European Dance since 1989

Communitas and the Other

Joanna Szymajda, Joanna Szymajda

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781135053734
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medien & darstellende Kunst
• Subtopic: Darstellende Kunst

This edited collection charts the development of contemporary dance in Central and Eastern Europe since the literal and symbolic revolutions of 1989.

Central Europe and the former Soviet Bloc countries were a major presence in dance – particularly theatrical dance – throughout the twentieth century. With the fragmentation of traditional structures in the final decade of the century came a range of aesthetic and ideological responses from dance practitioners. These ranged from attempts to reform classical ballet to struggles for autonomy from the state, and the nature of each was influenced by a set of contexts and circumstances particular to each country.

Each contribution covers the strategies of a different country's dance practitioners, using a similar structure in order to invite comparisons. In general, they address:

• Historical context, showing the roots of contemporary dance forms

• 
  
  

• The socio-political climates that influenced emerging companies and forms

• 
  
  

• The relationships between aesthetic exploration and institutional patronage

• 
  
  

• The practitioners who were central to the development of dance in each country

• 
  
  

• A diagnosis of the current state of the art and how it has come about

• 
  
  

The book's main through-line is the concept of community, and how all of the different approaches that it documents have in some way engaged with this notion, consciously or otherwise. This can take the form of oppositional relationships, institutional formations, or literally, in identifiable communities of dancers and choreographers.

European Dance
since 1989

European Dance
since 1989

This edited collection charts the development of contemporary dance in Central and Eastern Europe since the literal and symbolic revolutions of 1989.

Central Europe and the former Soviet Bloc countries were a major presence in dance – particularly theatrical dance – throughout the twentieth century. With the fragmentation of traditional structures in the final decade of the century came a variety of aesthetic and ideological responses from dance practitioners. These ranged from attempts to reform classical ballet to struggles for autonomy from the state, and the nature of each was influenced by a set of contexts and circumstances particular to each country.

Each contribution covers the strategies of a different country’s dance practitioners, using a similar structure in order to invite comparisons. In general, they address:

×	historical context, showing the roots of contemporary dance forms
×	the socio-political climates that influenced emerging companies and forms
×	the relationships between aesthetic exploration and institutional patronage
×	the practitioners who were central to the development of dance in each country
×	a diagnosis of the current state of the art and how it has come about.

The book’s main through-line is the concept of community, and how all of the different approaches that it documents have in some way engaged with this notion, consciously or otherwise. This can take the form of oppositional relationships, institutional formations, or, literally, identifiable communities of dancers and choreographers.

Joanna Szymajda is the deputy director of the Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw, Poland. She was also a lecturer at the Univeristy of Łódź.

European Dance
since 1989

Communitas
and the Other

Edited by Joanna Szymajda

First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2014 Institute of Music and Dance
ul. Fredry 8, 00-097 Warsaw, Poland

Polish language editor: Julia Hoczyk

Proofreading: Elżbieta Lipińska, Konrad Niciński (Polish version),
Soren Gauger, Monika Tacikowska (English version)

The right of Joanna Szymajda to be identified as author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Hoczyk, Julia.

European dance since 1989 : communitas and the other / edited by Joanna
Szymajda ; Polish language editor, Julia Hoczyk.
pages 15.6 x 23.4 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Dance–Europe–History. 2. Dance–Europe–Cross-cultural studies.
I. Title.
GV1643.H63 2014
792.8094–dc23
2013040107

ISBN: 978-0-415-83212-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-415-83213-7 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-50884-8 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-83-932955-9-3

Typeset in Elena
by Process Type Foundry

Typesetting and text design © Beton

Publisher’s note: This book has been prepared from camera-ready copy provided by the editor.

Contents

	List of contributors
	Polish/English, English/Polish translation: Maria Kwiecień
	Introduction (editorial)
	JOANNA SZYMAJDA
	Text written in Polish, English translation: Soren Gauger
	Communitas. Introduction (theoretical)
	RAMSAY BURT
	Text written in English, Polish translation: Maria Kwiecień
1	The Polish periphery in ‘native’ Europe: towards the institutionalisation of dance ANNA KRÓLICA Text written in Polish, English translation: Soren Gauger
2	Toward autonomy and professionalization: the process of negotiating the identity of Polish dance JULIA HOCZYK Text written in Polish, English translation: Soren Gauger
3	Not quite – not right: Eastern/Western dance (on contemporary dance in Serbia) ANA VUJANOVIĆ Text written in English, Polish translation: Artur Zapałowski
4	Evacuate the area: zero space MIHAELA MICHAILOV English translation: Vlad A. Arghir, Polish translation: Artur Zapałowski
5	Transformations of the dancing body in Estonian contemporary dance HEILI EINASTO Text written in English, Polish translation: Artur Zapałowski
6	The present absence: approaches to dance and choreography in Slovenian contemporary dance BOJANA KUNST English translation: Urska Zajec, Polish translation: Artur Zapałowski
7	Contemporary dance in Lithuania VITA MOZŪRAITĖ Text written in English, Polish translation: Artur Zapałowski
8	Communitas and the Other: on Hungarian (contemporary) dance after 1989 ANNAMÁRIA SZOBOSZLAI Text written in English, Polish translation: Artur Zapałowski
9	Czech dance: from amnesia to emancipation JANA NÁVRATOVÁ Polish translation: Magdalena Stojowska, English translation: Soren Gauger
10	Russian contemporary dance NATALIA KURYUMOVA Polish translation: Agnieszka Sowińska, English translation: Soren Gauger
11	Body, identity and community: dance in Bulgaria after 1989 MIRA TODOROVA Text written in English, Polish translation: Artur Zapałowski
12	Let´s work (differently)! 6MONTHS1LOCATION and the resonances between production, labor, thought, dance, and community STEFAN APOSTOLOU-HÖLSCHER Text written in English, Polish translation: Artur Zapałowski
	Index

