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Stepping up

Tanec Praha celebrates its 20th anniversary

May 28th, 2008 issue

By Lucie Rozmánková

Staff Writer

Photo by Gadi Dagon

Highlights of this year's festival include the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company's Ekodoom. enlarge

Photo by Annette Rutsch

Öff Öff's acrobatic Orbite enlarge

After long disputes with City Hall, the 20th anniversary season of Tanec Praha (Dance Prague) kicks off this weekend. Because the city severely reduced its financial support, cuts had to be made in the festival program. But it still includes some very exciting performances.

Tanec Praha is the main dance festival in the Czech Republic, established immediately after the Velvet Revolution by dance enthusiast Yvonna Kreutzmanová to showcase international contemporary dance performances. During the communist era, modern dance was discouraged by the authorities, who favored classical ballet and folk dance. Kreutzmanová was eager to bridge the cultural gap.

Since its inception, the festival has brought to Prague great performers and companies such as the Martha Graham Dance Company, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Bill T. Jones, William Forsythe, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jiří Kylián and the Nederlands Dans Theater and many more. Tanec Praha has also served as an inspiration to the re-emerging Czech modern dance community, spinning off the Czech Dance Platform festival, which is dedicated to up-and-coming Czech performers.

The budget cuts were a serious setback for the festival this year. Out of a total budget of 12.8 million Kč, festival organizers expected 2 million to 3 million Kč from the city. Instead, they received only 300,000 Kč ($18,820), and learned about it too late to be able to make up the difference.

“It is incredibly difficult to find a corporate sponsor for art here. They would rather invest in sports,” says Tanec Praha Director Marta Lajnerová. “It is partly because there is no tradition [of private arts support] in the Czech Republic, and partly because there are no tax breaks for doing so. Companies have to figure out how much they can give before the tax return term, which is too late for us.”

Like many people, Lajnerová was shocked when she saw the new promotional advertisements that appeared around town after the funding cuts. “I almost caused a car accident when I passed a billboard saying, ‘Prague — The City of Culture’!”

Three evenings of performances had to be cut from the schedule, including the final gala. Prague audiences will also not see a new project by world-acclaimed violinist-singer Iva Bittová and the Wendy Osserman Dance Company, and the French-Algerian street dance company Käfig Mourad Merzouki.

Festival highlights

In one sense, the bad news in Prague has been good news for other regions of the country, where the Culture Ministry is happy to support dance performances. A total of 12 Tanec Praha performances are scheduled in Brno, České Budějovice, Český Krumlov, Ostrava, Pardubice and Valašské Meziříčí. Because of the situation with Prague City Hall, Lajnerová admits she may focus her future efforts primarily on the regions, even with the name “Praha” in the festival’s title.

However, there’s still plenty to see in Prague. Probably the most anticipated visiting troupe this year is the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, which will be performing at Karlín Theater (June 9 and 10). As the name suggests, the company is from Israel, where it has a long tradition reaching back to the 1970s, and a Czech connection through its founder, Yehudit Arnon, who was born a Czech-Hungarian Jew and moved to Israel after World War II. The company is currently under the artistic guidance of Rami Be’er, and focused on presenting his original work. They will be bringing Ekodoom, a world-celebrated piece that blends strong visual images and electronic music. As a program note says, “Ekodoom pierces our human protective layers, more so than reality itself frequently does.”

Also highly anticipated is the outdoor performance of the Swiss company Öff Öff, fittingly called Orbite (June 1, 2 and 3). Dancers will be fastened to a rotating steel structure 15 meters above the ground, playing with gravity, features of the steel construction and the audience’s nerves.

Todos los gatos son pardos (June 4, 5 and 6) is an evening that mixes modern dance and flamenco by the Spanish group Arrieritos, returning to Prague after their debut in the festival Madrid Dances in Prague in 2006.

Also worth catching: Wu Chun-Hsien and Chrystel Guillebeaud’s Reflex (June 19 and 20). The choreographers are renowned dancers. Wu Chun-Hsien used to be a member of Cloud Gate Dance Theater, an acclaimed Taiwanese dance company featured at Tanec Praha in 2005. Guillebeaud is a French dancer from the iconic German company Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal. Their piece Reflex explores the tension between human reflexes and casual learned movements.

This year’s schedule also includes a good sampling of Czech and Slovak performers. “Czech dance is already on a European level, so we believe it should have a natural part in Tanec Praha,” Lajnerová explains.

Slovak dancer and choreographer Jaro Viňarský will be performing in Karine Ponties’ project Holeulone (June 11 and 12). And the European Dance Laboratory series (No. 1 May 15, No. 2 May 16 and 17, No. 3 May 22 and 23) features outstanding performers such as Josef Fruček, Linda Kapetanea, Lenka Bartůňková, Lea Čapková and Petra Fornayová.

In short, while the quantity may have dropped this year, there are still some quality performances. Take advantage of Tanec Praha’s innovative programming while you still can.

Lucie Rozmánková can be reached at lrozmankova@praguepost.com

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