The international and multicultural art project The Roots of Dance / Korzenie tańca is addressed to young dancers and choreographers. The project seeks to stimulate the artists’ imagination by looking for inspiration in local cultures with the hope of fostering contemporary dance and enriching dance cultures worldwide. The artists have just returned from another trip and recapitulated their workshop in Malaysia.
The Roots of Dance / Korzenie tańca will conclude at the end of 2022. The project will be capped with a documentary film and its public screening this fall in Katowice, Poland.
The workshop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the ASK Dance Company dancers took place on August 10-14, 2022. It was led by dr Jacek Łumiński, dr hab. Aleksandra Dziurosz and Łukasz Zgórka.
Łukasz Zgórka, workshop leader
– Sweetness, humidity, warmth: this was my first impression of Malaysia. Lush vegetation all around. An entirely new climate for me. Sweet fruits and coffee, followed by an immediate immersion into the Roots of Dance workshop. Words of welcome, quick ice-breakers, and shortly after that we were already dancing in class. Jacek Łumiński recapped the concepts covered at the online workshop, including apocope, peripeteia, syncopation, positivity/negativity, and mazurka rhythms.
Watching the dancers was incredibly interesting. Dancing simultaneously created a new collective energy for the group. I was getting to know their natural way of corporeal expression. They were transcending what they had known before, operating with new concepts and coming up with a new quality. Delving deep into their space and their collective creative process was very inspiring, and I found their presence infectious.This was followed by an exploration of the senses, which helped us explore anew the texture of the space around us. The stories written in the body were now able to express themselves more freely, to come to the surface, to embody themselves. Participants who chose smell as their preferred sense performed with an entirely new quality and originality. Another extraordinary experience was the storm experienced in the studio. The presentations gained a completely new character, and the intensity of the external sensations added to the sensory impressions transferred onto the body. What I found unique was the opportunity for our cultures to come together and enable us to exchange our experiences, to talk, dance, eat fruit, laugh and enjoy ourselves together. It’s not always about the end result; the process and everything that it entails is extremely important. I am very curious about the follow up to the project in Poland.
Imran Syafiq, Managing Director ASK Dance Company
– Roots of Dance project has enabled our dancers to be critical about finding different ways of moving and unboxing different possibilities. Through a series of discussions and discourse, the dancers improved their analysis and observation skills to look at a wider perspective on dance as well as apply new thoughts and theories in their movement practice.
Responses from workshop participants:
Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland as part of the “Inspiring Culture” program.
Media contact:
Agata Szymczak (agata.szymczak@nimit.pl, + 48 785 310 000)
