Wesele
Wesele: We Shall Not Drown, loosely inspired by the 1901 Polish play, The Wedding by Stanislaw Wyspianski, explores themes of individual and social apathy, agency and hope. What happens when our constructs of identity pull and pinch us? Questioning the extent to which the rules we believe define us, isolate and limit us instead, WESELE reflects current global insecurities of sovereignty, identity at a time of globalization, apathy and agency regarding individual and social justice. Exploring apathy and agency, self-realization and altruism, misplaced or misdirected aggravation, WESELE questions what happens when we awaken to find ourselves out of phase with identity, seeking to (re)connect but realizing we lack the language to do so.
WESELE was presented as a work-in-progress at Performance Series Open House at Center for Performance Research, Brooklyn, NY, Tuesday, January 29, 2019.
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Choreography & Concept: Magda Kaczmarska
Performers: Hilary Brown, Malaika Cambridge*, Kristina Hay, Magda Kaczmarska, Jamie Robinson
Sound Designers: Magda Kaczmarska and Hilary Brown
Physical Theatre Consultant: Natalya Kolosowky
We Shall Not Drown PSOH
Performance Studios Open House, Center for Performance Research (CPR), January 29, 2019
Choreography & Performance: Magda Kaczmarska in collaboration with Hilary Brown, Kristina Hay and Jamie Robinson
Music: DakhaBrakha
Video Recording: Aitor Mendilibar
Video Projection: Excerpts from Andrzej Wajda’s, The Wedding (1973)
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Hilary Brown is a NYC based choreographer/performer, originally from Toronto, and is a graduate of École de danse contemporaine de Montréal. In 2013 she co-founded the performance collective, Same As Sister with Briana Brown-Tipley. Their works have been presented in the US, Canada, France and Greece at venues including Kinitiras, the Archaeological Museum of Messenia, La MaMa, Danspace Project, Centre d'Art Marnay, BRIC and NYLA. Brown formed HB² PROJECTS last year as a platform to expand her collaborations in performance. hbsquaredprojects.com | sameassister.squarespace.com
Kristina Hay is a Norwegian contemporary dance artist who performs, collaborates and creates across Europe and North America. Hay was trained at the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in Oslo, and continued her training at London Studio Centre in the UK, where she was a member of INTOTO DANCE, dir. Sue Booker and Leesa Phillips. During this time she toured works by Henri Oguike, Jose Agudo and John Ross. In recent years, Hay has worked with Luke Birch, Diana Scarborough, Meredith Bruno Company, Feeling Blue Collective, Jessica Nina Barlow, Same As Sister and Kayla Arend. Kristina is also a choreographer and has choreographed works such as Filter, Fix, You are someone else and You are someone else (Too).
Jamie Robinson earned his BFA in dance at the University of Arizona, where he was exposed to varying classical and modern techniques. He began to study Pilates in 2014 and later went on to teach Fletcher Pilates at the foundation’s headquarters in Tucson, as well as at the University of Arizona. Jamie moved to New York City in 2018, where he is elated to be dancing with old and new friends.
*Malaika Cambridge, NYC based choreographer/performer, graduated from the University of Arizona School of Dance. She has studied with and performed the works of Mark Dendy, Jill Sigman/Thinkdance, Gerald Casel Dance, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane, Jose Limon, and Shen Wei.