Table of contents: Initial Inspirations | The Three Paths of the Amareya Theatre | Educational Path | More Mature, More Creative | Anniversaries | Cooperation: Amareya Theatre & Guests | Creative 2014 – New Opening: Courage and Regeneration | Originality vs. Sources
From its very beginning, the group has worked at the Winda Artistic Centre, which is part of the Cultural Archipelago in Gdańsk. It is actively involved in various artistic activities and appears at numerous national and European festivals. The Amareya Theatre has performed in the Museum Gustavianum in Uppsala, Sweden and the Taseralik Sisimiut Cultural Centre in Greenland, as well as in like-minded Japan, as part of the 2014 Theatre X International Dance and Theatre Festival IDTF in Tokyo, among others.
The artistic searches of the group's members has led to the development of their own methods of creative and educational dancer/actor work, rooted in the traditions of butoh dance, physical theatre, contemporary dance, Martha Graham’s techniques, African dance, singing, yoga and psychosomatic relaxation practices, body art, workshop theatre and contemporary critical theory. The artists’ activities are characterised by the natural yet conscious presence of current social, political and cultural contexts, both from a formal and ideological point of view.
In a lively and unusually mature way, the dancers react to the problems pervading society, associated with being lost in the contemporary Western civilisation, the sense of identity loss, and the degradation of values. This humanistic overtone stems from the fact that the principal and overarching theme of the theatre’s performances and artistic activities is man in all his psycho-physical-spiritual unity, the fragility of human existence, and the strength of the human spirit inseparable from the material body. The body – which is man and in which man is clothed – is the basic building block and topic of Agnieszka Kamińska, Katarzyna Julia Pastuszak and Aleksandra Śliwińska’s work. They use it as a tool of criticism and as a medium.
The problems and pains of women are particularly close to the artists, yet their performances do not constitute journalistic feminist manifestos nor propaganda, but an in-depth and wise study of the life of contemporary women, which is full of paradoxes. Serious topics tend to be explored in the form of a parody or a grotesque; the dancers do not avoid exaggeration, and even provocation. After a few years of work in a closed group, they have recently become open to cooperation with artists from different fields: actors, musicians, performers.
It could be said that after 10 years the Amareya Theatre has moved from uncritical, youthful admiration for the butoh aesthetic to a mature and original artistic proposition, drawing on both Eastern and Western practices of body work and acting techniques, at the same time maintaining the youthful courage to experiment, which is quite rare in Polish dance performances.
How did it all begin? Coincidence, the right moment, wise supervisors and the contacts established by Katarzyna Julia Pastuszak with Japanese butoh dancers (as she mentions in her text My Dear Butoh) led her to organise the first Mini Festival of Butoh Dance with Barbara Świąder-Puchowska in 2003. During the first edition of this festival, in March 2003, Itto Morita and Mika Takeuchi presented the moving performance Amareya....
Amareya Theatre, still from the performance
Rescued. On the Edge of Heaven by
Agnieszka Kamińska, photo: Paweł Wyszomirski Thus one of the main sources of inspiration for the group became (and remains) the Japanese butoh dance regarded both as an aesthetic, a certain philosophy of life, and, perhaps especially, as a specific bodily workout. This is why the Amareya Theatre dancers put so much emphasis on learning the art of dancing, which is at the heart of this art form, with the help of some of the masters of Japanese butoh dance, such as Yukio Waguri, Itto Morita, Mika Takeuchi, Minako Seki, Yumiko Yoshioka, Atsushi Takenouchi, Yuri Nagaoka, Seisaku, Kayo Mikami, Ko Murobushi, Daisuke Yoshimoto, Joan Laage, and others.
Under the influence of the Gekidan Kaitaisha group, the Amareya Theatre company became interested in the ‘body-in-crisis’, a concept that refers to the body as a tool of criticism. These artistic searches and experiments served as the basis for future shows: Xenos in 2005, which was their first butoh performance, then a project carried out in 2007 with Joan Laage, an American dancer and butoh researcher, and the show Anatomical Theatre – the Mystery of Life and Death, which premiered in a real 16th-century anatomical theatre (Museum Gustavianum) in Uppsala, Sweden on 13th May 2006.
