The June Programme of the TANEC PRAHA Festival Has Ended To Be Continued in September

The June Programme of the TANEC PRAHA Festival Has Ended To Be Continued in September

"We have taken a great risk once again, albeit with a feeling of 'now or never'. Dimitris is a world star; we opened negotiations four years ago and he is booked up for a minimum of two years to come, so, at the turn of April and May, I had to decide for something unpredictable," says Yvona Kreuzmannová, founder and director of TANEC PRAHA, and continues, "It was a miracle, to stage Traverse Orientation right after its premiere in Lyon, with us being one of the co-producers of this performance, which is an important role to play for the festival even in the future. Likewise, Silvia Gribaudi, who did a great job at the festival opening, will return to Prague in our new co-production. We regretted not having managed to exceed the maximum capacity of 50%; the tickets were sold out in 24 hours. It is a pity the Ministry of Health, after all the charade, was not at all able to communicate."

Despite uncertainty caused by the pandemic, the June part of the festival presented to Czech audiences unique foreign productions – besides the abovementioned Dimitris Papaioannou’s, it was Silvia Gribaudi who introduced her performance Graces to the cities of Prague, Brno and Ostrava, whereupon the festival featured the duet Harleking by the authorial duo Ginevra Panzetti – Enrico Ticconi in the cities of Prague, Pilsen and Pardubice. The highlight of the September programme will be William Forsythe’s return after twenty years with his newest choreography in the Sadler’s Wells London production, A Quiet Evening of Dance.

"Phenomenal Forsythe delighted our spectators in the year 2000, so we were planning his return after twenty years, but last year offered no chance for that. We are enthusiastic about his giving us the only substitute date, 11. 9., and believe that we will still manage to increase the 75% capacity limit in the Karlín Musical Theatre," adds Kreuzmannová.

The unstable pandemic-related situation brought some positive experiences too while the festival was being realized: A number of performances in Prague and Czech regions took place outdoors, thus becoming available to a wider audience. Moreover, this year’s edition has presented several performances with the active participation of audiences. Lay members of the public participated in the open rehearsal of a new premiere Prima by Viktor Černický as well as in the open-air version of Jáma lvová (The Lion’s Den unlimited) by PocketArt, which is to be re-run in September, on top of which teenagers were invited to partake in a Hungarian work of art, Nibiru III. – LOUD RING. The same age group was chosen by Marie Gourdain for her September premiere of Icarus, the open-air project planned to be presented on stage belatedly on the 26^th of September.

In September, there will be a festival re-run of the weekend series of outdoor performances by the name of Žižkov v pohybu (Žižkov in Motion), which has thus enlivened the localities of Lower Žižkov, such as the seemingly inhospitable Prague’s Gordian Knot that marks the boundary of Prague 1, 3 and 8. Spectators will be able to re-experience this together on Saturday the 11^th and on Sunday the 12^th of September, which is to be followed by another part of the project Dancing Museums in collaboration with the Prague City Gallery in Troya Chateau.

Source: Tanec Praha z.ú.

Translation: Sylvie Bermannová.