Pulsar’s dance celebration of 100 years of Czech Statehood

Pulsar’s dance celebration of 100 years of Czech Statehood

The choreographer and dancer Michal Záhora from the Pulsar artistic group presents two original projects, paying homage to the 100th anniversary of the Czech Republic. He invites audiences to join him on a dance journey though the landscape of the Klenová District Gallery. The project in named Slavnost (Celebration) and will take place on Sunday 29 September. A month later, on Sunday 28 October, he will bring on the stage of the Ponec Theatre his dance kaleidoscope entitled Výročí (Anniversary), which celebrates and reflects not only the Czech statehood anniversary, but also an anniversary of contemporary dance.

Slavnost (Celebration)
The choreographer Michal Záhora has joined the vicar Petr Vacík on the special occasion of the Czech statehood anniversary celebrations, and together they want to take pilgrims on an introspective journey of dance images and spoken word, leading from the outside landscape to the inner, sacred one.
“We were first inspired by the fact that the Czech Statehood Day is celebrated on St. Wenceslas’ Day. We can hear the words like ‘holiday’, ‘saint’, and ‘celebration’ there,” says Petr Vacík. “We’ve decided to celebrate this day in the deepest possible way, it means not only as a celebration of the existence of the Czech state, but also as a celebration of every single human being. Slavnost becomes a kind of dance pilgrimage through the landscape, the real one as well as the spiritual one,” explains Vacík and adds: “Those who come will have an opportunity to see the landscape crowded by dancers. And not just that. There’ll be installations of contemporary art objects by Aleš Hnízdil and costumes by Tereza Bušková. The spectators will also have a chance to hear music composed exclusively for this event and make their own spiritual journey through what is part of this holiday, as I’ve mentioned before…”
Slavnost is a dance and visual art piece that unites artists such as Aleš Hnízdil, Tereza Bušková, the Italian composer Carlo Natoli and eleven professional dancers along with Duncan Centre students.
The premiere and only show will take place on 2 September 2018 at 3 pm in the Klenová District Gallery (meeting point by the corn-loft in Klenová). The organisers invite us on a trip to West Bohemia and they secure return bus transport from Prague and Pilsen.

Výročí (Anniversary)
In Anniversary, Záhora took on a difficult task - to interpret 100 years of our history through dance and movement. By means of dance, he tried to record individual as well as collective memory, and capture history in motion.
“There are subjects we do not expect to be retold through dance. The anniversary of the Republic could be one of them. And still, it is such an important event, I couldn’t do otherwise but express my attitude to it,” explains Záhora and adds: “For me, dance is like poetry. It speaks in images, poetic and deep, creating a complex view of the world. Very often, it uses symbols or shortcuts.”
There are four characters in the piece, symbolising Czech, Slovak, Jewish and Sudeten entities. The plot is condensed into one day’s time that is also a metaphor for the whole century. “We didn’t want to cite historical dates only. Though some moments of our history will be easily recognisable, we will not offer a strict outline of historical events,” says Záhora.
The project celebrates the centennial of Czech statehood as well as an anniversary of Czech contemporary dance. During the First Republic, some female members of Sokol were picked to study at Elisabeth and Isadora Duncan’s school in Germany.
One male dancer – Josef Bartoš – will be joined on stage by three female dancers Anna Línová, Zuzana Richterová and Michaela Sušá. For both Výročí and Slavnost, the music score has been composed by Pulsar’s associate composer, the Italian musician Carlo Natol, who creates dance and film music.  The costumes have been designed by Zuzana Kubíčková, a fashion designer and participant of the past editions of the Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week.

Source: Pulsar