Amareya Theatre & Guests, still from Ophelia performed by Agnieszka Kamińska, Katarzyna Pastuszak, Aleksandra Śliwińska, Anna Kalwajtys and Dorota Androsz, music: Joanna Duda, photo: Michał Modrzejewski Maturity resulted in variety. In addition to regular solo and group theatre productions, which have included the participation of guest artists, especially in recent years (Amareya & Guests), the Amareya Theatre artists are also involved in performances, educational activities, social projects and cultural animation (Amareya Art Association), as well as lectures, publications and psycho-physical, dance-theatre and vocal workshops (Gdańsk School of Butoh). The group still makes references to the tradition of butoh dance, but it also uses elements of modern dance, African dance, singing, yoga, and somatic techniques. The artists claim that their interests lie ‘in the common ground between dance and theatre’.
The dramaturgy in Amareya’s performances is built using the instruments of theatre; the artists do not distance themselves from the theatrical tradition, in contrast to many contemporary dancers. Elements such as costumes, make-up, props, and set design create an additional dramatic layer, while the symbolic lighting and music, as well as other kinds of sound effects, including spoken words, are constantly present in the current performances by Amareya, although varying in intensity and importance. The basic creative material and theme nevertheless remains the body. Through its exposed presence and movement, the body becomes subject to an almost real transformation into a human unity of matter and spirit.
The artists do not distance themselves from literature either; each show is build around a clearly defined topic. The Dream of Icarus (2004) is about the confrontation between myth and reality, and explores the theme of the oversensitive individual; Haiku for Three Bodies (2005) is a poetic vision inspired by the Japanese tradition of calligraphy and shadow theatre, in the play Xenos (2005) we accompany the dancers in the tedious process of releasing the body from embarrassing and stereotypical gestures of violence. In turn, the performance Anatomical Theatre. The Mystery of Life and Death, created in 2006, refers to the tradition of the seventeenth-century theatrum anatomicum, which not only preceded anatomy as practised today, but also strongly influenced European ideas of the human body; through dance and film sequences the artists confront historical concepts with the ethical questions of contemporary medicine. In Exit (2008) the dancers cover their faces, and the problem of corporeality this time concerns the theme of sex; in her solo performance Tribute to J.S. (2008) Agnieszka Kamińska explores the confrontation with family history of the Second World War, and by means of body language she attempts to convey the feeling of bondage, fear, loss, but also the desire to live and to dream of freedom. In the solo theatre production Faceless (2009) by Katarzyna Pastuszak, the masked face of the performer seems to carry the responsibility of expressing individuality to the ‘lower’ body, considered to be that part of our humanity, which is devoid of personality.
In their shows the Amareya dancers, like many other performance artists, create clear tension between the different images of the body which exist in our culture – in other words, their representations – the external norms, functions and behaviour resulting from them, and the constantly threatening (Lacanian) reality and regression of the body to its original undifferentiated and chaotic condition. It is not just about subjecting the body to decomposition and fragmentation, as usually done by physical (and postdramatic) theatre artists, although this also takes place.
Postdramatic theories and the theoretical foundations of butoh, as Julia Hoczyk writes for Fischer-Lichte, are similar in their recognition that:
The human body is a living organism that is still in the process of becoming and permanent transformation. It can never be said that ‘it is’. Its existence is always in the making, it is a process leading to change. Every blink, every breathe, every movement, recreates, renews and reincarnates the body. This is why it ultimately remains impossible to grasp. The existence of a body, which is in the making, is contrary to any idea of the work. [...] Amareya’s performances also contain this similarity, referred to by the Fischer-Lichte, between Grotowski’s theatre practice and Merleau-Ponty’s late philosophy, in whose idea of ‘flesh’ we are dealing with a wide-ranging project of uniting body and soul, the sensory and the extrasensory in a non-dualistic and non-transcendental way. Relationships within both of these dichotomies are not symmetrical. That which is carnal and sensory, is favoured. The body is always connected to the world through the ‘flesh’. Each appearance of man in the world has a bodily nature. Due to its physicality, the body cannot be reduced to instrumental and semiotic functions.
The Butoh Dance Festival (2003-2007; eight editions), which took place in the Żak club in Gdańsk, was not just a series of interesting performances and an opportunity to see the best Japanese avant-garde dance and theatre artists, but it also included meetings with artists on stage, which turn into conversations, lectures about the culture and art of Japan, video screenings, photo exhibitions and dance workshops.
