V dialogu s umělci*umělkyněmi z pohybového umění a souvisejících oborů reflektujeme materiál v naší dynamicky se rozvíjející profesi. Snažíme se porozumět tématům a fenoménům, které ovlivňují uvažování umělců a jejich uměleckou tvorbu. Díky partnerstvím napříč zeměmi vzniká prostor pro výměnu pohledů a obohacování kolektivních znalostí našeho oboru.
I’ve talked with Becka McFadden – choreographer, dance maker, dancer, performer and writer about her piece Vertigo, which she was developing during the Coaching Residencies 2020 last summer. As I was curious how the work evolved after the intensive time of Couching and what resonated with her until now and how it continues in this unclear pandemic temporalities. I proposed to ask questions about this piece through the tarot reading.
I’ve talked with Eva Urbanová – dancer, choreographer, dance maker – who was one of the residents taking part in this year’s Coaching Residencies, about her work on the piece she recently presented as her final work at HAMU (Academy of Performing Arts – Music and Dance Department). We’ve dwelled into the process of her work and the topics she was addressing together with eight performers coming from different backgrounds. We talked about the numb, hectic skin avoiding encounter and the vulnerability of becoming intimate with the other in her choreographic process.
The artists Aneta Fodorová, Martina Dobiášová, Michal Kindernay, Žofie Blechová and Vojtěch Bárta came to the Estate in Žďár nad Sázavou with the multimedia project nov, which is being created in cooperation with the platform Third Space and Chemické divadlo. After the film experiment, nov expands into a performative installation. During the residency, the artists therefore focused on finding tools that will allow them to translate the content of the project into a completely different, performative language. How is the position of the viewer changing today? Why is it crucial to create a safe space? And is it even necessary to define your genre?
Roberta Legros Štěpánková, one of the artists who attended this summer’s ART KLASTRY Residency at the Estate in Žďár nad Sázavou, was keen to talk about her research and working process together with her partner Matthieu Legros. While talking about their work, core materials, points of departure and their collaboration, we were meandering around the question of how to orient and navigate the body and mind in the labyrinth of emptiness.
The first edition of the Dance Reading Club series When the Dancers Know the Answers took place in the Living Room of Studio ALTA on Thursday 21 May 2020, and it hosted a two-hour-long discussion which started with the question: When the dance fails as a gesture? Observing how the piece Assemblage by Martina Hajdyla Lacová found its audience in the park due to the pandemic restrictions – sandwiched later with the video excerpts of performances mentioned in the discussed text Writing Laughter – Violent Desire by Jenn Joy – brought the discussion back to the core of what is the artistic gesture and why it requires gaps, stumbling and failures.
