maltafestival poznań2010

Old Brewery New Dance at Malta 2010

For five seasons, Studio Słodownia +3 in Stary Browar (the Old Brewery) has been the only stage in the country that persistently focuses on presenting and producing modern and experimental dance shows. The dream to create a 'dance house, like the ones functioning in other countries in Europe, influenced the particular emphasis on establishing production facilities and a system to support the development of young Polish choreographers, a system encompassing residencies, productions, co-productions and education programmes. The mission of the project was to set up a special centre for choreography which would not only be a venue for regular shows, but (perhaps primarily) a 'space for creation', a safe place to experiment in and to produce unique dance shows.

In this year's edition of the Festival, which, as always, reviews a year's worth of Stary Browar's dance-related activities, we will be celebrating our fifth anniversary of being present in Poznań and at the Malta. These five seasons account for numerous unforgettable shows, artistic fascinations and creative friendships which have, in fact, turned Stary Browar into a dance house, the regular meeting place of a considerably large 'dance family': dancers, choreographers, dance experts and, of course, the audience. Thus, we wish to invite you to a very special 'family reunion' and look forward to celebrating our anniversary in such excellent Malta-loving and dancing company.

Stary Browar is pulsating with the energy of the dancers who are working here. This is not surprising, especially on this special anniversary the programme Old Brewery New Dance at the Malta.

Accordingly, you will have the opportunity to see again some 'old faces', artists who have worked on their shows at the Studio Słodownia +3 before. It was here that Teatr Dada von Bzdülöw, led by Leszek Bzdyl, created and gave the world premiere of their Faktor T (2008). This time, at the Malta, they will present their latest group show CZERWONA TRAWA based on the prose of Boris Vian (L'Herbe rouge).

Since June 2009, Arkadi Zaides has been working on a show between Poznań and Tel Aviv. This is a Palestinian and Israeli project called QUIET which will have its Polish premiere at the Malta. Agata Maszkiewicz, a talented Polish choreographer, used her residency in Browar to work on her solo, POLSKA!, which we saw last year in May. She returns to Poznań where she will be present at the Malta as a member of a female choreographers' collective led by Anne Juren (her solo was shown in Browar in 2006) in a show called COMPOSITION about group-related issues. The show will feature Alix Eyinaudi who seduced the loyal Browar audience in spring 2007 immersed in smoke in CRYSTALL. The lighting for COMPOSITION was designed by Bruno Pocheron, the artistic supervisor of the SOLO PROJECT in 2008. During the Festival this year, you will also be able to see the results of solo residencies in 2009, for which the artistic consultant was Hooman Sharifi, a guest of the Dance Malta a year ago.

After several years, Jonathan Burrows, whose words: "one needs two legs, two hands and, most of all, a head to create a dance," accompany the Solo Project from the very beginning, also returns to Poznań. After the huge success of his trilogy (presented at the Malta in 2007), together with the composer Matteo Fargionem he will continue his tale about the relationships between dance and music in his latest show CHEAP LECTURE.

As part of the Alternative Dance Academy, Jonathan will also conduct a several-day-long workshop for professional Polish artists.

The dream to establish a dynamic dance/choreography centre expands beyond the walls of Słodownia: everyone remembers Michael Schumacher's improvised Randki w ciemno (Blind Dates) or the unforgettable encounter with the French choreographer Boris Charmatz who, during Malta 2006, constructed a tower in the Atrium for his moving show AAtt...enen...tionon? All this would not have been possible if it was not for the philosophy of the whole Stary Browar Art and Business Centre which aims at bringing modern avant-garde art closer to everyday life by building a bridge between the viewer and the artist and by discovering new spaces and contexts for subsequent works of art. One of the major events in this year's Malta programme will be the premiere of a show whose authors will be chosen in a special competition held to commemorate the anniversary of the dance programme. Hopefully, this will lead to a great dance fiesta in all the spaces of Stary Browar!

The artistic friendships of Stary Browar do not only include artists, but also places that are similar to us. In 2008, the Art Stations Foundation became one of the founding members of the European Dance Network (EDN); the partnership will soon yield choreographic projects that will be part of a European grant. However, this year, Stary Browar will host not so much a 'dance house', but rather a 'production house': WP Zimmer from Antwerp which, similarly to Stary Browar, supports young choreographers (www.wpzimmer.be). As part of her residency at the Malta, Carine Meulders, the artistic director of WP Zimmer, will present to us some shows created by artists from her 'stable'. We already saw several of them in Browar (Etienne Guilloteau, Claire Croize and Nada Gambier). This time we will see some new faces and names that have already marked their presence on various stages throughout Europe and whose shows often feature Polish artists, graduates of foreign schools, who work in Belgium.

There will also be some completely new faces during Malta 2010 in Stary Browar. One of them will be the Spanish artist Cuqui Jerez who resides in Berlin. We will see, for the first time in Poland, her show REAL FICTION which has won the hearts of audiences across the world with its twisted story, simplicity and humour. This production, which examines the limits of the theatre, will end the Festival in the most spectacular way.

We greatly look forward to seeing you at the anniversary edition of the Old Brewery New Dance at the Malta!