Photo: Zdenek Stejskal.
POOL is a collaborative fusion of performance, visual art, and documentary that explores the male gaze, self-objectification, and the way power shifts as we move between looking, seeing, and being seen. In a society that sees self-objectification of the feminine both encouraged and derided by the dominant culture and its critics alike, internalized oppression is erased. POOL sets out to bring this intergenerational wounding into view.
In POOL, the unmet needs of patriarchy’s citizens are isolated, magnified, and transferred into a fabricated system in which the characters struggle with their perceived deficits according to an unexpected set of rules. On stage covered with rows of Barbie dolls, four performers enact a vivid triptych: two men, competing to satisfy their own narcissism; a ghost of a woman whose shattered identity lives among the infinite gazes of men; and a young girl whose solid, stable presence throws into high relief the others’ disturbances.
POOL (2023), Czech Republic/US. Choreography: Denisa Musilova. Dramaturgy: Mark DeChiazza. Performed by: Denisa Musilova, Mark DeChiazza, Vivienne Pankratova, Tom Rychetsky. Music, sound design: Ales Kauer.
Running time: 45 min.
Denisa Musilova developed the presented performance during her artist residency the Baryshnikov Arts Center in March 2023.
The performance is followed by a talkback.
Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $10. Seats are limited, on first-come, first-served basis. Online registration through Eventbrite is required.
About
DENISA MUSILOVA is a performer and choreographer, creating live, introspective, movement-based experiences in which psychological struggles are given physical form. Her original works have been co-produced and presented at the Tank, Dixon Place, Next@Graham, NY Butoh Festival, Movement Research, Czech Center, Triskelion Arts, 92nd Street Y, LATEA Theater, Triskelion Arts, La MaMa, SOAK Festival, Venuše ve Švehlovce Theater and Theater Akropolis Prague.
She choreographed Swing Heil directed by Iveta Ditte Jurčová; the musical Branicky zazrak, directed by Academy award-winning director Jan Sverak; Quixote, directed by Mark DeChiazza for Peak Performances at Montclair State University; and Amy Beth Kristen’s Savior, which premiered at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Musilova was commissioned to present a new work for Susan Marshall's 2018 Prototypes ,and performed at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Gala in 2019.
Currently, Musilova works as a guest choreographer for the Horacke Theater Jihlava, where she has staged multiple plays, working with prominent theater directors including Dodo Gombar, Michal Zetel, and Rastislav Ballek. In the Czech Republic, Musilova danced in the production of Viva La Mama at the National Theater in Prague, as well as collaborated on new choreographies for DEKKADANCERS, Theater Bila Holubice, and Tantehorse.
MARK DeCHIAZZA is a director whose multifaceted practice includes filmmaking, choreography, scenic and media design, and installation. His work has been presented in national and international venues including Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, John F. Kennedy Center of the Arts, Guthrie Theater, Singapore International Festival of Arts, Prototype Festival, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, The Momentary, and Walton Arts Center.
His large-scale outdoor works include Look Around (2019) a co-creation with composer Shara Nova, that featured the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and over 600 additional performers from over 30 local groups, and direction and design of John Luther Adams’ Sila (2016) for Lincoln Center Festival and Mostly Mozart. Past projects include: Ocean Body, a 4-screen film and music installation he co-created with performers Helga Davis and Shara Nova, Dan Trueman’s Olagón, with singer Iarla Ó Lionáird and Eighth Blackbird ensemble; Quixote, a music-theater epic with composer Amy Beth Kirsten; Orpheus Unsung, a music-dance work with Steven Mackey; My Lai, an opera by Jonathan Berger with Kronos Quartet and Rinde Eckert.
TOM RYCHETSKY is a choreographer, dancer and a stage manager. He choreographed a dance-theater piece “Clockwork Orange” for the South Bohemian Theater Ballet (with Ondřej Vinklát), which was nominated for the best dance work of 2021; “Branický zázrak”, a musical by Academy Award winner Jan Sverak (with D. Musilova) and “iMucha”, an international multimedia show that premiered in May 2022 at O2 Universum Prague with subsequent tour to Expo 2020 in Dubai. Past projects include movement direction for theater productions, such as Swing Heil! (Poton Theater), Cabaret Winton (Svandovo Theater), Barber Shop (Horacke Theater Jihlava), collaboration with the music band Tata Bojs and DEKKADANCERS on staging the “Big Bang” Concert, as well as creating multiple choreographies for professional dance companies (DEKKADANCERS, National Theater Prague, Prague Chamber Ballet, Cirk La Putyka, White Dove Theater, Bohemia Ballet). Rychetsky is a recipient of a 2005 Critics Award for the best choreography and one of the founders of DEKKADANCERS. As a dancer he was a member of the Prague National Ballet (2003-2014) and Prague Chamber Ballet (2000-2003).
VIVIENNE PANKRATOVA is from Brooklyn, NY where she attends 5th grade at P.S. 261. She started dancing at age five, first studying tap and later, classical ballet. At age seven, Vivienne enrolled in Ballet Academy East’s pre-professional program where she has studied for the past four years. Vivienne has had the opportunity to dance in children’s roles at the Metropolitan Opera, and was featured in the the audio-video collaboration for Spiel, one of the seven ensemble movements in composer Andy Akiho's Grammy-nominated “Seven Pillars,” created for Sand Box Percussion and directed by Mark DeChiazza. In addition to dancing and performing Vivienne loves playing outdoors, as well as reading, writing and solving math problems.
ALES KAUER is an artist, poet, musician and a graphic designer. He is an organizer of cultural events, avant-garde music projects, and a literary-musical festival “Kvílení.” His poems, texts, and music reviews has been regularly published in print media (A2, Host, Tvar, Weles, Glosolalia, Prostor, Artikl and Deník Referendum) and a selection of his poems was printed by the Kniha Zlín publishing house in 2011. Kauer’s work have been translated into English (Natálie Nera), Spanish (Emilio Paz), Polish (Jaroslaw Pastuszak), Ukrainian (Krystyna Kuznietsová), Slovenian (Taťjana Jamnik), Hungarian (Csehy Zoltán) and brought out in several foreign literary magazines and anthologies. As a founder of the publishing house Adolescent, he produced many poetry collections, such as VNĚ/MNĚ (2014) and HappyEND (2020). On Bandcamp you can hear cycles of poems set to music "Heron" (Ivan Martin Jirous), ERTH (Olina Stehlíková), Imaginists (Sergej Jesenin), Understanding (Václav Havel), Good night, I announced the blow (Martin Jelínek).
ABOUT THE 2023 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH THEATER FESTIVAL
The 2023 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival: Anew is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York, GOH Productions, Trap Door Theatre, Centre of Jewish Culture ŠTETL, Jan Mocek, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Palissimo Company, and Romanian Cultural Institute.
The program 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. The festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague, and Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.