Baroque dance from a contemporary perspective
The project of dancer, choreographer and lecturer Andrea Miltnerová will introduce final year dance students in the Czech Republic and Germany to the rich cultural heritage of the Baroque period. Baroque dance technique, music and culture will inspire the preparation of a new work, which will be contemporary in its structure and treatment of movement material. The project is a collaboration with the Duncan Centre and the M.A.D. (Mind and Dance) School in Nuremberg.
The aim of the project is to introduce students to a style of dance that has been fundamental to the development of Western dance, but which is currently only taught in a few conservatoires. Furthermore, to introduce students to the three basic elements of Baroque dance: space, rhythm and form, to reveal the relevance of this dance style today and to give students the opportunity to work closely with professional musicians (Musica Florea).
In Spring 2024, open classes were held at both partner schools. In August, intensive rehearsals with selected students will take place in Nuremberg and Prague. Rehearsals will continue in the autumn and will conclude with a public work-in-progress. This material will form the basis for a dance work to be created the following year, for which students will have the opportunity to audition.
The producer of the project is ProFitArt. The coordinator in Germany is Dirk Förster.
The project was supported by the European Union (National Recovery Plan).
Švanda Theatre is a partner of the project.
Dance In-Between Us
Connecting generations through dance to improve their health and emotional intelligence to be used internationally.
Project on dance in-between generations developed by creative producers Šárka Pavelková, Karolina Wycisk and Dirk Förster. Joint dancing activities of the youngest and the oldest led by experienced artists, aiming to create dance tools for health and emotional intelligence to be used internationally. The development phase is managed by partners ProFitArt (CZ), Performat Foundation (PL) and Dirk Förster with Lucia Glass (DE) and it is supported by Chemnitz Cultural Capital.
The project partners will meet in Prague in January 2024 to see best practice of the “two generations dancing together” within workshops of the organization Mezi námi in senior house and also workshops of Cécile Da Costa for elderly people and those with Parkinson´s disease.
Mezi námi (Between Us) is a non-profit organization, located in Prague, its mission is to interconnect generations. In 2023, the company won 1st place in the Government Council for Seniors Awards. Mezi námi, represented by its director Kateřina Jirglová, is the main project associate partner.
The main goal of the project is connecting generations through dance to improve their health, emotional intelligence, competence, motoric and coordinative skills as well as spacial orientation. It could be reached via training of dance artists to be able to lead such mixed groups in connection with social workers, teachers and other helping professions.
Such classes then should be demonstrated to social and educational institutions – schools, senior homes, kindergartens, to competent organs of municipalities and state, and to insurance companies to be able find means of support for such activities within their prevention programmes.
Team members:
- CZ – ProFitArt:
- Šárka Pavelková – project leader and head of the leader organization
- Cécile Da Costa – leading performer of ProFitArt and experienced dance teacher
- Kateřina Jirglová – expert – the director of the NGO Mezi námi
- PL – Performat Foundation:
- Karolina Wycisk – project coordinator and head of the partner organization
- Aleksandra Bożek-Muszyńska – co-founder and choreographer of Holobiont collective
- DE:
- Dirk Förster – initiator of the international project and coordinator for Saxony
- Lucia Glass – choreographer and developer of the coaching system for dancing with children
More than just Theatre
A residency project announced by ProFitArt together with its partners – The Theaterfestival Schwindelfrei and KD Mlejn. For the residency we have selected two artists who, together with their collaborators, will be brought to the Prague cultural centre KD Mlejn, thus connecting foreign and Czech professional artists.
During the two three-week residencies, there will be joint dance and movement training for the artists, networking, work on selected concepts for future productions, open rehearsals for invitees and a final public presentation.
The selected projects include “Oxy-Gen | Embers“ by dancer and choreographer Lisa Bless from Germany and her collaborator Anand Dhanakoti from India. The second, “Whimsical Paranoid“, is created by dancer, choreographer and teacher Martina Martín from Spain and dancers Sade Mamedova and Lorenzo Ponteprimo. The first residency will take place from 25 June to 15 July 2023, the second from 4 to 24 September.
The project is supported by the European Union (National Recovery Plan).
Rail2Dance
The international project Rail2Dance, which includes theater partners from Germany Die Theater Chemnitz, Slovenia PTL – Plesni Theatre Ljubljana, Sweden Norrlandsoperan and Finland Tanssiteatteri MD, takes public space and the codes of behavior that define these spaces as its central theme. With the help of dance movements, collective choreographies, dance pictures and games, the dancers of the project change and transform the codified rules of behavior determined for a certain space. The creators of the project are interested in places of passage and movement, such as railway stations, city squares and streets, and public transport. With dance interventions in public space, they not only reflect everyday practices in public spaces, but also question the meaning of community, which is increasingly disappearing in the modern world.
Project is supported by the Creative Europe programme.