Information

The workshop with Norwegian choreographer Karen Foss and her dancers, Martina Hajdyla Lacová and Dano Raček is focused on dramaturgy and the transformation of socially engaging topics into a physical language of the body. It is dedicated to all who are interested in physical theatre – dancers, theatre artists, dramaturges, directors and everyone interested in movement and its research.

Dance is a sensuous force, combining energetic moving capacities of human bodies with other visual – and auditive informations such as sound design and/or music composition. Few words are spoken. If the dance is engaged in political statements or sosial issues, the audiences are left to put language to the actions.

• Do audiences wish for dance performances to discuss social challenges in the contemporary modern life?
• Do audiences prefer dance to be purely an aesthetic practice rather than comment on everyday life?
• How does a creator balance a fine line between comments on daily life and letting dance unfold entirely in its own right?

Dance, historically, is linked to aesthetic thought and practice. Idealising the body is a large part of dance: Dance can be spectacular in its performative shapes. In contemporary dance the focus is shifted to embrace radical and/or critical reflection:

• Can a show with a tough (political/social) topic still be also aestethically pleasing or interesting and artistically highlevelled?
• Is it at all important to combine aesthetic and political focus in the one and same dance performance?

Price: 2500 czk

You can book your attendance and pay for it online here.

Karen Foss received a classic and modern dance education at the Norwegian Opera Ballet School, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and workshops and training in Norway and abroad. She worked with independent ensembles and for the National Ballet, Norwegian television and Carte Blanche ensemble. During her career she worked with artists such as Lise Ferner, Lise Eger, Kjetil Skøien, Kjersti Alveberg, Inguna Bjørnsgaard, Ina Christel Johannessen, Min Tanaka and Øyvind Jørgensen.

From 1997 to 2011, she worked as an artistic director for the Carte Blanche ensemble. In 2008, she received a lifetime grant “G.I.” provided by the Norwegian government. Today she works as a teacher at the University College in Bergen and runs her own production unit named Karen Foss Quiet Works, which has existed since 2001. In 2005 and 2007 to 2009, she worked with the Czech ensemble NANOHACH. As an artist, she seeks technically skilled dancers who are not afraid to take risks.