As the presale for the main events taking place at the end – Emanuel Gat’s “SUNNY” (FR/IL) and Eun-Me Ahn’s “Dancing Grandmothers” (KR) – was launched in January, the festival can now confirm a beautiful present for the audience and the festival for its opening: the historical comeback of Jiří Kylián (CZ/NL) with the chamber performance “East Shadow” in the PONEC Theatre (1st – 3rd June 2018).

The anniversary festival DANCE PRAGUE is the opportunity for mature personalities of the dance world to prove that the age cannot matter less. As the motto says: Dance against Prejudices! More on the new website www.tanecpraha.org.

“I cannot even describe how honored we are to cooperate with Jiří Kylián, the greatest highly-regarded personality of the dance world, who is of the Czech origin. Having been so generous, he, in fact, launched our festival before the fall of the Iron Curtain, all the more symbolic is his return to this event after 30 years. It is a fundamental co-production cooperation with Kylián Productions BV,” says Yvona Kreuzmannová, the founder and director of Dance Prague.

“East Shadow” is an unusual work offering a dialogue of several genres – top live piano music, film and performance. It deals with topics offered by the Japan Aichi Triennial 2013: Samuel Beckett and the Aid for Tsunami Victims from 2011. Jiří Kylián has ranked among the admirers of Beckett’s absurd world since he was young. The shocking element, driving us back to the simplest things in life, faces us with the question of life and death.

“I am painfully aware of the fact that whatever we do is condemned to downfall,” says Jiří Kylián.

He approached two very close dancers, Sabine Kupferberg, his wife and muse, and Gary Chryst from the US, who make a well-coordinated and mature pair. He also invited a Japanese pianist living in the Netherlands Tomoko Mukaiyama.

“In the spirit of existential vanity and tragicomic absurdity, he rode us away on a wave of nostalgia, poetry and impressive images, and we wish it lasts as long as possible,” adds Kreuzmannová.