Contributors

Stefan Apostolou-Hölscher (Germany) studied applied theatre studies at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, from 2001 until 2008. During this period he developed several projects in cooperation with other students, including performances at PACT Zollverein, the Mousonturm, and the Ruhr Festival in Recklinghausen. Since 2009 he has been working as research associate in the frame of the new MA programme ‘Choreography and Performance’. His PhD project is entitled ‘Potential Bodies: Contemporary Dance Between Aesthetics and Biopolitics’. His research interests include post-structuralist themes in the broadest sense, body concepts, political theory between Frankfurt and Paris, and institutional critique – based on his work at the Institute – and some connections between Judson Church dance trends since the 1990s, for example the works by Xavier Le Roy, Plischke/Deufert, and Mette Ingvartsen.

Ramsay Burt, PhD (UK), is professor of dance history at De Montfort University. His publications include The Male Dancer (1995, revised 2007), Alien Bodies (1997), Judson Dance Theater (2006), and, with Valerie Briginshaw, Writing Dancing Together (2009). In 1999 he was visiting professor at the Department of Performance Studies, New York University, and is a visiting teacher at PARTS in Brussels. With Susan Foster, he is founder editor of the journal Discourses in Dance. With Christy Adair he is currently running an AHRC-funded research project, British Dance and the African Diaspora.

Heili Einasto (Estonia) is a lecturer of dance history at Tallinn University. She received her BA in history and English studies from the Estonian Institute of Humanities, Tallinn, and an MA in gender and culture from the Central European University, Budapest. She participated in the Body project as part of the International Women’s University, Hannover-Bremen. Heili Einasto has written dance criticism and promoted contemporary dance since 1991.

Julia Hoczyk (Poland) is a dance critic. She holds an MA in theatre studies, and is currently doing her PhD at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She also studied gender studies as part of a postgraduate programme at the Institute of Applied Social Studies, University of Warsaw. She has published critical pieces in Didaskalia, Teatr, Opcje, Dwutygodnik.com. From 2005 to 2010 she was editor of the magazine Scena, and from 2008 to 2011 of Kultura Enter, a monthly web magazine; currently, she edits taniecPOLSKA.pl, a website of the Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw, aiming to promote and document the art of dance in Poland. In her research she focuses on the body, corporeity and gender in Polish and international contemporary dance. As guest lecturer, she concentrates on contemporary dance and butoh. She collaborates with the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. She works with the Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw.

Anna Królica (Poland) holds an MA in theatre studies and Russian studies, and is a dance critic and historian, focusing mainly on dance’s Slavic and German contexts. Recently she has published Pokolenie Solo. Choreografowie w wywiadach z Anną Królicą (The Solo Generation. Choreographers interviewed by Anna Królica) (Cricoteka, Kraków 2013); while two years ago she released the book Sztuka do odkrycia: Szkice o polskim tańcu (An Art to Discover: Essays on Polish Dance) (Tarnów 2011). She is completing a PhD thesis on body and memory in Tadeusz Kantor’s and Pina Bausch’s theatres. In 2012 she was awarded a scholarship by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland. She is also working on two curatorial projects: Archiwum Ciała (Archive of the Body) presented at Poznań’s ZAMEK Culture Centre and Maszyna choreograficzna (Choreographic Machine), a two-year programme held at Kraków’s Cricoteka. Anna Królica has co-authored three anthologies: 20-lecie. Teatr polski po 1989 (Twenty Years: Polish Theatre after 1989) (2010); Publiczność (z)wymyślana: Relacje widz–scena we współczesnej praktyce dramatopisarskiej i inscenizacyjnej (Pro-/Re-jected Audience: The Spectator–Stage Relation in Contemporary Dramatic and Staging Practice) (2009); and Nowy taniec: Rewolucje ciała (New Dance: Body Revolutions) (2012). She publishes in Dwutygodnik.com, Didaskalia, Teatr, and Kultura Enter, a monthly web magazine.

Bojana Kunst, PhD ...