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THREESOME

Wojciech Grudziński / Belluard Bollwerk, Nowy Teatr
Thu 12 Dec ’24 and Fri 13 Dec ’24
A hazy posthumous ballet.
Thu 12 Dec ’24
and
Fri 13 Dec ’24

In Threesome Wojciech Grudziński shares the dance space with spectral figures from the past as he grapples with their legacy. In this exercise in phantasmagoric choreography, he goes cruising through the biographies of the legendary dancers Stanisław Szymański, Wojciech Wiesiołłowski, and Gerard Wilk.

Brought up in post-war, communist Poland, two of them eventually emigrated, while one chose to stay in his native country. How have their bodies been remembered? How did these bodies come to recognize their sensibility and express it on stage? How can these marginalized lives be reclaimed and embodied today? How do we construct an untamed, monstrous, illogical bodily archive of queer history without losing any of their uniqueness?

THREESOME seeks to dispel the myths and rediscover their individual experience in a world that we were not part of. Threesome is a hazy posthumous ballet, a repressed legacy, a reenactment, an act of somatic plunder and transformation. Do not let these biographies be appropriated, much less consumed by the history of ballet and by politics. Do not let national sentiment lay claim to the oberek. Surrender to the other, so as to disappear and to exist more fully.

  • Duration: 50 min.
  • Includes stroboscopic lights
  • Language: English

Credits

concept, choreography Wojciech Grudziński artistic collaboration Igor Cardellini dramaturgical support Joanna Ostrowska, Klaudia Hartung-Wójciak text Klaudia Hartung-Wójciak artistic advisor Miguel Angel Melgares video Rafał Dominik costume design Marta Szypulska light design Jacqueline Sobiszewski technical direction Thibault Villard music, sound Lubomir Grzelak, Wojtek Blecharz with thanks to Emilia Cholewicka production Wojciech Grudziński / 910113 Foundation residencies Cité Internationale des Arts, Frascati Producties, Visegrad Artist Residency Program for Performing Arts co-financed by The Capital City of Warsaw with the Support of Centre national de la danse – Pantin, Frascati Producties co-production Belluard Bollwerk, Nowy Teatr financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland

About the maker

Wojciech Grudziński (1991) is a Polish artist, choreographer, and dancer based in Amsterdam. His work investigates topics such as the power dynamics that exist (both implicitly and explicitly) within theater and dance. Wojciech graduated from the Warsaw State Ballet School and CODARTS in Rotterdam, and he obtained his master’s degree from DAS Theatre in Amsterdam (2021-2023).

Explorations of inclusivity, queerness, and the embracing of diversity lie at the heart of Wojciech's work. He works without boundaries, shame, or coyness, based on a created freedom of choreography and performance. His work is an ode to the heritage of dance and choreography, in which Wojciech strives to create an inviting space for play and to celebrate a range of different perspectives on how we see our bodies.

In his graduation research at DAS Theatre, Wojciech examined the ambiguity of the ‘bowing gesture’. This was brought together in his graduation production, BOW A STUDY. This performance premiered in February 2024, in co-production with Frascati Producties. In 2024, Wojciech received support from the Centre National de la Danse x Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris to carry out research on the legacy of three Polish dancers from the communist era. 

The press about Wojciech Grudziński

“A playful, baroque and weird investigation into bowing […] Beautiful and intense. […] we want to see more from this maker.” Theaterkrant over BOW A STUDY