This year, the third edition of the international festival of dance and physical theatre KoresponDance is about to take place from 3 to 5 July in Žďár nad Sázavou, a picturesque historical city located in the centre of the Czech Republic. The main program will offer performances of several world-renowned artists, yet the Czech dance scene will be also present – the well-travelled Forman brothers will show their project Obludárium and performers Halka Třešňáková and Jan Bárta their latest project Sticker. The main program will be accompanied by a number of site-specific performances prepared exclusively for selected places of Žďár nad Sázavou. This year, the festival aims at showing the connection between the baroque history and the present of this important cultural site of the Czech Republic.One of the biggest missions of the KoresponDance festival is to interconnect Žďár nad Sázavou, an important cultural landmark of the Vysočina region, with the international dance and physical theatre scene. However, the organizers try not to forget the idea of a festival dedicated to the people of Žďár: „The KoresponDance festival is a festival for the Žďár city and its people. We try to connect them to the international scene of contemporary dance and physical theatre. The festival is not a display case, our ambition is to organize a festival which the people from Žďár would take part in and which they would thoroughly enjoy. Our program is two days longer this year and we will offer also a variety of events for parents and their kids,“ says the founder and the program director Marie Kinsky.
The main highlights of the festival program are big names of the contemporary dance and physical theatre scene who use baroque principles in their work. French choreographer Beatrice Massin used to collaborate with Paris Opera and now she comes to KoresponDance with her project Bach 15 where she uses an old baroque dance score which she works with in a very contemporary way. LU.M.EN by choreographer Dominic Boivin and his company Beau Geste promises a very intriguing and visually stunning show; it connects dance and a sky lift and works with princliples of verticality and light in a way which resembles on baroque paintings. The Obludárium project by the Forman brothers is – when it comes to its atmosphere – a genuinely baroque performance.
The festival program will also feature some more contemporary works. Catalan choreographer Jordi Galí has been fascinated by mechanics and the principles of gravity. In his works, he often constructs sophisticated objects which he later researches from the position of an artist. One of his performances – named shortly T – will be presented to the Prague public on 27 and 28 June in Trade Fair Palace in Prague as a warm-up event for the KoresponDance festival. Slovak choreographer Petra Fornayová will present her work The Objects of Research where she manages to build a bridge between the rational research and emotional dance expression. The Czech duo of performers Halka Třešňáková and Jan Bárta work with the theme of stereotypes in the life of a couple.
Apart from the main program, the accompanying events will take on the city of Žďár: „Our intention is to create a respected cultural place which would link the city of Žďár and the surrounding countryside. In doing so, we also want to follow the concept upon which the castle was built. We also hope that we manage to establish a festival as a respected showcase of contemporary dance and physical theatre which would put Žďár nad Sázavou on the cultural map of Europe,“ concludes Mrs. Kinsky. Source: Se.s.ta, Web: www.se-s-ta.cz
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