Tereza Helšusová’s project Emotion Collection was transferred to chamber space of the Kolowrat theatre from experimental space NoD/Roxy staged there in spring 2009. The author incorporated actors, dancers and a singer who penetrate through the “stream of music, dance and theatre”. A performance that lasts for almost one hour is made of sixteen acts defined by their names – from Interstellar Space to Birth, Filling, Teenage Years and finally Forgiveness.
The performance starts with the birth of a subtle girl who (like all of us) is scared by parents’ commands, bans and maybe well-meant advice. Helšusová describes mini-stories of her characters who – with exaggeration – evokes a smile; grotesquely hyperbolized reality shows absurdity used by media to promote “guaranteed” instructions for beauty and luck. Nevertheless, it is useless because their hypothetical use does not bring announced cheerful feelings. Therefore, five performers try to escape their own mess, some of them remain focused on themselves, and the others seek understanding with the same or opposite sex. Moreover, they are under the pressure of fussy times when they confusingly run with several mobile phones, folders or spoons humorously installed on heads – they are absent-minded, nervous and a bit desperate. Helšusová shows some paradoxes of the present when there are many devices making our life easier. Nevertheless, we cannot escape the feeling of unhappiness and vanity. The author takes his artistic confession with a serene view – nothing more, nothing less.
Apart from actors and dancers, there is singer Elena Sonenshine whose dense and beautiful voice concisely interprets music and lyrics by Jan Budař. She is wearing a long black dress that contrasts with snow-white costumes of actors and dancers. The whole performance is in motion (Sonenshine also dances from time to time) – movement is underlined by spoken word, it records actors’ emotions (Tereza Helšusová, Michaela Procházková, Tereza Slavíčková) or it is fully played in professional dancers’ solos (Michal Jurisa, Viktor Konvalinka). Choreographer Zuzana Šimáková draws from actors’ potential and she skilfully uses them in group scenes. Sometimes she works with a property (a big black cube); dancers create variations diffusing through space in significant direct lines with various intensity. Black and white projection showed from the side stage accompanies actions on the stage with roaring film projectors.
With Emotion Collection, you can spend your time in a nice way when you can smile at paradoxes of our suffering – and it is quite a lot...
Written from the performance on 15th November 2009.
Premiere in NoD on 17th April 2009. Premiere in the Kolowrat theatre on 10the October.
Josef Bartos
Thank you for your thoughts. One got stuck in my mind – that passion makes us different from AI. Just yesterday I read…I am a dance critic. I am a member of an endangered species