Zawirowania Dance Theate, credit: Marta Ankiersztejn
Zawirowania Dance Theatre was established in 2004 under the Contemporary Scene Foundation's auspices and it creates primarily original narrative performances which are to tell a story using contemporary dance techniques.
Elwira Piorun has been active on the scene for over 20 years, as a dancer and a long-time soloist at the Grand Theatre of the National Opera. She played the main roles in Giselle, Fortepianissimo, Insatiability. She spent her last years at the Warsaw Ballet School during the martial law, when there was little choice except for the classics. Yet those gloomy 1980s were the heyday of Polish ballet.
- We performed in Taiwan, Germany, United States, Japan. The best choreographers, including Balanchin, Bejart and Neumeier, worked with us. In 1987, I took the long-awaited position of the Grand Theatre Ballet soloist – summarises Elwira Piorun. In 2013 she received an invitation to work with Ido Tadmor and Rachel Erdos with two-part production “Rust&Engage” as the effect of their collaboration. Except from modern dance, she also is also a teacher in classical dance and yoga.
Grand plie, Witkacy and Stańko
Elwira’a first fascinations? Jiří Kylián and William Forsythe. – It was such a discovery for me! A revolutionary combination of the classics with a modern energy flow. An important experience on my way to contemporary dance was my collaboration on the Insatiability ballet based on Witkacy’s works, with Tomasz Stańko’s music. My friend Zofia Rudnicka was responsible for the choreography, Włodek Kaczkowski was responsible for the script, and I had an influence on my cabaret diva role. So, sometime in the 1987, we can find the rudimentary idea of our own group, which would later become Zawirowania.
The success of the performance was built on Stańko’s music, Witkacy’s drugged visions masterfully interpreted by Marek Walczewski, as well as the original choreography, to which Elwira 'added a small contribution'. – My position in theatre was fairly strong, but when I received an invitation from Jurek Makarowski to work in a local theatre of Hagen, Germany, I didn’t hesitate to accept it.
The West appealed with its wealth and openness – it was 1989, so leaving the country wasn’t a decision for lifetime anymore. From Hagen, she moved to Dortmund. – I danced a lot, often in the main roles. Probably the most personal performance was Kindertotenlieder to Mahler’s music, when we danced in a church. But I abandoned classic ballet decidedly and with no regrets – even though my body probably still carries many habits, which sometimes help, and sometimes can be an obstacle.
But these are the 1990s. An entirely different story.
Astor Piazzolla versus Tom Waits
In 2004, the creators of Zawirowania – dancer Elwira Piorun and director Włodzimierz Kaczkowski – decided to apply contemporary dance techniques to build narrative performances. They announced a return to the plot – increasingly frequently abandoned in favour of nonlinearity and conceptualism.
Zawirowania’s first premiere was Hold Me, to Astor Piazzolla’s music. On the stage: three women and one man, with a few bar seats in the background. Renowned bandoneonist’s melancholy music slowly flows from the speakers. No single word is uttered.
According to Jacek Marczyński, Rzeczpospolita s reviewer, it was :
A simple story told using simple means. Nominally contemporary dance seems nearly classical in comparison to current postmodern pursuits. But this short performance carries something important: the emotional impact of each of the four dancers
Anna Markiewicz commented on Hold Me at the TVP website: "Piazzolla’s music stresses the sharp, dynamic character of particular scenes, while the interiors of Prochownia create a distinctive set design to a show, in which reality intertwines with imagination and dream."
Zawirowania’s recent compositions: Water, Air or Close-Ups tell stories about elements and relationships between men and women. – “They resemble a collage of dance and poetic scenes” – writes Anna Czajkowska. – “There is no complex character psychology nor experience. (…) Realist aesthetics, simple choreography based on the essence of the body, are the quintessence of artists’ emotional ordeals in life. In a common space, each of the performers (and choreographers at once) tells their own story, simultaneously searching for closeness of another person. The raw interiors of Stara ProchOFFnia – cool red brick, sparse stage design and lack of props puts a more significant challenge before the artists”.
