Petr Zuska
Taneční divadlo Petra Zusky
Premiere 9. 2. 2018
The second premiere of the season staged by the ensemble will be the all-evening ballet performance by the choreographer, dancer and artistic director of the ballet ensemble of the National Theatre in Prague, Petr Zuska. We are delighted that Petr Zuska has accepted the offer to create an original choreographyfor our ensemble that will be premiered in March 2018 on the stage of the Metropol House of Culture. Petr Zuska has already cooperated with us when staging his choreography for Les bras de mer and choreographing the work Mary’s Dream, which was included in the composed evening called Without Gravitation. Besides, in October 2016 the audience of České Budějovice were able to see his recent work named Route 50, which was staged as a Czech premiere during the festive Ballet Gala #1 programme.
My new all-evening dance performance KLÍČE ODNIKUD (KEYS FROM NOWHERE) draws on the sharp contrast between two completely different musical works. These are the works of two ingenious, yet incomparable, Czech composers, Antonín Dvořák’s Requiem and Leoš Janáček’s lyrical work for the piano.While the first work is an example of “high” spiritual, symphonic-vocal music, the second “only” features a seemingly solitary piano.Antonín Dvořák composed his Requiem at the height of his artistic development. Although it is basically a requiem mass, this composition is not a direct reaction to a personal tragedy (as it is the case of Stabat mater), but rather a grandiose celebration of God. It embodies the essence of the eternal questions on the meaning of human existence and of existence per se. It is also a celebration of the faith and hope in a never-ending life. On the other hand, Janáček’s piano cycles (V mlhách/In the Mists, Po zarostlém chodníčku/On the Overgrown Path or Sonáta es moll “Z ulice”/ E Flat Minor Sonata “From the Street”) rise out of the most desperate period in the composer’s life. A period when a series of professional “failures” (as they were seen at the time) culminated in the loss of his beloved 21-year-old daughter Olga. For that reason, this is a very deep and fragile, yet at the same time dynamic, heart-rending and disquieting composition. My own all-evening “choreographic variation” to the aforementioned themes draws inspiration from my recent visit to my grandparents’ house, now completely deserted. For several decades, it was inhabited by a lonely woman, who died there in complete solitude. A desperate and deranged soul, closed in a world of her own, full of fear and horror of what surrounded her, who could not be helped. Surrounded by the darkness filled with the whirl of attacking demons and by bunches of pedantically and accurately labelled keys. My aunt, whom I dedicate my opus to … Let perpetual light shine upon her!
/ Petr Zuska
