Choreography and direction: Paweł Sakowicz
Text and dramaturgy: Anka Herbut
Sound design: Justyna Stasiowska
Light design: Jacqueline Sobiszewski
Costumes: Milena Liebe
Duration: 70'
Presented in Polish with English subtitles
Dance on film.
"Boa" is the first choreographic piece in the history of the National Stary Theatre in Kraków. Its main theme and explored space of movement is desire, how it is demonstrated, embodied, and performed. In "Boa", choreographer Paweł Sakowicz wonders about paths by which desire circulates in the body; how it is created through a spatial orientation of bodies; how it can be intermediated through popular culture, discourses, and technologies, and what its embodied consequences are. Delving into the trajectories of desire, "Boa" mainly focuses on two parts of the body: the hips and the eyes, which do not need the sense of touch in order to touch.
Sakowicz draws from cinematic tools that build relationships, organize images, and internalize the outside gaze, though there are no cameras on stage. The bodies here bear traces of stolen choreographies and scraps of fiery soap-opera plots. The actors practice culturally stereotyped dances of the South, and they seduce a non-existent camera, the existing audience, and one another
Cast: Magda Grąziowska, Ewa Kaim, Katarzyna Krzanowska, Radosław Krzyżowski, Aleksandra Nowosadko, Przemysław Przestrzelski, Łukasz Szczepanowski
Production: The Helena Modrzejewska National Stary Theatre in Kraków
Co-presented by the Polish Cultural Institute
Part of Rehearsal for Truth International Theater Festival honoring Václav Havel, produced by the Václav Havel Center and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association.
About
Paweł Sakowicz is a choreographer and dancer. Paweł creates his own choreographic performances, but often also collaborates with theatre and film directors. His main artistic interests are the history of dance and the issues of cultural appropriation in choreography. Pawel’s works include: “Jumpcore”, (Zachęta - National Gallery of Art, Aerowaves Twenty19), “Masakra” (Nowy Teatr in Warsaw), “Drama” (Body/Mind Festival), “Amando” (National Museum in Warsaw), “Imperial” (Komuna Warszawa), “Fatamorgana” (Studio Hrdinu in Prague), ”Boa” (Stary National Theatre in Kraków) and a sound installation “VORTEX” (Theatre Institute in Warsaw). They have been presented in three editions of the Polish Dance Platform, at La Biennale de danse du Val-de-Marne, Muzeum Susch, Tramway Glasgow, Santarcangelo Festival, Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Divine Comedy Festival, Czech Dance Platform, NYU Skirball in New York and CAC New Orleans, among others. Paweł has worked with Nowy Teatr in Warsaw, TR Warszawa, National Stary Theatre in Krakow, Schauspiel Hannover, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Lithuanian National Drama Theatre in Vilnius, Dailes Teatris in Riga and Münchner Kammerspiele.
ABOUT THE 2024 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH INTERNATIONAL THEATER FESTIVAL
Rehearsal for Truth International Theater Festival, honoring Václav Havel, is a showcase of contemporary European theater organized each year in New York City. Conceived in 2017 as a shared endeavor of the Václav Havel Center (VHC) and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA), the festival honors the legacy of Czech playwright, dissident and political thinker Vaclav Havel.
Each edition of Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival addresses current sociopolitical trends in Central and Eastern Europe, offering New York audiences a unique opportunity to witness the region’s theatrical zeitgeist.
The program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. The festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.