East European Performing Arts Platform (EEPAP) supports the
development of contemporary performing arts (dance and theatre)
in 18 countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
Polish Dance Avant-Garde Artists. Stories and Reconstructions
Polish Dance Avant-Garde Artists. Stories and Reconstructions
edited by Joanna Szymajda
A book created as part of the Choreographic Territories - New Paths for the Avant-Garde project and published by the Institute of Music and Dance and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
2017 was the year of the Avant-Garde, presenting an opportunity to reflect on the history and role of Polish female artists in the development and popularization of new trends in modernist dance in the 20th century. The book aims to present the biographic and artistic profiles of female dancers and choreographers of the 20th-century dance avant-garde who were of Polish descent. Special emphasis is put on the interwar period, as well as the emigration and post-war work of artists such as Bronisława Niżyńska, Marie Rambert, Pola Nireńska, Irena Prusicka or Yanka Rudzka.
The main aim of this publication is to reclaim the appropriate place for the artists in the history of Polish dance. It also creates an opportunity to reflect on the manners in which the heritage and legacy of these figures could be used in the works of young artists.
Basing on archive material and analytical texts, as well as on reconstruction work, we wish to present the crucial role of these female artists in the history of dance and the extent to which their work can still serve as a creative inspiration.
We wish for this publication to become a part of a wider process which will encompass an academic conference (2018) and commissions for contemporary works (2018/2019) inspired by the art of our heroines.
You can buy the book online here.
The Choreographic Territories project is coordinated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute operating under the Culture.pl brand, in cooperation with the Lublin Dance Theatre – the Centre for Culture in Lublin, the East European Performing Arts Platform (EEPAP), the Institute of Music and Dance and the Art Stations Foundation; within the international cultural programme accompanying Poland’s centenary of regaining independence – POLSKA 100.