography and other forms of expression. We will showcase dialoguing performances that seek new qualities by transcribing one cultural text into another and skillfully manipulate creative tools and transcend the boundaries of individual art disciplines. We will explore performances in which literature (Vibration of a single string), music (Symphony No. 3), space and light (de light), and modern film technologies and science become the driving force behind choreography. This year’s theme will also be an opportunity to examine artistic conventions. We will discover the choreographic potential of sign language (Translations), see if a poem can serve as a framework for improvized movement (Sense of fragmentation), and if words can be as evocative as movement, sound and image (One on One – David on Bartosz). As part of the workshop programme, we will try to corporealize the language (workshops with Dominik Więcek), record movement (dance notation workshops with Hanna Raszewska-Kursa and Zuzanna Kupidura from Warszawska Pracownia Kinetograficzna), and describe the seemingly elusive (workshops for choreographers on describing dance shows with Joanna Pędzisz).
The pandemic has heightened choreography’s interest in film techniques, with dance increasingly being translated into the language of cinema. The theme of this year’s Rollercoaster, translations will also steer audience’s interest towards the links between film and choreography. One of the Rollercoaster evenings will consist of film screenings and meetings with their creators (Toporzeł, Falling Free, Manhattan Interactive Movie).
Each of the presented pieces will be accompanied by talks with artists, moderated by Alicja Müller. The programme will also feature lectures by dr Anna R. Burzyńska titled Science as choreographer and by dr Mateusz Chaberski Dancing agents, vanishing snails and aliens in zero gravity: on movement in assemblages of people and technology.
Paweł Łyskawa and Eryk Makohon
Curators of the programme
PROGRAMME:
1–3 September
Improvization workshops
3 September
Post-workshop show
The improvization workshop will explore the dialogue between choreography and video, as well as between the illusion created with stage techniques and reality. Dancers from Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania and Sweden will participate in the workshop.
The workshop is part of the Beyond@ Front: Brighting Periphery project, funded by the Creative Europe programme.
3 September, 18:30
Toporzeł, Falling Free, Manhattan Interactive Movie
Film screening and meeting with creators
Toporzeł
Written and directed by Iwona Pasińska
Performed by dancers of Polski Teatr Tańca: Kacper Bożek, Jerzy Kaźmierczak, Zbigniew Kocięba, Dominik Kupka, Paweł Malicki, Michał Przybyła, Adrian Radwański
Music: Henryk Mikołaj Górecki
Cinematography: Marek Grabowski
Falling Free
Production, direction, cinematography: Jakub Wittchen
Dance: Natalia Wilk dance’N’depth
Music: No Way Back by Sid AcharyaIn
Manhattan Interactive Movie
Written and conceptualized by Daniela Komędera-Miśkiewicz, Dominika Wiak
Cast: Daniela Komędera-Miśkiewicz and Dominika Wiak
Cinematography, editing and artistic consultation: Paweł Szymkowiak
Music: Aleksander Wnuk, Michał Lazar
13–20 September
Embodying the language
Workshop
Instructor: Dominik Więcek
20 September, 18:30
Final workshop show
Dominik Więcek and KTT alumni
Together with dancers, Dominik Więcek will explore ways to embody the language. The multi-day workshop will culminate in a show with active audience participation.
7 October, 13:00
Kinetography – Basics of movement notation and analysis
Workshop
Instructors: Hanna Raszewska-Kursa and Zuzanna Kupidura
Kinetography is one of the most important movement and dance notation systems, originated by Rudolf Laban in 1928. The versatility of kinetography, based on the possibilities of the body rather than on a specific dance technique, is one of the main advantages of this system. It allows recording and recreating both everyday and sports movements, as well as complex choreographic works. Notation is also an extremely useful tool in choreology research.
Workshop participants will become familiar with the basics of kinetography. The theoretical parts of the workshop will introduce the principles and orthography of the system, while the practical ones will allow participants to immediately try them out with their own bodies. We will analyze, read, record, move, and explore. The workshop is addressed to both dance professionals who want to practice notation and individuals unrelated to the dance community yet interested in the theory and analysis of movement.
8 October, 17:30
Dancing agents, vanishing snails and aliens in zero gravity: on movement in assemblages of people and technology
Lecture
dr Mateusz Chaberski
Lecture translation into Polish Sign Language (PJM)
In recent years, we have witnessed the proliferation of hybrid artistic projects with participants variously interacting with virtual or augmented reality technologies. Utilizing the theory of assemblages and the tools of new materialism, the lecture will examine how the combinations of humans and technologies in such projects challenge traditional ways of moving and generate novel modes of human and non-human bodies’ movement. Selected examples will demonstrate how movement can become an affective, situated and relational practice of understanding the world.
