Untitled - Narodowe Centrum Kultury

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GROUNDed
GROUNDed is a performance
piece produced by a group
of mothers living in and
around Podkowa Leśna. It
was preceded by a series of
workshops (butoh dance, hula
dance, contact improvisation
and archaic singing) and
meetings of about a dozen
young women who were
both writers, directors and
actresses in the performance.
The project was initiated by
culture animators associated
with the Culture and Civic
Initiative Centre in Podkowa
Leśna.
t
he project was conceived by
Joanna Sarnecka and Aga Papis,
culture animators at the
Culture and Civic Initiative Centre and mothers
who intuitively felt there was a public
need for constructing a shared story of all
mothers. Aga Papis has extensive experience
in arts as performer, painter, slam
poet, art therapist, yoga practitioner, educator
and computer graphic designer. An
ethnographer by training, Joanna Sarnecka
is a director, actress and dance enthusiast
who is passionate about butoh and folk
dance. They both invited a dozen or so
young mothers, most of them residents of
Podkowa Leśna, to join the GROUNDed
project. It was a response to the women’s
need to express themselves through art and
desire to tell the story of the unique existential
experience they shared – the experience
of childbirth – through body language:
movement, sound, image, that is, through
theatre. The theatrical efforts were inspired
by works of anthropological, philosophical
and literary culture including Jolanta Brach-
Czaina’s Cracks in Existence, Adrianne
Rich’s Of Woman Born, Sławomir Mrożek’s
Personal Comments, Frida Kahlo’s painting
Mi Nascimento, and, above all, the personal
experience of the women who were part of
the project.
the project
Starting from February 2011, project participants
met once a week to get to know each
other and talk about their experience of giving
birth. The performance piece evolved in
tune with their stories, oscillating between
butoh, contact improvisation, song and spoken
word. Preparation for the performance
involved body and voice work. Participants
took part in butoh and hula dance workshops
run by the CKiIO. The group honed their voices
in archaic singing workshops. They played
and sang music created especially for the
production, which matched the tone of the
story. The meetings, both the stories of giving
birth and the performance itself, were recorded
on video. The film footage shot during
the project is now being edited into a movie
by Klaudiusz Kowalski.
Photo: Cezary Kępka (3)