Ola Maciekewska "Dance Concert"

Born in Poland based currently in Paris, Ola Maciejewska is a choreographer and performer. In 2012 she obtained her MA from Contemporary Theatre and Dance Studies at the University of Utrecht. Along the academic research she made a performance, entitled: Loie Fuller: Research (2011), that has been presented in France for the Opening of CN D Pantin in 2015, Switzerland, Spain, Canada,

Poland, Portugal and several venues in Holland. In the fall 2015 Ola Maciejewska premiered BOMBYX MORI in Paris at la Ménagerie de verre in the framework of the Festival Les Inaccoutumés, and continued being presented abroad in venues such as Kaaitheater, Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Veem House for Performance, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, ImPulsTanz in Vienna to name just few. BOMBYX MORI is supported by Fondation d'entreprise Hermès in the frame of New Settings #6. In 2016 until 2018 Ola Maciejewska was associated artist of Centre chorégraphique national de Caen en Normandie. In the fall 2017, Ola’s solo work Loie Fuller: Research and COSMOPOL (dance film) was presented in the frame of La Biennale de Lyon. Her new work DANCE CONCERT has its world premiere at National Taichung Theatre in Taiwan and in the fall of 2018 it will be presented at Centre Pompidou in the frame of Festival d’Automne in France.

While BOMBYX MORI plays with dance history, sound and kinetic-figures, the following piece -DANCE CONCERT- takes the form of a dance concert - a musical performance where dance fabricates music. Following the invention of Russian physicist Léon Theremin (1896-1993), the idea is to appropriate from operational parameters of terpsitone -  an analogue space-played instrument that uses ether waves, electromagnetic fields, and the electrical conduction of the human body. The sounds are obtained by simply moving in proximity towards or away from an antenna without touching the instrument, as opposed to the traditional European instrument that involves direct physical contact. Terpsitone is played through a virtual field.

This work opens a new cycle concerning space. DANCE CONCERT is build from a concern with human beings’ relationship with their environment.

Against the narrative of the instrument being a tool for the exercise of power and surveillance, conquering and tracing inner and outer boundaries— DANCE CONCERT is a dynamic entanglement, without apparent boundaries, where dancing bodies organise silence, engaging In the practice of listening.