The Prague National Theater presented the chamber program “Slavic Temper”, consisting of three one-act performances.
"Dumka"
Like many theaters, the Prague National Ballet is concerned with finding new ballet master talents. There is a creative laboratory at the theater, where artists can try themselves as choreographers, stage and show their works. One of the most successful was Dumka by O.Vinklat.
“I gave him complete freedom to do what he wants, the only request on my part was to have some sort of Slavic theme,” said the head of the ballet troupe.
A diversely gifted dancer not only dances beautifully, but also plays musical instruments and composes music. In the era of globalization, the preservation of national color is equivalent to the preservation of his own face. Therefore, the heroine of the play looks at her reflection so carefully. The design of the performance is simple and at the same time very inventive. Six mirrors of special glass composition, lined up in the center of the scene. At first they are covered with a paper film, and the silhouettes of the dancers behind the glass are outlined by dark silhouettes.
Gradually tearing off the paper, the heroine peers into herself, in her memory, clears off the time patina, the mold of oblivion, trying to find her roots, childhood, memories. They arise behind the glass, the game with lighting and the quality of the glass make it possible to simultaneously see and reflect the dancers standing in front of it and those who stand behind.
"Aspects"
Polish choreographer Katarzyna Kozielska, without further ado, just told a story about herself. The two heroines in her performance Aspects are two aspects of her personality, the dancer and choreographer. However, there are much more aspects, if we count dancers with mirrors that appear from different sides, surrounding the heroine. Looking at them, she chooses one, her only way, from which the story of her work begins.
The choreographer puts the dancers on pointe shoes, but in a very peculiar way connecting the finger technique with the movements of the modern dance. The idea of costumes in nude tones belongs to Katarzyna Kozielska and Cecile Barankiewicz. The choreography is very beautiful, and it is probably not necessary here to look for any special meanings, the plastic of the body is beautiful in itself. Movement for the sake of movement - and it can be beautiful!
"Perfect example"
And at the end of the evening one more glance, but no longer inward, but rather a hard and ruthless look at our world from the side, through the eyes of choreographer Andrej Kajdanovskij in his Perfect Examplé.
Andrej Kajdanovskij creates in his performance an example of an “ideal society”, such experimental guinea-rabbit robots in bandages, which can be ideally controlled using high-frequency voltage. You behave correctly - get a feeding trough, deviate from the norm - get an electric shock. There are some texts in the Czech language, something about the Slavic idea, but understanding the text is not so important, the turning into zombies can occur with the help of any ideas, from the “great American dream” to the notorious national idea. At the end of the performance, the dancers still tear off their helmets, bandages, so not everything is so hopeless.
The Prague Ballet Troupe showed a very good professional level and presented a decent and relevant program, revealing to our audience new names of modern choreographers.