Grandiose projects, with some site-specific examples
420PEOPLE kicked off the season with Sylva Šafková’s Moment in Time. In this piece of abstract dance theatre, she investigates the passing of time, its subjective perception, and the phenom-enon of black holes where time dilation occurs. Eliška Hulínská, Francesca Amy Amante, Filip Staněk, and Viktor Konvalinka all danced the slowing down of time brilliantly. In the intimate setting of Studio Maiselovka, Václav Kuneš presented Smoke and Mirrors, a music-dance dialogue between Francesca Amy Amante and guitarist Filip Zubák. Vladimíra Klumparová and Hynek Dřízhal’s striking glass scenographic elements were a feast for the eyes. Emilie Leriche and Pascal Marty depicted the image of a family falling apart against the backdrop of a falling-down house in Your Shadows, My Ghosts for Lenka Vagnerová & Company. The mova-ble scenography revealed empty corners and walls with torn wall-paper, an old phone rings and the tangle of relationships is a mere memory. Adam Sojka, Leo Terris, Lukas Lizama Garrida, Jana Hampl Maroušková, Paula Morejón García, and José Guzmán all demonstrated what excellent performers they are.
For the tenth anniversary of the “second generation”, DEKKADANCERS came out with Studio 54, which is less per-formance and more living tableau of the famous nightclub. Choreographers Ondřej Vinklát and Štěpán Pechar portrayed the founders, whilst other leading dancers danced the roles of patrons and club workers. A true reconstruction of the club was produced within the space of Archa Theatre, the dance numbers and show as a whole were spectacular, without aiming to dive too deeply into the phenomenon itself. The special gala performance of 10 dkg DEKKA was a recap of the troupe’s history from 2009 up to the present day. Volume II of DEKKA Kick-Off saw three chore-ographies by three emerging female authors, once again in col-laboration with ARCHA+.
Farm in the Cave presented several smaller and site-specific projects, which highlights their close connection with the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art. Performers devised a series of per-formances entitled All Is Good in Heaven within the David Lynch Up in Flames exhibition. The Never So Close project was created as a personal artistic statement, a movement and audiovisual collage by Gioele Coccia, an Italian choreographer, dancer, film-maker, and long-time troupe member. Finally, Andrej Štepita and Štěpán Janoušek’s original piece promised dialogue, but Mizející muž (“Disappearing Man”) is more of a standalone dance and choreographic work, followed by an improvised one-man-band concert.
Michal Heriban and, in particular, Paulína Šmatláková excel in Jana Burkiewiczová’s intimate yet action-packed production, Směj se, pořád se směj! (“Keep Laughing!”). It parodies moti-vational TEDx Talks, the unattainability of the American Dream and that which goes with it – the false smile, the endless pres-sure to perform, and the toxic nature of the cut-throat business environment.
Tantehorse premiered the latest episode in their Invisible series, number IV, Rukojmí (“Hostages”). Miřenka Čechová graphically depicts the process of losing one’s freedom in an abusive relation-ship and then subsequently regaining it. The woman who fights and wins this battle is danced by Adriana Štefaňáková, with each performance featuring a Q&A with experts on the issue. Another brand-new offering is the multi-genre project S(t)igma, in which Čechová continues to explore the current phenomenon of the manosphere. She returned to the stage as a performer in Spitfire Company’s experimental piece, TWENTYone: Each of the twen-ty female directors and choreographers prepared two minute’s worth of material, choreography or acting which together creat-ed a twenty-first century image of Ibsen’s Nora.