Step by step

Anyone writing about contemporary Polish dance inevitably focuses on the best known groups only, such as the Polish Dance Theatre/Poznan Ballet managed by Ewa Wycichowska, and Jacek Luminski’s Silesian Dance Theatre in Bytom. But these two institutions do not make up the sum of Polish dance.

The reality is much more complex; a true illustration of Polish dance bursts with colourful highlights, with the brightest spots being Dada von Bzdülöw Theatre in Gdansk, the Occasional Theatre in Sopot, the Alter in Kalisz (established in 1985 by Witold Jurewicz), Lublin Dance Theatre, Arka in Breslau, Grupaboso from Krakow and Kielce Dance Theatre, not to mention the over 80 youth groups in smaller towns across the country.

After the fall of communism, Poland saw an influx of dancers and pedagogues from the United States. In those first years, their workshops concentrated mainly on specific kinds of movement and to a much lesser extent on form and subjects. Today, the situation in northern Poland is such that “there are a few physical techniques, ’modern’ types from the USA,” according to Joanna Czajkowska, dancer with and founder of the Occasional Theatre in Sopot, while groups from the south ...