The Gdańsk School of Butoh (2010–present) is a sort of continuation of the Butoh Dance Festival, which stopped after eight editions. Its aim is to promote theoretical and practical knowledge about butoh, and the art and culture of Japan. The school offers butoh workshops led by Polish and foreign dancers, classes on body awareness, lectures combined with video screenings, meetings with researchers and performance presentations. K.J. Pastuszak’s doctoral dissertation titled Tatsumi Hijikata’s Ankoku Butoh – Theatre of the Body-In-Crisis and published in 2014 turned out to be a kind of summary of a significant thread of theoretical research.
Amareya Theatre, still from The Blind Lady of the Salons performed by Aleksandra Śliwińska, photo: Paweł Wyszomirski The last few years have been a very creative period for the group, which has prepared diverse, mature and bold projects:
- Rescued. On the Edge of Heaven (premiered 23th June, 2010 in the Żak Club), created and performed by Agnieszka Kamińska. This is a dramatic study of loneliness and abandonment, but at the same time a study of the strategy of secret survival, and the human desire to save one's own life and inner universe at all cost.
Everything from start to finish is characterised by precision. Masterly movement. (...) The excellent lighting design, which Agnieszka Kamińska developed with Grzegorz Ruta, leaves no one indifferent. The world, initially locked in a square of light, transforms and grows like a man, intertwining his fate with that of others. In addition, Kamińska’s performance could not be deprived of her wonderful voice. The mix of lyrics – own and foreign, Polish and English, spoken, whispered and sung – complete the whole, which is contemplated with extreme attention. All this means that we are dealing with a performance of the highest international standard. [Justyna Mazurkiewicz]
- Another show of the Amareya Theatre entitled Inscriptions (January 2010, Gdańsk City Gallery) was created in relation to the exhibition Epilogue by Katarzyna Józefowicz. It was inspired by the artist’s works, both the material from which they were made (old newspapers and magazines), and their topic concerning information overload and ways of processing information. Associations with the body were in turn prompted by Elizabeth A. Grosz’s book on the theory of body inscriptions. In a symbolic way the artists show that the information society which we now live in has an impact on our body.
- Nocturnes (2011) is a subsequent performance combining theatre, dance, music and film. The show and the film Open Body directed by Barbara Świąder-Puchowska with the participation of the Amareya Theatre was presented as part of the project. Nocturnes was treated as a metaphor for a structure made of carefully selected tones and contrasts. Nocturnes is a question about the existence of invisible order, of clear and safe place within us.
- The Blind Lady at the Salons (premiered at the Gdańsk Dance Festival 2012), created and performed by Aleksandra Sliwińska, is an the attempt to answer the question of what makes us judge someone as normal/abnormal and how this (ab)normality can limit us and lead to isolation and loneliness.
- Empty Home (2012), created and directed by Agnieszka Kamińska, choreography and performance by Kararzyna Pastuszak and Agnieszka Kamińska.
This story is about the impaired relationship between two people – regardless of gender – who are in search of support, a sense of security and love outside the place called home. (...) The performance leaves much unsaid, the ambition of its authors is not to moralise. They created a multifaceted picture of internal and external fragmentation, of degradation of all that unites and builds, of emptiness. They did not gather the scattered blocks. Thus everyone has to do this alone in their own home, body, mind and heart. [Magdalena Hajdysz, Gazeta Wyborcza Tricity]
- Nomadic Woman (premiered on 11th December, 2012 in Żak Club, Gdańsk), created and directed by Katarzyna Pastuszak – this is one of the most interesting Polish dance performances of the recent years, which has also been appreciated abroad. As the critics write:
That is a Polish-Norwegian parable about wandering women (...). Nomadic Woman is an enjoyable and readable project made up of multiple components, which do not obscure the image, but saturate and position it. This is an artistic research project, almost a laboratory full of wandering women. (...) The consistency of the method, image and rhythm in the performance places it high among alternative proposals of that kind. Pastuszak approached the narrative ambitiously, introducing eight characters on stage, but she also gave the viewer time to ‘tame’ the space, to get familiar with the stage time. [Katarzyna Wysocka, portkultury.pl, 14.12.2012]
