National Theatre Košice – Ballet, SLOVAKIA
COURAGE EVERY DAY
The Strange Pleasure of Living III.
directed by: Ondrej Šoth
In 1990, the choreographer and director Ondrej Šoth staged the production Special Joy of Living (Zvláštna radosť žiť) at the Ballet of the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava. After twelve years, he returned to the topic, and the last third treatment with the subtitle Every Day of Courage premièred in March 2024. The central theme of the new treatment is faith, hope, love. The world of today is that of information and media. The boundaries of good and evil, manipulators and manipulated, have become very thin, hard to distinguish. Particularly for the less inexperienced spectators, drowning in an avalanche of new forms of information and genres, citizens who are still learning to use their status of citizens and understand it as the meaning of freedom. Freedom does not mean freedom only in all possible interpretations of this word (we could justify any action of an individual, regardless of its consequences). Freedom primarily means responsibility – for ourselves and our environment. It represents the ability to perceive the consequences of one’s actions. Genuine freedom is not possible without moral criteria. These are not easy to find today. The world seems to increasingly value lies and superficiality. Values seem to cease to make sense. The result is a loss of illusions, nihilism and helplessness. Nevertheless, the only way out for us – as well as for the characters of the new production of the Košice National Theatre Ballet, Every Day of Courage, The Special Joy of Living III – Is not to give up on the search for moral criteria of freedom.
(source: www.sdke.sk , shortened)
libretto: Ondrej Šoth, Zuzana Mistríková
direction and choreography: Ondrej Šoth
dramaturgy: Zuzana Mistríková
music: Michael Kocáb, Michal Pavlíček
set design: Juraj Fábry
costumes design: Andrii Sukhanov
SOLO MEN
| Faith | Šimon Stariňák, Dalibor Fabián |
| Hope | Gennaro Sorbino, Ervín Szelepcsényi |
| Love | Martin Bányai, Tomasz Siedlecki |
SOLO WOMEN
| Faith | Tetiana Lubska, Silvia Borsetti |
| Hope | Vlada Shevchenko, Mizu Kitabatake |
| Love | Shoko Yamada, Yevheniia Nikitina |
| Manipulators | Františka Vargová (Liudmyla Vasylyeva Kolimečkov), Igor Pashko (Andrii Sukhanov), Mariano Covone (Sergii Iegorov) |
ACT 1 CHORUS
| Men | Marcell Medvecz, Viktor Mikulišin, Oleksandr Tishchenko, Volodymyr Feshchenko, Marek Šarišský, Oleksandr Chepelenko, Kostiantyn Lubko, Martin Bányai, Gennaro Sorbino, Denys Yevdokymov, Tomasz Siedlecki, Šimon Stariňák, Dalibor Fabián, Igor Pashko, Lukáš Nastišin, Peter Rolík, Mariano Covone, Davide Covone, Ervín Szelepcsényi |
| Women | Silvia Borsetti, Vlada Shevchenko, Shoko Yamada, Tetiana Lubska, Nina Ravasová, Kei Hirozane, Iryna Ivaniv, Miyu Kitabatake, Anastasia Kravtsova, Gabriela Sukhanova, Františka Vargová, Kristína Zemanová, Alessandra Improta, Su Tanaka, Veronika Vaňková, Anne-Marie Greve Myhrvold, Klaudia Skopintsev, Yevheniia Nikitina, Sabina Masárikova, Khrystyna Deineha, Sofia Arriaga Heald, Elise Rachel Smith, Mónica Gómez |
ACT 2 CHORUS
| Men | Marcell Medvecz, Viktor Mikulišin, Oleksandr Tishchenko, Volodymyr Feshchenko, Marek Šarišský, Oleksandr Chepelenko, Kostiantyn Lubko, Martin Bányai, Gennaro Sorbino, Denys Yevdokymov, Tomasz Siedlecki, Šimon Stariňák, Dalibor Fabián, Igor Pashko, Lukáš Nastišin, Peter Rolík, Mariano Covone, Davide Covone, Ervín Szelepcsényi |
| Women | Anastasia Kravtsova, Gabriela Sukhanova, Františka Vargová, Kristína Zemanová, Alessandra Improta, Su Tanaka, Veronika Vaňková, Anne-Marie Greve Myhrvold, Klaudia Skopintsev, Yevheniia Nikitina, Sabina Masárikova, Khrystyna Deineha, Sofia Arriaga Heald, Elise Rachel Smith, Mónica Gómez |
Ondrej Šoth graduated in 1983 from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (Department of Choreography and Dance Directing). He went on to Prague to work at The P. Šmok Chamber Ballet and the Prague Laterna Magika. Between 1989 and 1994, he was choreographer at the Slovak National Theatre Ballet. In the second half of the 1990s, he worked on dance projects in Munich, Salzburg, Hamburg, Toronto, and Lisbon. In 2010 – 2011, he was the General Director of the Slovak National Theatre. His portfolio comprises dozens of choreographies ranging from classical ballets through operas to dance workshops and dance theatre. He worked with major directors such as Ľubomír Vajdička, Roman Polák, Jozef Bednárik and Marián Chudovský.