Držať rieku / Holding River

The unique experience of the performance Holding River is the journey to the river and by venue being the outdoors. Though in the city, yet still in the nature, outside, outdoors. During Divadelná Nitra, we venture out to the Nitra River embankment in quest for the connection between human body and nature. Eva Priečková and Katarína Poliačiková continue the study of movement and language, that began in 2020 with the joint project Learning Water, Salty Eyes. In their latest dance project, they discover that the river is something they cannot hold. Still, it can be experienced, listened to, sensed by the body. On the embankment and also in the river, they experience things they have never tried before. “We are two bodies in neoprene, talking on the shore about watery lungs, about desire, sadness and saliva, about how a caterpillar must first completely dissolve, disappear, become liquid, to later emerge as a butterfly. A play on the bank, a play on the river. What is a river to everyone? What are we – with the river, in the river? What are we to find?” The only dance performance within the main Festival programme offers an inimitable experience.

concept and performance: Eva Priečková, Katarína Poliačiková

Eva Priečková (1990) is a movement artist. She focuses on the phenomenon of movement in everyday life and in the community. Her vantage point is the concept of shared experience, embodied experience and creative observed flow. Currently, she is also doctoral student at The Janáček Academy of Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno. Katarína Poliačiková is a visual artist and writer. She connects different narrative processes – photography, video, performance and text – because she believes that storytelling is the oldest and deepest way to connect with others and with oneself. She participated in a number of residential stays and exhibited in Europe and the US. The piece Držať rieku / Holding River is a continuation of the long-term collaboration of female artists who explored water as an element in the previous project Learning Water, Salty Eyes.