“I don’t remember what I was thinking about lying in a hospital bed.
Some thoughts however run through my mind…”
Exérèse monobloc poses many questions concerning disability, physical handicap and its impact on dance movement. Can the movement be the same precise and communicative when performed by disabled person (dancer)? Do we know what may disability be in dance? Can disability be a part of dance? How disability may be mirrored in a complexed choreography?
Broken dance vocabulary, making efforts while trying to sit on a chair with an immobilized limb, dance with protection of crutches, reminiscences of lost dreams, feelings, experiences and reactions during hospitalization are the main topics of this unconventional piece. Exérèse monobloc is a story about overcoming life troubles, making dreams come true, achieving goals, pursue to be oneself…
“A beautiful story about breaking barriers within yourself and between people.”
“I don’t know: is it a spectacle or not a spectacle? I do not want to know. I do not have to. It is very possible that a new genre has been created and will be studied, analyzed and assessed. You could call it, for example, a theatrical documentary. You could devote a paper to it at a session dedicated to dance therapy. I would like to thank you for allowing me to participate in the meeting entitled Exérèse Monobloc. As a witness.”
“The finale, despite the spectacle, in champagne bubbles with a smile, fulfillment, and future. Pina Bausch once said, ‘it doesn’t matter how someone moves, what matters is what moves you.’ There wasn’t a single person in the audience who was indifferent; although emotions, like Pia’s pain, took over the entire scale.”
direction, choreography, music arrangement: Janusz Orlik ·
dance: Pia Libicka, Janusz Orlik ·
set design: Mariusz Szmytkowski ·
costumes: Oskar Perek ·
video: Janusz Orlik, Michał Łuczak