VerTeDance Celebrates 10 Years with Eventfull Retrospective, Veronika Kotlíková Dances with Spitfire Company

VerTeDance, one of the most successful and longest continually performing Czech dance companies, celebrates 10 years of its existence. Part of the retrospective To to letí! VerTeDance: 10 let, prepared exclusively for this occasion from 13 to 21 November , is the premiere of a new international project Traces, revivals of the most successful pieces, photography exhibition and free birthday party. The retrospective will symbolically interconnect three spaces linked with the company – the Ponec Theatre, where VerTeDance began, the Archa Theatre, where the ensemble focuses on socially-oriented performances, and the ALTA Studio, where VerTeDance members rehearse most of their projects. The latest gift to their anniversary is Cena Divadelních novin (Theatre News Award) for the project Korekce (Correction), which became the Dance Performance of 2014 this spring.
The retrospective of the past ten years will open with the performance Simulante Bande that received the Theatre News Award in 2012. Original ways of movement expression of healthy and physically disabled people, relativity of the notion of handicap and fragile microcosm of human relations, together with live music by the band DVA (Two), will fill up the Archa Theatre on Thursday 13 November. “The unique quartet of performers consists of two professionals and two disabled amateurs. The fusion of the two worlds is breath-taking: during the initial evolutions you cannot recognise who is who,” evaluates Vladimír Just, theatre critic.  VerTeDance will give the premiere performance of Traces in the Ponec Theatre on 18 November. It is the company’s second cooperation with the Swedish choreographer and dancer Charlottou Öfverholm who will join two VerTeDance performers on stage this time. The project was directed by the Israeli choreographer and director Joseph Tmim. It draws inspiration from the music by Israeli composers Asaf Avidan, Ran Salvin and Meir Asher and from Frida Kahlo’s paintings. The evening will offer the Czech premiere of Charlotta Öfverholm’s one-woman show entitled Lucky. The following two evenings belong to the Dance performances of 2012, and 2014: Kolik váží vaše touha? (How Much Does Your Desire Weight?), with live music by the band ZRNÍ, explores the issues of beauty, revelation, superficiality, vulnerability and differences between the feminine and masculine principle, on 19 November in Ponec. The second event, taking place on 20 November, will present the latest project Korekce (Correction), directed by Jiří Havelka and accompanied by Clarinet Factory, also playing live. Internationally appreciated piece Korekce returns to Ponec after being shown in Spain and Germany. The performance will be followed by an auction of photographs from the exhibition 10 let VerTeDance objektivem Vojty Brtnického (10 Years of VerTeDance as Seen by Vojta Brtnický), open to the spectators and visitors of the Ponec Theatre from 3 to 20 November. 
The festival will close on 21 November with a birthday party in the ALTA Studio. The spontaneous night full of surprises, during which every guest can become a creator, performer of spectator, promises dance, music, live pictures, memories and visions of the future in the middle of the 10th anniversary celebrations. The dance company VerTeDance was founded in 2004 as a trio formed by dancers and choreographers Veronika Knytlová and Tereza Ondrová and light designer Pavel Kotlík. During ten years of its existence, VerTeDance has created nearly 20 projects and has collaborated with many prominent Czech and foreign dance personalities. The ensemble holds many prestigious awards, among others the Dance of the Year award (2010), Best Light Design award (2012, 2014) or Theatre News Award (2012, 2014). VerTeDance is the only Czech company which has obtained the most prestigious award in the domain of contemporary dance – Dance Performance of the Year - three times: in 2005 (Tichomluva), 2012 (Kolik váží vaše touha) and 2014 (Korekce). More on: www.verte10.cz, www.vertedance.org