SHIFT

We talk about the experiences of dozens of women within the past hundred years. Their thoughts, experiences, lives were recorded for the project Women’s Memory as part of oral history. They were recorded on tape and archived. We go through lives according to a key we have chosen, having a need to bear subjective witness to the women’s status as related to work. We gratefully base our piece on tedious work done by oral historian/herstorian Pavla Frýdlová. We map women’s working lives from the beginning of independent Czechoslovakia in 1918 until today. What connects, emancipates, individualises, liberates, ties, disturbs, stultifies and relativises us? We look for the reflection of the present in the past. Can we find parallels with specific Czech experiences or with the experiences of other post-communist countries? We look back to see how much our of practice is unique.

We pursue the ordinariness of woman’s destiny. We listen to everydayness, heroic commonness, which we must survive each day, in which a woman is not a symbol of beauty and luxury, but of admiration.

The plurality of common and ordinary voices is represented by three subjects/objects locked in huge moving entities, accompanied, through loudspeakers, by dozens of petty stories – simple yet strong – about the possibilities, necessities, and opportunities of woman’s work.

This dance and acoustic installation for three dancers is placed in contrast with the perfection of art objects in gallery collections, exhibited to show off.

Separation of roles A.
1970/80s
As far as the resistance, there was absolute equality, they locked the women up just like the men and they both went to the gallows. And equality in research? I was successful, but I had to be better than some of the men who were working in the same capacity as me… The salary for the same position was the same, but the facilities were different. And they always gave women a little bit more work. I didn’t feel any discrimination, only that I had to be better.
Pavla Frýdlová, Oral History Research of Women in Czechoslovakia and Czechia

Miřenka Čechová is currently one of the most distinctive representatives of dance and physical theatre in the Czech Republic and abroad. After she graduated from the Dance Conservatory in Prague in classical ballet, she graduated from DAMU (alternative theatre) and HAMU (non-verbal theatre), where she received a PhD in directing physical and mimic theatre. She received the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship for research and teaching activities at American University in Washington, DC. She has performed in more than 18 productions and many of them, mostly original authorial performances, have received significant foreign awards, including S/He is Nancy Joe (The Best of Contemporary Dance 2012 by the Washington Post, Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival), The Voice of Anne Frank (Best of Overseas Productions at International Arts Festival in South Africa, Outstanding Performance Award at the Prague Fringe Festival, Best of Fringe at Amsterdam Fringe Festival), Antiwords (Theatre Newspaper Award, Next Wave Festival Award, Skupa’s Plzeň Award), and many others. As a director and choreographer, she has created more than ten productions often made in foreign co-productions, such as Prawns á la Indigo (supported by a residency at Schloss Bröllin in Germany), FAiTH (supported by a residency at Atlas Performing Art Center in Washington, DC), The Opening (produced by New Music Theater in Washington, DC), and, most recently, Lessons of Touch together with Jiří Bartovanec, Vivisectic (at Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn and Gibney Dance, New York). At the request of the American baroque orchestra Opera Lafayette, she recently directed the opera production Opera and the French Revolution, which has been staged at the Rose Theatre Lincoln Center (New York) and the Lisner Auditorium (Washington, DC). She is the co-founder of theatre companies Spitfire Company and Tantehorse and the international festival Zero Point.

Markéta Vacovská is a Czech performer and choreographer. She is a graduate of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (HAMU) in non-verbal theatre. For the past ten years, she has worked intensively with the physical theatre group Spitfire Company. For the project One Step Before the Fall, she won the Czech Dance Platform’s Dancer of the Year (2013) award and Divadelní noviny’s Prize for Choreography and Dance. European dance platform Aerowaves included the performance in their TOP20 of 2014. Her work deals with extreme physical and emotional experience and examines the limits of physicality. She believes in improvisation and that work carried out over a long time brings a new level of concentration and being.

Agnija Šeiko
Agnija is a choreographer. She received a BA in choreography and an MA in theatre studies from Klaipėda University (Lithuania). She went on to study in the Netherlands and in 2005 completed her studies in choreography at Codarts (formerly the Rotterdam Dance Academy). Following graduation, she led the artist’s group Fish Eye. Today, she is artistic director and choreographer of the dance company Paid Dapi Fish, based in Klaipeda. She also serves as partner organisation coordinator for the Nordic-Baltic dance network Kedja, coordinates the International Festival of Contemporary Art Platforma and teaches in the Department of Choreography at Klaipėda University. Recent projects with Padi Dapi Fish include My Peter Pen, Check to Prussia, Louise in Memel, The Seasons, Dior in Moscow,Klaipėda transit Memel, Rooms. Endless stories, and White Lullaby, which toured internationally and was nominated for the Golden Stage Cross, Lithuania’s most prestigious theatre award. Šeiko has also created choreography for musical productions. She has collaborated with the Klaipėda State Musical Theatre and the Domino Theatre, and also worked on independent projects.

Gintarė Marija Ščavinskaitė
Gintarė Marija graduated Choreography studies in a specialized art school – Siauliai Conservatory (Saulius Sondeckis art school) between 2008 – 2010. She got a Bachelor‘s Degree in Dance Pedagogy and Choreography at VIKO – University of Applied Sciences, Vilnius (Lithuania) in 2013, and from then on worked for Dance theatre Aura until 2017. Currently she is a choreographer and dancer in the PADI DAPI Fish dance company. Gintarė was awarded as the best dancer in Lithuania of the year 2017 for her first choreographic work, dance performance Aside. She danced choreographies by Samuel Mathieu, Pia Holden, Anne Ekenes, Paul Hess, Agnija Šeiko and others. She had toured and performed in different countries like Norway, USA and more.

Martin Tvrdý
Martin is a producer of minimalist electronica and is also well known for his solo projects as the rapper Bonus. He has received numerous prizes for his work, including the Apollo and Angel awards. In recent years, he has focused on scenic music and sound design for film, theatre and virtual reality. In addition to Tantehorse, he collaborates with Spitfire Company, the National Theatre, Czech Radio, Theatre Vosto5 and many others. Together with Mary C, he founded the educational platform Kreaton and led a number of musical workshops. He is the author of the concept Hrací stůl (Play table), which introduces electronic music making to children and lay people. Currently, he is involved with running the platform Zvuk (Sound), which supports education, creative dialogue and the realisation of projects in the fields of electronic music and sound art. In his other life, he works as a graphic designer in the Carton Clan collective.