While completing the overall redesign of its website and preparing the first printed Speciál (Special Edition), Taneční aktuality shares another news – change of its editor-in-chief. Lucie Hayashi steps down after seven years and will be replaced by Josef Bartoš. The vice editor will be Petra Dotlačilová. All the three journalists are linked by their studies at the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, by their publishing activities and long-term continuous reflection of the Czech dance scene.

Even after announcing her resignation, Lucie Hayashi stays a member of the close team of Taneční aktuality editors and will oversee text editing and provide professional supervision. “I think every leading position’s mandate should only last a few years. In a non-profit cultural organisation that must defend its existence each year, the responsibility lying one person’s shoulders is such a burden that it affects inevitably one’s private life. Although I keep the commitment and enthusiasm for the project I co-founded ten years ago, I can’t give it all my energy that it surely deserves. I believe with the rocket development of internet media that we must react to, the time has come to change the leader of our portal, too, and pass the torch to the younger generation,” says Lucie Hayashi.
Josef Bartoš graduated from Duncan Centre Conservatory, where he currently teaches specialised theoretical subjects, and went on to study Dance Science at HAMU and now pursues the PhD programme there. During his studies he engaged in several international training programmes, and as a dancer he worked with Czech as well as international choreographers, such as Lenka Vagnerova, Lenka Bartůňková, Karel Vaněk and others. He has been member of Taneční aktuality team since 2012, in 2015 he became one of its internal editors. He comments on his new role: “For me, the position of chief editor is a big commitment. I wish Taneční aktuality developed its great potential during my leadership even more. My vision is to shift the focus from individual reviews, reports, interviews and other texts to broader, wider-ranging overviews, covering the global context and current issues.”
Petra Dotlačilová, who has worked for Taneční aktuality since 2010, has been appointed vice editor. She studied Italian Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University and completed the Dance Science PhD programme at HAMU. In 2015 she enrolled in the doctoral programme at the University of Stockholm, where she participates in the Performing Premodernity programme, combining academic and artistic research of the late 18th century opera and theatre. She is the coordinator of Speciál Tanečních aktualit (Taneční aktuality Special Edition) that will be issued at the beginning of the 2018/2019 season. “After ten years of publishing Ročenka (Yearbook) we decided to end this project and replace it by a different concept. The printed Special Edition will be issued at the beginning of the new season too, but unlike Ročenka it will contain original author texts (not re-printed from the web), written exclusively for this issue. In 2018, Czech dance celebrates many anniversaries that become the subject of the pilot issue. Kristina Soukupová and Jana Bitterová will reflect the thirty years’ history of Tanec Praha; Daniela Machová analyses Miřenka Čechová’s work in relation to the 10^th anniversary of Spitfire Company. Two eminent personalities of Czech ballet, Petr Zuska and Jan Kodet, celebrate their life jubilees – and Lucie Hayashi and Lucie Dercsényiovou write about their influence and work. Contemporary topics will be completed by historical ones: Natálie Nečasová looks back to 1918 and Monika Čižmáriková remembers a significant Czech modernist Milča Mayerová. The readers can also enjoy an interesting review of the past season in ballet, contemporary dance, pantomime and circus, created by experts in the particular genres.
With the start of the new season, a brand-new and user-friendlier website will be launched, and it is getting the very last touches at the moment. “The new portal will have much clearer structure compared to the previous one, e.g. the sections of workshops, auditions and others will move to our twin website Databáze tance (Dance Database). On the other hand, a new function of easy searching and filtering has been added to the section Taneční kalendář (Dance Calendar). The graphic up-date brings a new logo that will be revealed soon,” promises the new editor-in-chief of Taneční aktuality, Josef Bartoš.

Source: Taneční aktuality