8 October, 18:30
Vibration of a single string
Performance
Dada von Bzdülöw
Post-show discussion translated into Polish Sign Language (PJM)
Dramaturgy: Rok Bozovičar
Stage design: Atej Tutta
Costumes: Jelena Proković
Music: Radosław Duda
Choreography: Katarzyna Chmielewska, Magdalena Reiter, Jakub Truszkowski
Video: Atej Tutta
Lighting design: Atej Tutta
Concept and dance: Katarzyna Chmielewska, Magdalena Reiter, Jakub Truszkowski
Cast: Katarzyna Chmielewska, Magdalena Reiter, Jakub Truszkowski
Production: Dada von Bzdülöw Theatre – Michał Jankowski (PL), Zavod Mirabelka – Magdalena Reiter, Tina Dobnik (SI)
Co-production: Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Ljubljana
Partners: Teatr Wybrzeże, Adam Mickiewicz Institute – CULTURE.PL, Bunker, GAK, Klub Żak
Slovenian premiere: 10 December 2021, Stara mestna elektarna – Elektro Lublana
Polish premiere: 18 December 2021, Teatr Wybrzeże, Gdańsk
We know – without quite understanding it – that simultaneously above and below us, in towering abysses beyond the bounds of sight and imagination, millions of simultaneous transformations are taking place, interconnected like notes with a mathematical counterpoint.
Stanisław Lem, Solaris
Sometimes it is just a gut feeling, without external manifestations, clues, evidence, causes or explanations, suggesting the existence of something palpable. It is something unclear and yet distinct. Lem’s Solaris evokes a comparable sense of something defined yet defying expectations, blending distinct categorizations with confusion and unresolved tension. However, Vibration of a single string is not an interpretation of Lem’s literary work, but rather a performance composed of fragments and pieces of meanings that translates the themes of the novel into the language of the body. No need to travel to distant galaxies to imagine representations of bodies that are anthropomorphic visually but completely foreign/unknown and inaccessible in material terms.
We observe bodies and their diverse language in unfamiliar situations, operating in a space that imposes its own rules on them. Thus, ontology is not predetermined; its coordinates are not explicitly written anywhere; instead, they are being constantly delineated and expressed by the trajectories of bodies. It is uncontrolled movement, desynchronized duets, a quest for contact defined by externality, unexpected converging points and asynchronous axes of time that guide bodies beside each other or increasingly close to each other.
5 November, 18:30
One on one – David on Bartosz
Performative concert
Bartosz Przybylski and David Javorský
The performance is a concert with performance elements and consists of four parts. Each of them has its own individual theme: Question (intro ‘speech’, beginning), Apparatus (a symbol of observation, strongly connected to both artists), Journey (audiovisual and video mapping/painting) and Existence (a dance scene with several props).
The project presents the artists’ reflections on the very origins of questions, portraying a world where words fall short in describing reality. For both of them, the journey with these questions and tasks involves the questioning of existence, purpose and meaning of human concepts of life and deities. The process mainly involves limiting and rejecting what, according to the artists, hinders being close to the answers, i.e. pure reality. Words themselves have significant descriptive and even creative power in a sense, although it is often not enough due to their limitations within a highly codified and structured system. There is a huge difference between attempting to explain what the colour red is and the ability to see it. Therefore, the performance aims to achieve a kind of transubstantiation. Why can some sounds put together change lives? When does movement become an overwhelming experience? What makes an image an icon or a window into another reality?
3 December, 18:30
Translations
Performance
Kraków Dance Theatre
Post-show conversation translated into Polish Sign Language
Choreography: Eryk Makohon
Choreographic collaboration: Patrycja Jarosińska
Music: Piotr Peszat
Producer: Izabela Zawadzka
Graphic design: Weronika Wawryk
Polish Sign Language: Bożena Nowak, Jakub Studziński
Project partners: Dobrze Association, KTO Theatre, Małopolska Institute of Culture, Society of Authors ZAiKS
Premiere – 15 December 2022
Can music be transcribed into imagery? How to transform sound into vibrations, and how can dance help with that? The artists behind Translations seek to address all of these questions. Both deaf and hearing individuals embark on a journey through the realms of sound and silence. The creators of the performance explore ways to collectively construct movement-based actions inspired by music – both audible and experienced through other senses.
Funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund.
The events (performative actions and shows) will be followed by Alicję Müller’s discussions with the creators and artists. We warmly invite you to join in.
PREVIOUS EVENTS:
27 April, 18:00
Science as choreographer – opening lecture
dr Anna R. Burzyńska
Can scientific data be translated into a dance score? Most certainly! Artists creating various works of art (music, dance, literature, paintings, sculptures) have been inspired by the natural world since the dawn of civilization. However, while the early artists were inspired by their first-hand experiences of the sun or the sound of the sea, now they increasingly turn to scientific tools to translate natural phenomena into data and then into structures, including choreographic ones. The range of their explorations is exceedingly wide.
