The Roots of Dance is an international and multicultural artistic project addressed to young dancers and choreographers. It aims to stimulate the imagination of artists by seeking inspiration in local culture in order to develop contemporary dance and enrich dance culture worldwide. The artists have just returned from another trip and wrapped up the workshop in Georgia.

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The Roots of Dance will last until the end of 2022. The summary of the project will be a documentary film and a screening for the audience in autumn in Katowice.

The workshops between 13 and 18 June 2022 in Tbilisi were led by Jacek Łumiński, PhD, and Angelika Karal.

Anna Nikolashvili, actress

– What I like about this project is that in our times of globalization and the possibilities, when you can see on Internet, on TV, so many varieties of what has been done in the field of dance theater and movement and physical theater, somehow it’s always difficult to find your own path, not to be under influence of others. And I think the way of going to the roots of your culture and finding this specific, interesting and unique cultural patterns that will give you some individual approaches to the subject nowadays it’s very important. And I’m so glad that this project is about that. About our workshops the main thing that I would underline is that I love the way the choreographer gives so much freedom to the dancer and performer. That means that you have a time to really find inside you and bring up these things you never thought you had. It’s not following just the choreographer’s idea, but it’s to work on your own ideas and finding ways to express that and enrich everything that you have done. And even in three days, my experience is that it’s been so expressed. I would never expect that in three days I would go so far in understanding how it can be more interesting to show up the same subject. But to show it, you just take a subject and you are very strictly you’re showing up the idea, but then it becomes the whole universe that can be included in this subject. And it becomes so interesting even for the performer, not for the others, but for the performer to enlarge somehow this idea. And it can be the endless process. So I liked it a lot.

Angelika Karal, workshop leader

– In Georgia, after a brief introductory introduction, the participants moved almost immediately into practice, into trying to understand and find their roots through bodily exploration. In a country where people are so strongly attached to tradition, to traditional dances, where identity is much more embedded and clearly felt, the search began with the more conservative cultural elements. However, once attention was drawn to the role of the senses in our lives, it became clear that it was the sensory-based memories that dominated the subsequent explorations and presentations. Much of the inspiration came from specific tastes, smells and connecting with elements of tradition that take place in everyday life or in the way society functions. In fact, the fact that in such a sudden and rapid way the participants opened themselves up to the search for the new, the fact that they were able to see and pay attention to completely different elements of culture, surprised me very much. Suddenly that certain degree of conservatism completely melted away and gave way to sensing, feeling and openness. There was no fear of tradition, in fact a very strong desire to explore and experience the new. Of course, more than once there were moments when participants felt lost, not knowing how to go forward or whether what they were doing was good and how much they could afford in this search. However, it was these moments of being lost, of allowing oneself not to know, that were the ideal space for exploration and surrendering to intuition, to this delving into one’s own roots, into body memory.

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Participants' statements:

The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as part of the “Inspirational Culture” Programme.

Contact for media:

Agata Szymczak (agata.szymczak@nimit.pl, + 48 785 310 000)

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