Concept, direction, choreography:
Dominika Knapik
Choreographer's assistant:
Dominik Wiecek
Creation and performance:
Daniela Komędera-Miśkiewicz, Dominika Wiak, Dominik Wiecek, Monika Witkowska,
Script and dramaturgy:
Patricia Kowanska
Lighting, video:
Wolfgang Macher
Music:
Doministry Dominik Strycharski
Costumes:
Dominik Wiecek
Production manager:
Alicja Berejowska (Perform for Change)
Production:
Performa Foundation
Partners:
Cultural Center in Lublin, Lublin Dance Theatre, Łaźnia Nowa Theatre, Utopia House - International Center of Empathy, Institute of Jerzy Grotowski
Premiere: November 25, 2022
The premiere of the performance is co-financed by the National Institute of Music and Dance as part of its own program Choreographic Orders 2022, financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
The premiere of the performance was realized thanks to the support of a private sponsor - Dominika Knapik.
Special thanks to the Krakow Choreographic Center, the Association of Critical Education, Kamila Kamińska and Marek Gluziński.
VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA
In the performance VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA VALSKA, in the concept and choreography of Dominika Knapik, four dancers invite the audience to a performative installation in a space where a cabaret, circus, kinder ball and an exhibition in a modern art gallery meet. The starting point for the artists is the life and work of Valeska Gert - her peculiar, completely detached from conventions artistic practice and contemporary, unstable reality. Various crises, from ecological to socio-political, fueled by armed conflicts, require us to ask ourselves a question about the sense of practicing art in such an incomprehensible world. Perhaps the answer to the unstable nature of our times may be the language of the grotesque? Valeska Gert specialized in solo dance miniatures with a solid dose of eccentricity, full of expressive facial expressions. She deformed reality in them, striving for absurdity and abstraction, using her own body as an instrument. Considered a precursor of avant-garde performance, she has never entered the dance mainstream. The creators of VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA will build a collage based on documentary materials from Gert's biography, playing with facts and imagination. It is a time capsule spectacle based on the grotesque presence of performers who will raise important topics, not necessarily in a serious way.
Only the kitten will be with me. I died so I can't feed him anymore. He's hungry. In desperation, it starts to bite me. I stink. He doesn't like me anymore. He meows loudly until the neighbors notice and break down the door...
