ICARUS

The world premiere of the dance production is a reflection on freedom – on its limits and on the path to finding one´s own, individually or collectively. A group of teenagers from Nitra and Prague under the guidance of a trio of artists each hailing from a different country (France, Slovakia, Czech Republic) reveal their feelings about our current age and impending adulthood. This piece is inspired by the mythological tale of Daedalus and Icarus, but the story is not rendered illustratively on stage; instead, it served as the starting point for a combination of symbolic and abstract imagery. The human figure oscillates between its magnified representations: sculptural, stylized and performative, and the teenagers’ spontaneity and candour. In her scenography, which the author and director dubs the ‘architecture of dramaturgy’, Marie Gourdain has utilized color rods reminiscent of Mikado, simple structural lines allowing to create varying shapes and impressive, visually dynamic compositions.

The world premiere of this dance production is a reflection on freedom – on its limits and on the path to finding one’s own, individually and collectively. A group of teenagers from Nitra and Prague under the guidance of a trio of artists each hailing from a different country (France, Slovakia, Czech Republic) reveal their feelings about our current age and impending adulthood.

Teenagers from Nitra and Prague were involved in the preparation of this production from the very beginning. In 2019 they met several times at physical workshops, lectures on contemporary dance and discussions both in person and online, and visited Tanec Praha Festival and the International Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra, where they became familiar with the work of numerous dance artists. They chose Marie Gourdain, a French choreographer based in the Czech Republic, for their joint venture and formulated the theme of their projected work.

This production is the result of more than a two year-long participative process co-produced by the European network Be SpectACTive! in close collaboration with the J. Rosinský Elementary School of Art in Nitra and the international festivals ITF Divadelná Nitra and Tanec Praha.

The piece is inspired by the mythological tale of Daedalus and Icarus, although the story is not rendered illustratively on stage – instead, it served as the starting point to create a combination of symbolic and abstract imagery. The human figure oscillates between its magnified representation: sculptural, stylized and performative, and the teenagers’ spontaneity and candour.

In her scenography, which the author dubs the ‘architecture of dramaturgy’, Marie Gourdain has utilized color rods reminiscent of Mikado, simple structural lines, allowing to create varying shapes, and impressive, visually dynamic compositions.

Slovak dancer Jaro Viňarský performs the role of a constrained figure seeking freedom. He will be helped and led by the teenagers to find his way. They are the ones who generate action, change the setting and the frame of situations.

All this is tied together by Czech musician Václav Kalivoda’s composition. A combination of rhythmical dynamic sharp tunes and of softer, more dramatic ones carried by the trombone. In this way the music supports the choreographic vocabulary, equally made of contrasts.

In this project Marie Gourdain follows through with her exploration of the encounter between geometry and physicality (line and body), different levels of expressiveness and performativity (purposeful movement, formal movement, dance movement), and props as movement’s companions.

The ambition of this project is simultaneously to create a participative work that the artists’ trio may remake and present with groups of teenagers in other regions and cities.

Marie Gourdain

concept: Marie Gourdain v spolupráci s Jarom Viňarským a Václavom Kalivodom / Marie Gourdain, in collaboration with Jaro Viňarský and Václav Kalivoda
choreography and scenography: Marie Gourdain
cast: Jaro Viňarský & Barbara Beňušíková, Lea Hrušovská, Tamara Lacsná, Margaréta Hvozdíková, Janka Milová, Simona Horičková, Ladislav Bánovský, Hana Hvozdíková, Henrich Kudroč, Filip Mucha, Anna Strejčková, Leontina Foltýnová, Jaromír Korbel, Eliška Boloňská, Klára Vojtášková, Marie Zmátlíková, Marta Tučková, Linda Macková, Rozárka Čížková, Amélie Poledňáková
music: Václav Kalivoda (live)
dramaturgical advisor: Jordi Galí
technology: Zbyněk Opálka, Štěpán Hejzlar
costumes: Martina Stieglerová

production and coordination: Marie Gourdain / tYhle, Alena Brožová & Martina Filinová / Tanec Praha, Anna Šimončičová, Miro Zwiefelhofer, Terézia Bosmanová / Asociácia Divadelná Nitra

co-producers: Tanec Praha z. ú. / TANEC PRAHA Festival (CZ), Asociácia / Medzinárodný festival Divadelná Nitra (SK)
With the main support of the Creative Europe programme of the European Union
Inscenácia vznikla v rámci európskeho projektu Be SpectACTive! / This production was created for the European project Be SpectACTive!

