Aleksandra completed the Rotterdam Dance Academy of the Codarts University for the Arts in the Netherlands. In 2014 she began MA studies in Art and Science at the Saint Martins – University od the Arts in London. She participated in the program for young choreographers Tour d’Europe des Chorégraphes. She collaborated with choreographers from Spain, Poland, Israel, England, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy. She created and co-created spectacles that were staged in the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia and England. She has also performed in Germany Czech Republic, Greece, Norway, China and Slovakia.
She collaborated, both in Poland and abroad, with many noted artists including: Aitana Cordero Vico (3 Ways to Master a Kiss or a Twenty-Five Minute Kiss at Your Neck, 2010/2011), Ugo Dehaes (FORCES, 2010), Marysia Stokłosa (Let’s Dance Chopin, 2010; Prawa Półkula – Right Hemisphere, 2009), Cora Bos-Kroese and Georg Reischl (Signals, 2008), Kaya Kołodziejczyk (Audycja IV – Audition IV, 2010; KK o ATDK, 2011), Joanna Leśnierowska (Reconstruction, 2011; Rooms by The Sea from a series: excerices in looking, 2014), Liat Magnezy (Atelier Route, 2008), Konrad Szymański (Solo 06., 2007), Ivan Schauvliege (Clown in a Box, 2008), Martenem Shangbergiem (Geo Traum Dance, 2011), Lia Haraki (Again, 2011), Edan Gorlicki (Let’s Not and Say We Did, 2008), Ola Maciejewska (Agency of God, Unemployed Forces, 2006), Victoria Day Fox (Déjà Vu, 2005) and Jarosław Staniek (Opentaniec – Possessed Dance, 2003/2005). Borys choreographed also several plays, eg. Ayrton Senna da Silva (directed by Łukasz Kos, IMKA Theatre in Warsaw, 2013) and Cudowne Morderczynie (directed by Katarzyna Raduszyńska, Dramatyczny Theatre in Koszalin, 2011).
In 2010 Borys choreographed her authorial spectacle Lost in Details which was created in the framework of the residency program for young dance artists Solo Projekt. The piece was produced by the Poznań Arts Stations Foundation. The said show was presented amongst others in Edinburgh at the Scottish festival Fringe. The spectacle inspired by Alice in Wonderland was warmly received by audiences and critics. 'This is visceral dance theatre at its best' commented Stephanie Green on the website theskinny.co.uk:
Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, Polish Aleksandra Borys's piece is steeped in Lewis Carroll but it is not a literal retelling of the story (…). There is no 'happy ending'. This is a dancer and choreographer who will devastate you with the uncompromising force of her vision.
The producer of Lost in Details Joanna Leśnierowska adds:
Aleksandra explores the ambiguousness of dance. She evokes in a very beautiful, poetical way the state in which we don’t know what we’re feeling and what is happening to us. At a time when conceptual dance is in fashion and amongst the deluge of performative arts she reveals the magic of dance as she merges intelligent messages with beautiful motion. She presents the richness and non-technical complexity of the moving human body, which is capable of communicating that, which we often cannot put into words.
Lost in Details was one of the 14 spectacles of young choreographers which were nominated for the award Jardin prix d’europe in the framework of the eXplore festival in Bucharest. In 2012 Borys’ solo spectacle was put on the Aerowaves 20 list and was chosen for a presentation at the 2012 edition of the event Polish Dance Platform.
Borys has created several original performances, including 9.81* states of attempts (2015), selfportret (2013), bezsens – an action painting (2012), A2C + CA2 + C2A (2012, co-operation with a mathematician Alexis Clancy and a choreographer Charlotte Spencer). The artist has also choreographed Double Re-act in collaboration with mimosa moise for the World's Listening Day, produced by Fruit for the Apocalypse in London.
Borys is one of the co-founders of the independent choreographic group Centrum w Ruchu. She is a laureate of the competition for the realization of a spectacle in the framework of the Unisono- re//mix Anna Halprin program of the theatre komuna//warszawa. The program is to present original performances that refer to classical masterpieces form the history of dance, theatre, literature and film. Unisono- re//mix Anna Halprin was based on Anna Halprin's works. Halprin is considered a pioneer of dance improvisation. Borys about her inspiration to create the performance:
Lately I was wondering about logics of working always in the studio, I realized that I’ve spend the last 20 years of my life moving in the dance studio. During my trip to Australia I started to discover the life outside. I could not help but wonder if there is a way to combine the natural world and the work that I have been doing in the studio. I started to wonder how can I apply those two worlds, and how my experiences in both can inform my movement and understanding of choreography. i started to remember the feeling of creating the world in the dance studio and experiencing the existing world out doors in the wild. With this fascination I started to look for artists that were busy already applying the outdoors in their work. This is how I looked closer at Anna’s Halprin works and working methods.
In 2010/2011 season participated in Tour d'Europe des Chorégraphes, a project for young choreographers established by European Union's Leonardo Da Vinci programme. In 2013-2014 she held also scholarship of an international project for young choreographers – SPAZIO, which was organised in collaboration between the International Choreographic Arts Centre in Amsterdam, CSC Dance House in Bassano del Grappa in Italy, Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance in Zagreb, Art Stations Foundation in Poznań, and Music and Dance Institute.
Year 2014 Borys received Young Poland grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage to create a new project called Movementscape, exploring correlation between walking art and choreography. Later on, she was invited to a one-week artistic residency at Art Stations Foundation by Grażyna Kulczyk. During this period, she made a project called Air Mapping. Borys wrote about the project on her website:
For the purpose of this event I chose to concentrate on chaos theory, game structure, mapping and walking art. I wanted to create a space where the input of visitors will have a visible out come, so the Air Mapping game was introduced. It is an active game for audience when walking though the exhibition. Next to every art piece in a gallery related proposals/ instructions can be found , by choosing one or many the apparatus of the game is putted to life. By active participation of people the air movement in the space gets also activated. This even is mapped by balloons filled with helium, that have attached string with coal and can draw the effect on the paper that is lying on the floor.
In December 2014 Aleksandra Borys received Grażyna Kulczyk Foundation Research Scholarship which enabled her to start studies in London. In her project, Borys examines relations between choreography and astronomy, explores the ways of exchanging inspirations between those disciplines.
Borys is one of the co-founders of the independent choreographic group Centrum w Ruchu. Borys believes that since a certain time her every work has been an attempt to define what the she’s been doing. She admitted to this in a conversation with Anna Królica.
I’m very interested in how dance is perceived and understood by viewers. I’m interested in the relation between body, space, objects and sound. I asked myself, to what extent is it possible for the viewer to concentrate solely on what the dancer is showing through motion. (…) I would like my choreographies to acquire the character of an activity, during which the viewer can experience his or her own adventure. At the same time I would like to open up space for conversing about dance. Maybe there’s no point in thinking about how to name a given motion, maybe it’s worth asking, what does a given motion refer to? – stated Borys in an interview included in the book Pokolene Solo (The Solo Generation)
Sources: taniecpolska.pl, artstationfoundation.com, Pokolenie solo, own materials, edited by: AL, March 2014
Translated by: Marek Kępa, March 2014 ; updated May 2016 (ND)