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On the cutting edge

Dorky Park brings a slice of Berlin to Prague
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By Brooke Edge
For The Prague Post
May 23rd, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
It's a screamer when the troupe delves deep into their personal histories.
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Dorky Park

When: May 29 and 30 at 8
Where: Divadlo Archa
Tickets: One night 390 Kč; both nights 600 Kč, available at the venue

Last fall, New York Times dance critic John Rockwell wrote, “Berlin has a deserved reputation as a, or the, new world center for all things young and hip.” Then he added, “Anyone wishing to test that proposition need look no further” than dance troupe Dorky Park.
Prague’s Archa Theater has made it a whole lot easier to check out the German capital’s renowned art scene this month with Berlin Reloaded, a showcase of performances from some of that city’s cutting-edge performers. The highlight will come next week with two nights of the aforementioned Dorky Park, widely regarded as an excellent primer on all that makes Berlin the place to be these days for artsy types from around the globe.
That distinction is something Dorky Park founder Constanza Macras plays down when discussing her company, a creative conglomeration of multinational dancers, musicians, actors and other artists. “We’re an international company, and I think it’s because Berlin is becoming more and more an international city,” she says. “My company reflects this.”
But, she’s quick to add, “My company isn’t typical Berlin. It’s not typical anything.”
Dorky Park is a “freelance company,” which is to say, not tied to a specific theater or larger organization. That allows the group to be, create and perform whatever it wants. Individuals within the group are also “quite independent,” according to Macras, with collaboration as the driving force. Macras brings her vision for new works to her peers in Dorky Park, and the combination of ideas is what creates the final product.
The 37-year-old native of Argentina moved to Berlin in 1995, following a stint in New York City studying with the Merce Cunningham Studio. Upon her arrival in Germany, Macras founded Tamagotchi Y2K, a dance-based performance group. That company produced numerous critically and popularly acclaimed works, and was re-named Dorky Park (partly in homage to the Russian rock band Gorky Park) in 2003.
The first work of the newly named group was Back to the Present, a site-specific, nearly four-hour performance in a dilapidated Berlin shopping mall. It drew on the personal stories of Macras and her company members to create images and tales of childhood, and its combination of inspired choreography, mixed-medium art fusions and whimsical elements (such as a nearly-nude fight with stuffed animals) impressed fans of contemporary dance worldwide.
Dorky Park’s most recent work, I Am Not the Only One, premiered four months ago in Berlin, and will be featured over the course of two nights during Berlin Reloaded (it’s a two-part piece, one each evening). Once again drawing on the personal stories of its creators, I Am Not the Only One takes the childhood experience to the next stage — leaving home, how to return and what the idea of “home” means.
“I work with peoples’ biographies often,” Macras says, citing the many inspiring personal stories she’s encountered in Berlin. For a piece about people leaving home, living in a city full of expats is an obvious advantage. Chances are this will give the piece special resonance in Prague as well.
Along with her troupe’s personal stories, Macras drew inspiration for I Am Not the Only One from Joseph Campbell’s seminal work of comparative mythology, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. “Every saga starts when a hero leaves home,” she says. “It’s about the feeling of becoming strange.”
Macras knows that feeling well. “Like an alien, sometimes,” she says.
But Berlin has welcomed Macras and her work, making her feel “very comfortable. It’s a bit like a marriage between me and the town, and the town and Dorky Park.”
So it is as a representative of the city that has become her new home — and that she has helped make an international home of contemporary dance — that Macras will bring the best of Berlin to Prague.

Brooke Edge can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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