Is dance explainable?
In 2017 was by a director Petra Tejnorová and czech dance company VerTeDance made a dance performance “Let’s Dance!” – several lessons of contemporary for frightened audience. Through the story of each of the dancers was structured manual created or even better an experiment – how to provide to those who are afraid of contemporary dance a tutorial how to get over fears of contemporary dance. All of that with touch of humour and irony. From this piece is also born a pocket version called WHAT DO WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT DANCE. It is short performance lecture focussed on two dancers from the Czech Republic and Slovakia – Tereza Ondrová and Jaro Viňarský.
Two women, both dancers, both the same age, are said to have a remarkable physical resemblance. At first, they have no idea about each other, maybe they just heard that everyone has a double somewhere. Is it possible to find answers through another person? What makes us identify and connect with others and ourselves? Tereza Ondrová and Francesca Foscarini on a journey between a documentary and an intimate statement, one’s own body and personal experience. In their joint work, they touch on a number of topics, such as the female psyche and its changes, loneliness, vulnerability and, finally, acceptance of the state in which the performing arts currently finds itself. And even though these two women don’t know each other, can they share an emotional bond that transcends geography?
In 2020, a Czech-Italian dance project was created – a duet by Tereza Ondrová and Francesca Foscarini. Due to the worldwide pandemic, rehearsals are at first postponed, then moved, then done remotely – via the platform Zoom. Subsequently, rehearsals continue. Constant attempts at new ways to survive, adaptations of an adaptation. On the way between a documentary and an intimate statement, one’s own body and personal experience.
Coming up
The collaboration of artists from different continents brings new experiences and themes as well as diverse perspectives. In Africa, the eldest are naturally the most respected members of the family and society, and their departure from life is the most important celebration of wisdom, experience, and goodness. How do perceptions of death and finality of life differ or meet in places as unalike as Ghana and the Czech Republic? Lenka Kniha Bartůňková and Ridina Ahmedová travelled to Accra, Ghana in 2019 to record interviews on the topic of “death” and begin the creative process. They worked on the original performance with dancers from Ghana, the Czech Republic, and seniors. COVID stopped it, but in the summer of 2021 the Ghanaian version was staged directly in Accra. Dominik Žižka captured the most powerful moments from it and TANEC PRAHA Festival presented it in 2022.