In 2005-2006 two other productions with Elwira Piorun premiered: W stronę światła... z zawiązanymi oczami and If You Love – Kill. Both of them are showing a man trying to find oneself and getting lost in the modern world. After Hours (2007) was another depiction of the world moving forward too fast, where people have no time for a break. They immerse in their own thoughts and are too afraid to fail and do not take risk essential to make dreams come true. Then Nothing But Blue is about chaos at an airport where accumulation people's possesion show their real faces. In 2009 the theatre produced Innocent when you dream and, in cooperation with Spanish artists, Chopin ambiente with choreography by Juan de Torres and Daniela Merlo from Larumbe Danza (Elwira Piorun created choreography of the Polish part). In 2010 they performed Fuera de Campo with choreography by Daniel Abreu. Another production was Things, things, things (2012) choreographed by Karolina Korczak. In this performance the artists explore the issue of Holocaust, traumas and suffering.
2013 brought two international collaboration, one of them was Navigation Song BD303 (choreography by Irad Mazliah), refering to navigation songs used by fishing communities. This is how the authors' describe this production:
On the base of fishermen’s coming back home, Navigation Song BD303 approaches the topic of Cain’s curse and the homeless wander to eternity. The spectacle recalls moments of human change: the philosophy of humanity by Erasmus, and the idea of the new European presented in Stephan Zweig’s literature.
The second one, Rust&Engage was choreographed by Rachel Erdos and Ido Tadmor and performed by Elwira Piorun and Ido Tadmor. They create a picture of a couple who went through ups and downs, their relation is deep and strong, based on love, however not free of problems. Year 2013 was also a year of The Conspiracy, where the artists work on relations between violence and its image in mass media. In 2014 The 50 Faces of Eva was made, presenting a look on three different women with different cultural and social backgrounds. The latest production of Zawirowania is an international coproduction Out in the Line Up with choreography by Nadar Rosano.
A fusion of personalities
Four dancers – apart from Elwira Piorun, these are Karolina Kroczak, Szymon Osiński and Bartosz Figurski – are divided by generation and origin as dancers, but they share a common type of sensibility. Zawirowania, through various stage configurations – solo, duo and group performances – draw viewers into a world of poetic imagery. Body’s plasticity is their distinctive feature. Their performances aren’t exaggerated. They really dance – remaining professional and evocative at the same time.
Dance theatre is a theatre of personalities – says Karolina Kroczak, a dancer and choreographer, who created a very personal Things, Things, Things performance dealing with the Holocaust. – These are reflections upon the responsibility for the Holocaust, and in a wider perspective – for trauma and suffering.
I’m fascinated by the duality of Jewish culture – very spirituals and stressing the material dimension at the same time. I’m asking questions about coexistence of these two threads, reaching for literature and historical figures. What is my connection with them? I’m searching for answers in my body and movement. In my solo performance, I let things speak – personal belongings of those who are not here anymore. It is them who are the real characters in my performance; I am, through my body, only trying to touch on certain situations, to experience them.
Karolina Kroczak joined the Zawirowania Dance theatre in 2006. – Our first performance together was Nothing but blue. I feel sentimental about this show – eventually we made four versions, and in each of them, a different dancer appeared – recalls Karolina.
Each dancer’s personality changes the show, destroys the structures, even though each of them follows the same themes: an airport. Traffic. Someone lost their luggage. People waiting for check-in. On an empty stage there’s only a book, a suitcase, a pair of high-heeled shoes. As Maciej Stadtműller writes in Nowa Siła Krytyczna: "A story about waiting at the airport, told using words, would be banal. Dance transfers thoughts from the dimension of reason into the dimension of emotion. (…) The performance didn’t refer only to three women in the waiting room, but to everyone, in every waiting room”.
