Every Minute Motherland
Maciej Kuźmiński

Staatstheater Darmstadt – Großes Haus

Fri. 1.11. I 19.30, Meet the Artists afterwards
Duration: 55 min.
language: no language
Tickets: 6,50€ (Cat 6) - 34€ (Cat 1) / reduced 6,75€ (Cat 5) - 17€ (Cat 1)

Seven dancers stand on stage dressed in earth tones. Their movements appear hesistant and gentle, then angular and almost machine-like, before flowing into a soft and tender form of expression again.

‘Every Minute Motherland’ by the Polish choreographer Maciej Kuźmiński is about fleeing from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Working together with his company and Ukrainian dancers in exile, Kuźmiński uses the language of dance to find a way of expressing what cannot be put into words: the war as a turning point that completely derails people’s lives. Trauma, exile and alienation, lost identities. The piece focusses attention on the bodies and experiences of the witnesses while the war plays out every day on TV and social media in numbingly repetitive fashion.

Every minute their thoughts return to the country that they were forced to flee from and to the people they left behind. Loss and pain are communicated with a gentle expressive power, through small gestures that reveal the full dimensions of the tragedy.

Before the start, we will show a 25-minute documentary that takes a closer look at the creation of the piece.

Choreographer: Maciej Kuźmiński
Assistant choreographer: Monika Witkowska
Dramaturg: Paul Bargetto
Performers and co-creators: Daria Koval, Anna Myloslavska, Monika Witkowska, Vitaliia Vaskiv, Szymon Tur, Marcelina Jasińska, Maciej Kuźminski
Producers: Maciej Kuźmiński, Polina Bulat
 
The project is created by Maciej Kuźmiński Company in partnership with Klub ŽAK in Gdańsk (project residency / premiere 2022), Materia Lodź (Przestrzenie Sztuki program), Creators for Ukraine Foundation (launched by CIAS and ZAIKS) and Ukrainian Institute. The Przestrzenie Sztuki program is financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance and the Theater Institute of Zbigniew Raszewski. Operator: Materia. Partners: the Music Academy of Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz in Lodz, the City Culture Zone, Art Center and the City of Lodz Office.

Photo: małe_RUK