WSTĘP 4się wobec widza. Wtedy, w 1995 roku festiwal dawał jednąz niewielu możliwości wyjścia na scenę. Dziś sytuacja jestpodobna. Ludzie tańca trochę zniknęli, potem się pojawili,potem znów stali się niewidzialni, anonimowi, wyeliminowani.Nie z własnego wyboru, a bez możliwości wyboru. To łaknienie,żądza wyjścia na scenę, nadzieja na zmaterializowanieciała i umysłu jest więc dziś taka sama jak moja dwadzieściapięć lat temu. Rozumiem znakomicie tę potrzebę urealnienia.Dlatego z ogromną przyjemnością robię tę edycję,sama się do niej podłączając, też jako artystka. Czuję tengłód wyjścia na scenę, samookreślenia się, wzmacnianiagłosu pokolenia, które rozpoczynało rewolucję w tańcu po1989 roku; po niej wszystko się zaczęło. Co ciekawe, dwudziestaedycja C/U odbywa się znów w czasie przechodzenia dobliżej nieokreślonego nowego porządku.Dwudziesta edycja, a w niej… no właśnie, jak to wszystkopodsumować? Czy w liczbach spektakli i nazwiskach tkwimagiczna moc? Czy raczej w liczbie widzów, zagranicznychpartnerów albo godzin spędzonych w sali prób? Ten szczególnyrok, związany z jubileuszem, zakłada zanurkowaniew historię festiwalu. W tym roku scenę oddamy główniepolskim artystom, aby z archiwum ich pamięci utkać fragmenthistorii tańca. To nie jest czas wielkiej fety, obrotowejsceny, gorących nazwisk ściągniętych prosto z gali ZłotychLwów w Wenecji. To czas skromności, skupienia, przyjrzeniasię życiu w tańcu i naszej dziedzinie – takiej, jaka jest. To rokafirmacji życia, zwyczajnej radości, budzenia się na nowo,trwania. Dzielenia się tym, co wypracowaliśmy, zastanawiającsię, czym możemy się podzielić.Edyta Kozakdyrektor artystyczna C/U
EDITORIAL5 C/ULET’S BRING LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS: Please excuseme, my dear friends, but this editorial is going to bea bit different, more self-referential and personal. I havenot travelled anywhere for the past 12 months, and beforethat I had always created the festival program on theplane or at the railway stations of big cities. I searchedand made a fuss, dug around, and sniffed for novelties.I did all that so that you could see what the world’s greatestdance centers were showing at the time and so thatI could admire myself for being the first - as the festivalprogrammer - to discover the most current artistic commentson the world, politics, changes, problems we needto deal with as Westerners (or maybe Eastern Westerners?),on what hurts us, touches us, pisses us off, or captivatesus. Sometimes they were aesthetic deliberations,sometimes provocative statements, but I always madesure that they were most recent and up-to-date. Thosedays are over, I no longer have to fly to work by plane.Like most of the world’s inhabitants, I experience peaceand anxiety at the same time. I cannot make up my mind.The C/U Festival is known for the performances of foreignartists. Over the years, it has built its recognition on presentingimportant trends of the world, and above all, theEuropean dance scene. Although in recent years we havebalanced the presence of foreign artists with productionsof Polish artists, each time I was developing the leadingtheme of the subsequent edition, I was guided by big names.What does internationality mean today? For me, it’sbuilding up knowledge about living together; sharing theexperience of the process of meeting with oneself thatevery artist goes through in the face of the unforeseendestruction of the system to which he or she belonged.When I am writing this text, everything is closed again, butwhen I’ll finish, it may be open and then closed again ... I preparethe program in the lockdown. Last year, we createdthe festival in the spirit of freedom, because everythingwas uncertain. Today - in conditions of captivity, becausewe have already learned the taste of the proposed illusionof freedom. Closed theaters, closed borders, a constantlack of systemic support for artists, new legal loops, newrestrictions, a continuous process, incessant „maybe”.Today I feel at peace that I no longer have to chase thenovelties, impose, uphold, give the nods, bend, curse, contemplate– all to make this festival beget something. TodayI feel very grateful that I can go through this time togetherwith the C/U team and many other people who areexperiencing the same emotions and undergoing a similarprocess of re-education, redefinition, revitalization,re-culturation, re-collection (in Latin recolligo means ”tocollect or receive again, to regain” in the reflexive form serecolligere means ”to cool down, come to your senses”),that is, reconsidering and collecting anew what is mine,what is ours.We’re starting slowly. From worries and questions. Whatis theater? What do we mean by the audience? What definesviability today? What message will the performancecarry out before it melts into thin air? What will be the enduringlegacy of our forced practice conducted in solitude?What do we want to say today? Please tell me thatI am not alone with these questions ...brought an unforeseen wealth of opportunities, too. It hasturned out that our imagination was provoked, and theexpectation of doing things on a grand scale and goingalong beaten paths - successfully harnessed. This yearhas brutally revealed the unsustainable nature of whatwe used to call normality. We haven’t exhausted theopportunities it has shown us yet, but it is slowly openingup our weary minds. I want to get out of this narrow spaceof my mind. I need to express myself, so let us bring lightout of darkness! Let us choose the celebration of LIFE!I choose LONG LIVE ME!This is the main theme of this year’s big anniversaryedition. The twentieth edition, not that it’s been twentyyears, though. The fate of the festival was different andit had its ups and downs, probably like every other eventorganized not by an institution, but an NGO being at themercy of the system. Back then, when the total slowdownand multi-stage hiccup of uncertainty were already takingplace, there came the time to reflect on the ”whatam I doing here?” question. Where did this festival comefrom? Whose idea was it? Who brought it to life and raisedit? The history of twenty-five years does not seemvery distant, but time is running out quickly and witheach passing year it distances us from the source and distortsour understanding of it. So I delve into the essence,the source of the festival. It may sound pathetic, or selfish,or not sexy, but I have come to the realization that… I justwanted to go on stage, I wanted to dance, I wanted to beadmired, I wanted to make my life real, because otherwise,I didn’t exist. Yes, it’s true. I didn’t exist. A dancer, a stageartist is born in relation to the viewer. Back then, in 1995,the festival offered one of the few opportunities to go onstage. Today the situation is similar. The people of thedance have disappeared a bit, they have become invisible,anonymous, eliminated. Not by choice, but withouta choice. This craving, the desire to go on stage, the hopeto materialize the body and mind, is, therefore, the sametoday as mine twenty-five years ago. I understand perfectlythis need to make it real. That is why I’m preparingthis edition with great pleasure, connecting to it myself,also as an artist. I feel this hunger for going on stage, forself-determination, for strengthening the voice of the generationthat started the revolution in dance after 1989; itwas after it that it all started. Interestingly, the twentiethedition of C/U takes place again during the transition toan undefined new order.The twentieth edition, and… well, how to sum it all up? Isthere any magic power in the number of performancesand names? Or is it rather in the number of spectators, foreignpartners, or the hours spent in the rehearsal room?This special year, related to the jubilee, assumes a diveinto the history of the festival. This year, we will give thestage mainly to Polish artists to weave a fragment of thehistory of dance from the archives of their memory. Thisis not the time of a big celebration, a revolving stage, hotnames brought here straight from the Golden Lion galain Venice. It is a time of modesty, concentration, lookingat life in dance and our professional field - as it is. It isa year of affirmation of life, ordinary joy, awakening, andenduring. Sharing with what we have worked out, wonderingwhat we can share.Edyta Kozakthe artistic director of C/UThe last year, apart from numerous question marks, has
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