30 April, 18:30
Symphony No. 3
Performance
Interpretation: Janusz Orlik
Music: Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Symphony No. 3 Symphony of sorrowful songs for solo soprano and orchestra, Op. 36
Lighting direction: Janusz Orlik, Grzegorz Polak
Production: Janusz Orlik, Lublin Cultural Center / Przestrzenie Sztuki. Taniec
Residency support: Materia w Łodzi
What would I do if I believed that art has no impact on life? I would probably tend the sheep… Or maybe shoot myself in the head? What if I only believed in the worst things about human beings? Luckily, there is something good about everyone. What if I had no hope? Then, indeed, I would breed frogs or tend cows… Sometimes, I believe, something helps you survive, understand other human beings. That is something that gives you comfort, and a moment of reflection… Art can be that thing.
Henryk Mikołaj Górecki
Symphony No. 3 is the artist’s one more creative interpretation that explores connections between music and dance, the previous ones being The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky and Koda (a tribute) with the music of Krzysztof Komeda. Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s composition was created in 1976 and is one of the composer’s most famous works. The symphony consists of three parts and, as originally intended, is presented in full. Krzysztof Penderecki referred to Górecki’s work as “the most sincere music possible.”
This piece received an award in the competition for a choreographic piece for a Polish composer’s music organized by the Association of Authors ZAiKS at the initiative of the Section for Choreography Artists.
13 May, 13:00
How does a linguist read a description of a contemporary dance performance?
Workshop
Instructor: Joanna Pędzisz
An event for everyone who dances, writes, creates, and finds themselves caught between verbal and non-verbal actions. The workshop will be divided into two parts: a panel discussion and a creative writing module. Discussion participants will explore topics such as content segments of descriptions, contexts, communicative situations and the medium, within the confines of which performance descriptions operate. They will also delve deeper into linguistic and visual elements used to construct descriptions, their functions, and their impact on the potential audience. Creative writing techniques will be used for inspiration while creating or planning performance descriptions.
14 May, 18:30
Sense of fragmentation
Performance
Choreography and acting: Maria Stokłosa
Why does a poet want to uplift themselves while a dancer seeks to ground themselves? ‘Roaming’, ‘going’, ‘walking’ – Miron Białoszewski’s literature is full of movement. Fast, moderately paced or trance-like, not only does movement accompany writing but it also co-creates it. How can we interpret the performativity of poetry in a performance? Can a poem yield structure to improvization? Based on several poems by Miron Białoszewski dating back to the late 1970s, i.e. shortly before Stokłosa’s birth, the artist undertakes a series of attempts at a choreographic interpretation. In doing so, she loses and finds the poet’s trace, creating an interpretation from fragments – poems, individual verbs and Białoszewski’s creative procedures.
The sense of fragmentation is also a bodily experience – dispersion of attention, an excess of stimuli or disintegration of meanings; and Stokłosa deems that as an artistic affinity with the said poet.
11 June, 18:30
de light
Performance
h. art. company
Choreography: Artur Grabarczyk
Sound and image direction: Wiktor Freifeld
Dance: Katarzyna Ustowska-Gmerek, Stanisław Bulder, Róża Kołoda, Artur Grabarczyk
Choreographic collaboration: Urliqa Fernqvist, Peter Svenson
Production coordinator: Beata Miernik
Thanks to science, we know that light and space exist as two substances that complement each other. Without space, beams of light would have nowhere to propagate, and without light, we would not be able to see space and the objects within it, including their colours. Light makes space more acceptable, and every change in light affects the way we perceive reality. de light is a performance/gallery that explores the connections between light, space, and the art of choreography. Through the geometry of light, space and movement, the show builds an abstract form of living imagery, full of compositional tensions, colour combinations, shapes, and moods that serve specific purposes. Through the utilization of optical theory, various mechanisms of perception are revealed to the audience. We encourage you to engage in the performance and reflect upon your own role in experiencing the reality that surrounds you.
Curators of the Rollercoaster. Collectors of Sensations project: Paweł Łyskawa and Eryk Makohon
Organizers: Cricoteka, Kraków Dance Theatre
Project team: Mariusz Gąsior, Maciej Jagoda, Józef Legierski, Magdalena Link-Lenczowska, Zofia Mikołajska, Aldona Mikulska, Andrea Nikolov, Agnieszka Oprządek, Maria Pieniążek, Anna Rejowska, Aleksandra Treder, Natalia Zarzecka, Izabela Zawadzka.
Graphic design: Wojciech Kołek
Media patrons: Didaskalia, Gazeta Wyborcza, Notes na 6 tygodni
The programme was co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund as part of the Taniec programme implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance.
The project is co-financed by the City of Kraków.