Associazione Culturale CapoTrave / Kilowatt (IT), Artemrede – Teatros Associados (PT), Bakelit Multi Art Center (HU), Koproduktionshaus Wien / Brut (AT), Kunstencentrum BUDA (BE), Café de las Artes Teatro (ES), Domino Udruge (HR), Asociácia Divadelná Nitra (SK), Dublin Theatre Festival Company (IE), Göteborgs Kommun – Göteborgs Stads kulturförvaltning / Stora Teatern (SE), Institution Student Cultural Centre (RS), Occitanie en scène, Réseau en scène Languedoc-Roussillon (FR), Plesni Teater Ljubljana (SI), Tanec Praha (CZ), Teatrul Naţional Radu Stanca Sibiu (RO), Fondazione Fitzcarraldo (IT), Universitat de Barcelona (ES), Université de Montpellier (FR), Centre national de la recherche scientifique / CNRS (FR).
supported by: Fond na podporu umenia, Ministerstvo investícií, regionálneho rozvoja a informatizácie Slovenskej republiky, Ministerstvo kultury České republiky, Nitriansky samosprávny kraj, mesto Nitra, Magistrát hlavního města Prahy, Státní fond kultury České republiky, Nadácia SPP, LITA – autorská spoločnosť, Francouzský institut v Praze / Slovak Arts Council, Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak Republic, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Nitra Self-Governing Region, The City of Nitra, The City of Prague, State Culture Fund of the Czech Republic, SPP Foundation, LITA – Society of Authors, French Institute in Prague

partners: Tanec Praha / PONEC – divadlo pro tanec, ZUŠ Jozefa Rosinského v Nitre, Divadlo Andreja Bagara v Nitre, Tělocvičná jednota Sokol Karlín / Tanec Praha / PONEC — Theatre for Dance, J. Rosinský Elementary School of Art, Andrej Bagar Theatre, Sokol Karlín Athletic Union

special thanks: Marica Šišková, Ivana Beňušíková, Silvia Hvozdíková

tYhle is a collective of Czech and French artists based in the Czech Republic. It is a platform for performance, dance, physical theatre and visual arts. The collective was founded in Brno in 2015 by actors and dancers Lukáš Karásek and Florent Golfier. They were later joined by light designer Zuzana Režná and scenographer/choreographer Marie Gourdain.

Marie Gourdain
French choreographer, scenographer and visual artist. Since 2010 she has mainly developed her artistic activities in Prague (CZ). Her work merges her background in visual arts with contemporary dance drawing on the elements of graphic and sculptural composition and detailed analysis of movement. She studied animation cinema at ENSAD Paris (École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs) and the VŠUP in Prague. She received the Frédéric de Carfort Prize (2011) and the ENSAD Sculpture Prize (2009) for her work in sculpture. As a scenographer she has worked with many choreographers, including Karine Ponties, Rita Gobi, Andrea Miltnerová, Lucia Kašiarová, etc. In 2015 she joined the French-Czech physical theatre and dance collective tYhle and began her choreographic career. Today Marie has three pieces in the collective’s repertoire: UN (2016), LEGOrytmus (2017) and Medúza (2018). She has recently founded a new artistic company in France called Matière Mobile.
https://www.mariegourdain.net/about-eng

Jaro Viňarský
Dancer, choreographer and performer, founder of the civic association SKOK! He studied ballet choreography at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and dance choreography at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Between 1998 and 2000, he was a member of the professional Dance Studio Theatre in Banská Bystrica. In 2006, his solo performance The Last Step Before earned him the prestigious SAZKA Award in the Czech Republic, in the Dance Discovery category, and the Audience Award at the Czech Dance Platform. Since 2004, he has collaborated with a Belgian choreographer Karine Ponties. In addition to choreography, he currently leads creative dance workshops for non-professional dancers. He is a laureate of the prestigious New York Dance and Performance Award / The Bessies 2013 in the Outstanding Performer category for his project The Painted Bird / Bastard, by Pavol Zuštiak.

Václav Kalivoda

Trombonist, musical improviser and idea-maker. He studied at the Prague Conservatory. In 2015, he graduated from the Bard College Conservatory of Music in the USA and then spent a year on a Darmasiswa internship in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where he studied gamelan, traditional Indonesian music. In addition to playing classical music on trombone, both solo, chamber and orchestral, he also devotes himself to other genres (jazz, swing, klezmer, samba, etc.) and music for theatre and dance performances. He improvises with various dancers and musical groups (Voříšci, Moving Orchestra, Pražský improvizační orchestr, B4, etc.). He also focuses on improvisation for children with the aim of developing natural musical perception. He is a musician in PONEC Theatre Children’s Studio and the Dance for Schools project.