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 Zagreb.
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 public in autumn in Katowice.
The workshops in Zagreb between 8 and 12 June 2022 were led by Aleksandra Dziurosz, PhD, Anglika Karal and Jacek Łumiński, PhD.
Angelika Karal, Workshop leader
– In Croatia, we spent a lot of time talking about history, traditions and the difficulty of finding one’s own identity. In a country which has only recently taken a completely different shape and is marked by a great deal of experience and cultural diversity, finding one’s identity was by no means an easy task. In their research and presentations, the participants largely focused on rhythms, traditional music and experiences and memories from their childhood or family home. For them, this was the starting point, the elements that constituted the beginning of finding an individual identity. Despite the short time we had during the workshop, it was probably the maturity of these people that allowed us to quickly direct and embed their activities. We were only gentle facilitators in activities that were practically immediately clear. It seems to me that the traditional songs or tunes used in quite a few of the presentations were symbolic of the search and the need to find identity, and the music was somehow an anchor that helped to embed this search somehow.
Jacques Valenta, Director of TRAFIK Tranzicijsko-fikcijsko kazalište Dance Theatre, co-organiser of workshops at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb
– This project is fascinating, because it allows us to look back and explore our roots of dance in Croatia. For a long time in the contemporary dance there was a lot of exploration of other kind of topics. In the late 80s, we stared to explore the roots of dance. During the workshops this year, Jacek Łumiński, brought us back to this topic in a much more deeper way. He showed what to do with the roots of dance today, how to get deeper and connect with them. This was based on his experience over the years. During these few days I could have a taste of the leaders’ way of thinking of the roots and their exploration over the years. This was a continuation of our online workshops we started last autumn. Tonight we have a presentation and I will share my experiences with the audience here.
Sharing from Zagreb:
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)
