DANCE FOR CHILDREN for the third time already
The prologue of the international festival of the contemporary TANEC PRAHA was presented through the week of workshops and performances destined for children, but also adults. DANCE FOR CHILDREN was held in the Prague theatres Ponec and Archa from 24th May to 1st June. „This year performances destined also for children were plentiful, which is a good indication for spectators of all age groups,“ said Dana Nekardová, festival´s coordinator.
The programmme was opened on 24th May at 10.30am by the dancer and choreographer Bára Látalová, who together with the creative team produced the work inspired by physical laws. She gave the production the name of Newton´s formula describing the law of gravity Fg = G [(m1 m2)/r²]. “For many people physics remains an abstract science difficult to understand and in the same way dance too can be incomprehensible and very abstract for many a spectator. Within a creative workshop children could in a playful form try on their own bodies some physical principles, which were used in the performance itself and which children could meet in their common lives as well,” sums up Bára Látalová.
On the occasion of the festival the dance company VerTeDance presented two performances at once. Spectators enjoyed the original „children´s version“ of the dance-theatre production The Cases of Dr. Touret with Anna Polívková as its director and actress; it was put on the stage in the Ponec Theatre on Tuesday 25th May at 6pm. The project Emigrantes comes from the workshop of VerTeDance as well; it sees the current issue of emigration with children´s eyes. The performance, which was staged in the Archa Theatre on Monday 31st May and on Children´s Day on Tuesday 1st June at 6pm, showed four adult and five children performers among which also belonged Eda Manukjan, the Armenian boy whose memories, dreams and wishes represented one of the inspirations. „We have already been working with children performers for several years, which however does not imply for us that the performances are destined for spectators among children only. We tried hard to exploit the whole process of rehearsing as the benefit, entertainment, but also the form of meaningful utilization of children´s time and abilities. It definitely helped to improve their human relations, it could be interesting for them to work with adult dancers, who were for them equal partners,“ comment the choreographers Tereza Ondrová and Veronika Kotlíková on the development of their project.
Last but not least, also Vojtěch Švejda will transfered his igloo onto the stage of the Ponec Theatre with the interactive production Arctic Robinson, or Incredible Wanderings of Jan Eskymo Welzl, which met with a good response on its home stage in the courtyard of the Alfred Theatre. The production was staged on Friday 28th May twice at once – at 3pm and at 6pm.
The workshops like the public presentation of the all-year-round work of children from the selected Prague schools, in which the project Dance for Schools is being organized, were the component part of the programme.
Mo / 24. 5. / Ponec
Morning workshop ZŠ Havlíčkovo nám
10.30 Bára Látalová and Co.: Fg = G.[(m1.m2)/r2]
Tu / 25. 5. / Ponec
Morning workshop ZŠ V Zahrádkách
6 pm / VerTeDance / Anna Polívková: Případy doktora Toureta – dětská verze
We / 26. 5. / Ponec
Morning workshops ZŠ Lyčkovo náměstí
6 pm Public presentation of the workshop - The Language of the Body
Fr / 28. 5. / 3 pm + 6 pm / Ponec
Vojta Švejda: Robinson of the Arcttic or the Unbelievable Wanderings of Jan Eskymo Welzl
Mo 31. 5. + Tu 1. 6. / 6 pm / Archa
VerTeDance: Emigrantes