Chorea in Los Angeles – Rosanna Gamson/World Wide’s Tov

For three weeks in January and March, 2010, Chorea was working and developing creative cooperation with Rosanna Gamson/World Wide’s, that started after International Theater Workshop – Body, Voice, Rhythm conducted by Chorea in Łódź 2009. The performance – Tov (meaning “good”) – was choreographed and directed by Los Angeles-based artist Rosanna Gamson, Tov features a vocal score created by Chorea and sets and lights designed by Christopher Kuhl. Developed in the US and Poland with artists from both countries, Tov premiere was with a bi-national cast at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater Thursday, March 18, 2010 through Saturday, March 27, 2010.

Deftly weaving together intense physical movement, spoken word, vocal music, and the “theater laboratory” ensemble techniques originated by Jerzy Grotowski, Rosanna Gamson stages a profusely evocative dance drama around the story of the tarpan – an extinct species of Eurasian wild horse that was genetically “reassembled” in the 1930s through back-breeding of domestic horses. The Los Angeles choreographer braids this allegory of regeneration with reflections on the history of her own Polish-Jewish ancestors, horse traders from Szczecin, and the fate of Polish Jewry. Tov takes its title from “Gamzu l’tovah” (“This too is for the good”), a favorite saying of one of Gamson’s forebears, Talmudic scholar Nachum ish Gamzu, who found God’s hand even in tragedy. The full-evening work features a cast of fourteen American and three Polish performers, with text spoken and sung in Hebrew, Polish, English, Yiddish, Bulgarian and German.

Beyond its ambitious globalism, Tov was recognizably made in Los Angeles. It carried the local mellowness of spirit and pacing. It offered solace in L.A.-style multiculturalism. Astonishingly, for a piece evoking the Holocaust, it was kind-spirited. Indeed, Tov was good. So, mazel tov!

Debra Levine, Los Angeles Times

17-21.11.2009

DNA (Development of New Art) Residency in Łódź

Between 17th and 21st of November 2009 took place an international theatre residency in Łódź (Poland), co-organised by the Chorea Theatre Association and was based on Chorea’s working methods.

Twenty participants from Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia came for five days to Łódź to create one group and to learn how to build up the musicality, dynamism and energy of this group. The hard and demanding training was concentrated on the basics of working with a partner and the space, mutual attention, assurance, body consciousness, group consciousness and interaction with a partner. Actors, dancers, directors, students had a chance to know and examine the principle of the Chorea theatre, which is simultaneous work with the body, voice and rhythm.

Apart from the training the program of the residency included:

• an open for public meeting and discussion about the DNA project as an example of international cooperation in the field of theatre,
• a special presentation of the Chorea’s work on ancient material,
• presentation of Gry (w) Pana Cogito, Chorea’s newest performance.

The final phase of the residency was an open presentation of the participants’ work. It consisted on the movement structures elaborated by participants combined with ancient Greek songs and choreography, as well as with rhythmic work on the contemporary poems of Zbigniew Herbert.

More about the project at: www.dna-project.eu

4-10.11.2009

Teatr Polska – Theater Poland

Theater Poland is an innovative project of the Theater Institute in Warsaw, funded by The Ministry of Art and National Hertige. The inspiration for the organizers were the theater tours that took place in the middle-war period by Reduta Theater by Juliusz Osterwa and Mieczysław Limanowski. Their aim was to present the most important achievements of polish culture to small town’s inhabitants.

Within Theater Poland project selected performances were presented in polish small towns, between September and December 2009. The goal was to arouse the interest in theater of the societies that are usually lucking this contact and move collaborating theaters out of their own environment. Through two-stage qualification process the performance Gry (w) Pana Cogito was recommended to join the project.

Within the project the performance was presented seven times, additionally to the performance Chorea’s members conducted the theater workshops:

4.11 – Lodz

5.11 – Sieradz

6.11 – Skierniewice

7.11 – Łochów

8.11 – Radomsko

9.11 – Tomaszów Mazowiecki

10.11 – Grójec