In this year’s season, Studio ALTA in Holešovice is launching into political and social topics. Apart from their own engaged theatre and non-theatre projects, two foreign dance performances with a political message will be put on in October. These are Karen Foss’s choreography called Golden Evil, which will be given on 22 October 2015, and Helene Weinzierl’s Democrazy or How to Peel an Onion without Crying which the spectators can see right the next day.The Norwegian choreographer Karen Foss is coming back to the Czech Republic after several years to present her project Golden Evil. This is what the organizers say about her production: “Her targets are modern society’s ideas of beauty, elegance and desire for perfection. She puts them in contrast with arrogance as an antipole of the mentioned characteristics. In this piece, Foss deals with the issue of to what extent is politeness and etiquette imposing limits on freedom of individuals and their ability to act genuinely and spontaneously. Why is etiquette essential in most social interactions? When does politeness turn into manipulation in the guise of haughty elegance?”
In Helene Weinzierl’s project called Democrazy or How to Peel an Onion without Crying we can also see Czech dancers Honza Malík and Lucia Kašiarová. The choreography is about people’s free decision making in relation to democratic world, hedonistic society and modern power structures. „Imagine that a decision is represented by an onion and that every layer is an option. What will happen if these layers gradually unfold? Will it make one come closer to himself? And most importantly – can we cut this onion without crying? The spectators will be offered an opportunity to choose and therefore they will see how their voices matter,” says the choreographer.
Both these international productions aim at presenting dance as an active instrument of the civil society. In both of them the authors engage the audience: in the production of Democrazy or How to Peel an Onion without Crying the spectators become co-authors of the piece and after Golden Evil they can confront their opinions at a discussion with the artists.
Karen Foss received her classical and modern dance education at the Norwegian Opera Ballet School, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and at workshops and traineeships in Norway and abroad. She has worked on the independent scene but also at the National Ballet, Norway television or the Carte Blanche ensemble. During her career she has cooperated with artists like Lise Ferner, Lise Eger, Kjetil Skøien, Kjersti Alveberg, Ingun Bjørnsgaard, Ina Christel Johannessen, Min Tanaka or Øyvind Jørgensen. From 1997 to 2011 she worked as the artistic director of Carte Blanche. In 2008 she received G.I. – a life-long grant provided by the Norwegian government. Today she teaches at University College in Bergen and runs her own production unit called Karen Foss Quiet Works, which has been in existence since 2001. In 2005 and from 2007 to 2009 she cooperated with the Czech ensemble NANOHACH. As an author she seeks technically skilled dancers, who are not afraid of taking risks.
Helene Weinzierl established the group cieLaroque in 1995, after more than ten years of her dancing career. Together with this group she toured festivals all around the world including the U.S., Japan, South America, Singapore or Russia and she presented her work in more than 200 cities. She is an artistic director of the Salzburg festival per.form>d<ance. In 1990 she founded the tanzimpulse Salzburg society and together they organize several dance festivals in Salzburg. cieLaroque/helene Weinzierl is one of the most touring dancing ensembles in Austria. Some of her productions oscillate between dance and theatre but most of them are purely movement productions.
More information available here.
Source: Studio ALTA
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