2022

VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA

VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA.  In this performance four dancers invite the audience to visit a performative installation. It’s a space combining cabaret, circus, kinder ball and modern art exhibition. The starting point for this piece is the biography and works of Valeska Gert. Her peculiar artistic practice that was detached from all conventionalities meets our contemporary, unstable reality and the everyday life of modern freelancers.

Perhaps the language of grotesque might be the answer to the shaky nature of our times? Valeska Gert’s performed solo movement miniatures carrying a solid dose of eccentricity and bizarre facial expression. In her pieces she deformed reality, striving for absurdity and abstraction, using her own body as an instrument. Considered by some a precursor of avant-garde performance art, she never really made it to dance mainstream.

VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA is a collage based on documentary materials from Gert’s biography, (re)playing facts and made-up images. It’s a time capsule piece handled by performers of grotesque presence who raise important topics, not necessarily in a serious way.

Concept, direction, choreography: Dominika Knapik

Choreographer’s assistant: Dominik Więcek

Creation, performance: Daniela Komędera – Miśkiewicz, Dominika Wiak, Dominik Więcek, Monika Witkowska,

Script, dramaturgy: Patrycja Kowańska

Lighting director, video: Wolfgang Macher

Music: Doministry Dominik Strycharski

Costumes: Dominik Więcek

Production manager: Alicja Berejowska (Perform for Change)

Production: Performa Foundation

Partners: Center for Culture in Lublin, Lubelski Dance Theater, Łaźnia Nowa Theater, Utopia Home – International Empathy Centre, The Grotowski Institute

Premiere: November 25, 2022

Main photo: Dominik Więcek

Photos in gallery: Natalia Kabanow

The premiere is co-funded by the National Institute of Music and Dance programme “Choreographic Commissions 2022”, financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

The premiere is realized thanks to the support of a private sponsor – Dominika Knapik.

Special thanks to Krakow Choreographic Center, Critical Education Association, Mrs. Kamila Kamińska and Mr. Marek Gluziński

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