VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA
60 min.
Info
In this performance four dancers invite the audience to visit a performative installation. It’s a space combining cabaret, circus, kinder ball and modern art exhibition. The starting point for this piece is the biography and works of Valeska Gert. Her peculiar artistic practice that was detached from all conventionalities meets our contemporary, unstable reality and the everyday life of modern freelancers.
Perhaps the language of grotesque might be the answer to the shaky nature of our times? Valeska Gert’s performed solo movement miniatures carrying a solid dose of eccentricity and bizarre facial expression. In her pieces she deformed reality, striving for absurdity and abstraction, using her own body as an instrument. Considered by some a precursor of avant-garde performance art, she never really made it to dance mainstream.
VALESKA VALESKA VALESKA VALSKA is a collage based on documentary materials from Gert’s biography, (re)playing facts and made-up images. It’s a time capsule piece handled by performers of grotesque presence who raise important topics, not necessarily in a serious way.
Concept, direction, choreography: Dominika Knapik
Choreographer’s assistant: Dominik Więcek
Creation, performance: Daniela Komędera – Miśkiewicz, Dominika Wiak, Dominik Więcek, Monika Witkowska,
Script, dramaturgy: Patrycja Kowańska
Lighting director, video: Wolfgang Macher
Music: Doministry Dominik Strycharski
Costumes: Dominik Więcek
Production manager: Alicja Berejowska (Perform for Change)
Production: Performa Foundation
Partners
Center for Culture in Lublin, Lubelski Dance Theater, Łaźnia Nowa Theater, Utopia Home – International Empathy Centre, The Grotowski Institute
Premiere
November 25, 2022
The premiere was co-financed by the Choreographic Commissions 2022 program of the National Institute for Music and Dance, Poland, and funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The premiere was realized thanks to the support of a private sponsor – Dominika Knapik. Special thanks to Krakow Choreographic Center, Critical Education Association, Mrs. Kamila Kamińska and Mr. Marek Gluziński
Organiser
Polish Institute in Bucharest
Co-financed by
Adam Mickiewicz Institute Warsaw
Partners
The National Center for Dance Bucharest, Teatrelli – CREART
Media partners
Bookhub, Daily Magazine, Happ.ro, Haute Culture, Iscoada, LIFE.ro, Liternet, Modernism, Observator Cultural, Radio România Cultural, Revista Arta, Revista BIZ, Revista Golan, The Institute, Visit Bucharest, Zeppelin, Zile și Nopți.
Project team
Andreea Andrei – curator
Paweł Rutkowski – project manager Polish Institute in Bucharest
Alex Iliescu – graphic design
Anca Spiridon – PR and communication
Gabriel Copoeru – teaser video
The event is organized within the framework of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2025 and the Poland-Romania Cultural Season 2024-2025, the result of the cooperation between the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw, the Romanian Ministry of Culture and the Romanian
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