Zdzisław Beryt, Gazeta Poznańska

Expressing through body

“I would like dancers to think and feel with the dance. I would like them to talk about themselves, even about their complexes” said Ewa Wycichowska, announcing “...and I’m dancing”, her latest show. It seems that the show is auto-thematic. All dancers tell stories and make confessions, because – as Ewa Wycichowska sees it – each of them can be a soloist. And everything starts with a casting session, or audition. Before each new performance, company members one by one undergo compulsory trial and evaluation. They are closely watched by dance teachers and audience, and the grades are not always positive.

And then, we can see the results watching quotations from previous performances of the Polish Dance Theatre (e.g. “Dangerous Liaisons”, “Transss...”, “The Spring Feast”). One can marvel at unusual physical agility, sense of rhythm, and flexibility of movement. But these are more than quotations, because the dancers adapt them to piano improvisations by Leszek Możdżer. They express themselves, creating their own mini-show. Love is the core. Its both lyrical and fierily passionate, bizarre and fascinating. Just like in the quotation from “The Spring Feast”.

“I am no more than a director, because stage creations are personal confessions of the dancers” adds Wycichowska. She has always let her dancers act and express themselves freely, which has made her theatre so famous. It has won admiration and success. One can assume that the new show will be no exception in this respect, although it is not an “easy listening” piece. It requires sensitivity and ability to watch and create one’s own interpretation of the performance. The task is not easy, because there is no plot-like connection between the seven parts of the show. What keeps those parts together is the atmosphere and brilliant skills of all dancers in the company. 

Zdzisław Beryt, Gazeta Poznańska, nr 148,  27 VI 2003.