The research part of the project in 2016 focused on tracing the history and work of Yanka Rudzka in order to reclaim her for the history of Polish dance and choreography. The research found its culmination in a symposium at the Department of Dance of the Federal University of Bahia, which Rudzka created and run at the end of 50s.   An equally important part of the project became the practical and creative reflection on Rudzka’s achievements and the search in her work for impulses and inspiration for the original performance (ZACZYN,/ LEAVENING / port. SEMENTE) chor. Joanna Lesnierowska and Janusz Orlik), which brought together Polish and Brasilian dancers allowing the two dance communities to come together (April 2016). The main theme of the work and project became, above all, the moment of meeting in a dance practice based on analysis and inspiration of traditional culture and trance dances – both Brazilian (samba in many varieties) and Polish (unstylized folk dances – whirling obereks and mazurkas). The performance, whose creative principle was an exchange of experience, partnership and dialogue, became in a sense a report on a joint journey to the sources  and back – and a repetition of Yanka Rudzka’s grand gesture (her journey to Brazil and sharing her dance knowledge while taking a sincere and respectful interest in the local culture of Bahia).  It also allowed for practical reflection on the communal, ecstatic and transformative dimensions of dance.

The project, which took place entirely in Salvador de Bahia, culminated, in addition to the premiere of ZACZYN, with line up of Polish performances at the Vivadanca festival and the e-publication “Between the Traces of History and the Crumbs of Memory”, edited by Maciej Rożalski and Joanna Leśnierowska ( in Polish and Portuguese, 2016).

The Yanka Rudzka 2016 project was part of the celebration of The Year of Polish Culture in Brazil

Polish dance avant-garde artists. Stories and reconstructions

e-catalogue

video documentary

interview on project with curators

photos

YANKA RUDZKA. GESTURES AND TRACES is the Polish edition and continuation of a project dedicated to Yanka Rudzka, launched in 2016 in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. Unknown in her homeland, Poland, Yanka Rudzka in the 1950s, in Salvador de Bahia, she set up a pioneering dance education and revolutionized the local contemporary dance scene. The project consisted of dance workshops, international symposium and Polish premiere of the performance ZACZYN.

YANKA RUDZKA. GESTURES AND TRACES was part of the Old Brewery New Dance at Malta 2017 festival program.