Pink Samurai / The Story of Ferocious Wind

What happens when we embark on a journey? And what if we get scared? What if we get lost? A dark epic about the shadows of heroes in the modern world.
An acrobatic and dance quest to find a hero of today.

We asked 304 children from eleven schools in the Czech Republic who their heroes were. The children told us about them, wrote about them and drew them. We’ve eventually arrived at a single story: that of a Pink Samurai, one of the drawings made by the children, a symbolic story about us. We dance it, sing it and let sound the dark shadows of the soul with hope.

”The show was made as a response to the feeling of the lack of values in the public space, as a response to my feeling of helplessness: how to live in a society that seems increasingly selfish and unprincipled, just like its popular politicians? How can it be that manipulative autocrats and latent dictators gain popularity across the world? Why do they attract us so much? What fascinates us about Zeman, Babiš, Trump, Erdoğan and Orbán? And what does it tell our children about us? We began asking about our moral examples and we began asking children because they are the ones who will create the future.” – Jana Burkiewiczová

Audience: children 12-18, adult

About the company

BURKI&COM was founded in Prague in 2015 by choreographer Jana Burkiewiczová as a platform for researching topical issues and means of contemporary theatre and dance. Soon after first performances, bold social issues of author plays, original humour, expressive stage design and natural and physically demanding fusion of contemporary dance and elements of new circus and top acrobatics have become the distinctive signs of the ensemble.
BURKI&COM’s present repertoire includes: The Wilds: The Vanity of Plumage – a movement visualisation of the pure beauty of elemental reflexes, motivation processes and intuitive acts across biological specimens; The Bear Who
Floated on an Ice Floe – real event deciphered on stage; The Biggest Wish – ballet cabaret about desire and happiness; and Pink Samurai / The Story of Ferocious Wind – a visual-movement expedition in search of a present-day hero.
Jana Burkiewiczová is a graduate of HAMU (Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts) in Prague, a choreographer and director, founder of BURKI&COM and author of many choreographies for top Czech theatre ensembles, including the National Theatre Opera. Since 2015 she has focused on her productions, both for her ensemble BURKI&COM and other troupes (e.g. Losers Cirque Company and DOT504). While she grounds her work on merging contemporary dance, physical theatre and new circus, she often crosses their boundaries and heads towards original and dramatic shapes. Her production Walls & Handbags for Losers Cirque Company was awarded the Divadelní noviny Award in the Dance and movement theatre category for the 2014/2015 season.