DĚKUJI – THANK YOU

During the 2016/2017 season, Guy Cools held seminars on dramaturgy in Prague. It followed naturally that shortly afterwards, we were contemplating how to share the extensive experience from the meetings with this brilliant dramaturg. Guy led similar workshops in the Italian town of Anghiari, Tilburg in the Netherlands and Limassol in Cyprus; in other words, in the places where the professional dance community succeeds in appreciating dramaturgical thinking and generally is aware of the importance of the dramaturg’s work.

In a series of informal debates, we opened up the topic of dance dramaturgy with colleagues from the Aerowaves platform and the European Dancehouse Network (EDN). These debates only confrmed that dance dramaturgy is still an emerging or side-lined feld, ofering only minimal possibilities for institutional education and best practice sharing. The profession in many countries lacks fundamental awareness of dance dramaturgy.

What is the crucial diference between dramaturgy in theatre and in dance? What particularities occur in dance in comparison with drama and theatre? Drama uses words as its main means of expression, while dance conveys its message through the body – doesn’t it make a key diference for the dramaturg and their work? Is the trend of speech being frequently used in dance productions the consequence of the work of the theatre dramaturgs and their infuence? Or it is a simple need to transcend the boundaries of the genre and accept the openness of dance towards other arts? Where do we encounter the terms micro and macro dramaturgy? Does the artist perceive all aspects of the creative process with the same intensity? What is the role of the local context in the artists’ work? Do artists pursue the dramaturgical line of their work, is it more about intuition or purpose? Authors and artists choose from so many possibilities and attitudes. Who helps them to make this choice?

Jump ahead four years, and it is September 2022, the last MMDD intensive workshop and the project closing events are already over. It was a challenge to choose a comprehensive subtitle for the last public gathering of all project participants. We eventually settled on Shared thinking about dramaturgy in dance which I believe is very apt – let us not expect hard data, dogmas and manuals. With mutual respect and not necessarily always with a consensual ending, we have opened up the space to an endless series of thoughts and sharing of various attitudes, methods and opinions. Dramaturgy is a vivid topic, actually, we are still at the very beginning of exploring it. We keep asking more questions than we are answering. Furthermore, the countries we are comparing have such diferent conditions for artistic creations.

Photo credit: Alice Koubova

DĚKUJI – THANK YOU!

What do I think about such a debate as an artistic director after years of leading the TANEC PRAHA Festival and the venue? The biggest surprise for me was the topic shared by the artists in Tilburg. Their thoughts were concerned with their feelings about who has that decisive ‘power’. I did not completely understand what they meant. Is it true that the role of one person is more important than somebody else’s? What will happen to artistic directors if they do not manage to ofer an interesting programme to the audience? What will happen to the artist without the audience? We pursue the same goal and, logically, we are partners, fellows pulling together to ofer to the public the most attractive programme possible. This is also how I think about our relationship. However, attractive does not always mean ‘easy to digest’. Artists are invited to present values shared by both parties, the artists as well as the producing venue. The simple fact that I think about the audience does not necessarily mean that I pander to the people or even adapt to the mainstream taste. This is what we discuss with the creators. As a producer-curator, I always have to take into consideration the public, their experience, general knowledge and degree of curiosity, regardless of whether I am setting up the programme for our theatre or our festival. I endeavour to refect on the local context and dare to provoke and open up new perspectives and horizons. At the same time, I strive to bring the context of the presented work to the audience, because the background might be considerably diferent, and it is always good to try to understand it. Many practical aspects come into play later on: time, space, money… It is a never-ending debate, not only with the local artists but with colleagues across continents, too. This brings me back to what I mentioned at a discussion in Prague after years of advocating art and activism in a post-communist country. The support of culture, not only in the Czech Republic but in a vast majority of European countries, is product-oriented. It counts the output, activities and other measurable and comparable values that ft into statistics. However, these fgures do not tell us anything about quality, which cannot be reached by an accumulation of productions. Quality emerges when we dive deep into the creative process and set the right conditions for it. My vision for the future is a process-based cultural policy. Utopian it might sound, but it will be substantiated. This policy allows the artist to have room for research, work with various communities, and time for trial and error and search. The artist should have some ‘room for failure’ as one artist at the Aarhus residency aptly put it. Opposing this attitude, there is the pressure on achieving a concrete outcome here and now, clear deadlines, planning, PR and various necessary restraints originating from the reality of our society. Yet, for me, the premiere is not the fnal product, it is only the frst step towards further maturation…

The system of cultural sustenance is one of the main themes for the future, too. The pursuit of economic growth might be the wrong choice for art. We are living in times when ‘no growth’ theories are holding more sway.

Now, it is time to mention the underlying part of the experience of the MMDD project: the pandemic. All the struggles and obstacles have eventually made us stronger in some ways. Dance showed remarkable resilience and fexibility, and I dare say even growing in importance for our society. Dance became relevant not only for the artistic experience it can ofer but also for the community work of artists and the spreading of participatory methods involving the public in artistic projects. Last but not least, art can help overcome the trauma of the challenging COVID-era, which I hope will soon be behind us – although another trauma followed hot on its heels, a war-related one this time… These are the challenges we are facing. How not to linger in our bubbles, how to leave our comfort zone, step out of the line and try something new? The Czech Republic grants Cena Ď – a Thank You Award to patrons. I would like to express my Ď – big thanks to all of you who have walked this arduous journey with us. The curators frst, the participating partner organisation and their teams, and obviously all the artists who have forged such strong bonds that I do not have even the slightest doubt about the legacy of the project at all. We have stirred up the topic of dramaturgy in dance and it lives on.

Yvona Kreuzmannova founder and director Tanec Praha

(Translated from Czech by Kateřina Vorlická)