As every year, alongside theatre performances, the Divine Comedy Festival also presents works of choreography – uncompromising, artistically ambitious pieces that invite the audience to an experience in which the body takes centre stage. The international success of Polish choreographers whose works we showcase proves that it is precisely in dance that one can find some of the most inspiring and singular artistic encounters today.

On December 4, the opening day of the festival, the audience at Łaźnia Nowa Theatre will see I love ballet by Ramona Nagabczyńska – a production that has been selling out in the blink of an eye ever since its premiere. In her subsequent works, Nagabczyńska has consistently demonstrated her ability to combine a strong, critical concept with impeccable execution. I love ballet is a choreographic study of classical dance — its aesthetics and its ideology. Together with fellow performers Aleksandra Borys, Karolina Kraczkowska, and Iza Szostak, all of whom have classical ballet training, Nagabczyńska revisits her own experiences to subject them to reflection and transformation. The dancers are accompanied by a stage design by Dominika Olszowy (we guarantee you’ve never seen this many pointe shoes on stage!) and an outstanding percussion score by Daniel Szwed.

The final days of Divine Comedy will feature performances by Agata Siniarska and Wojciech Grudziński – artists who work between Poland and international stages.

Siniarska, a Berlin-based choreographer whose null&void was enthusiastically received at last year’s festival, returns to Kraków with shirtshow (to be presented on December 11 at MOS). This precise choreography for two performers and dozens of T-shirts turns clothing into active participants: communicating, interrupting, manifesting, disturbing the peace. In the background lies a question about the power of political slogans, gestures, and symbols today – and about how one might resist the symbolic and real violence they produce. shirtshow will appeal to anyone who, following this year’s festival motto Waiting for the Barbarians, observes with a critical eye the conservative turn in Europe and beyond. It’s a choreography alert to, and deeply engaged with, our social and political realities.

The festival finale will bring two works by Wojciech Grudziński, the first choreographer ever to receive Polityka’s Passport award in the “Stage” category. Threesome/Trzy (December 14, MOS) is a piece in which Grudziński dances with – yes – ghosts. And not just any ghosts: he conjures Stanisław Szymański, Wojciech Wiesiołłowski, and Gerard Wilk, three legendary figures of Polish ballet and, at the same time, three sexually non-normative men. Reconstructing fragments of their choreography, Grudziński introduces subtle yet powerful aesthetic and political shifts. In his reinterpretation, ballet emerges as a queer art form, open to excess and transgression.

Those in search of scenic excess will also be drawn to Teach me not! – Grudziński’s newest performance (December 15, MOS), created together with Maria Magdalena Kozłowska. The duo engages in a choreographic dialogue about power relations in dance and dance education. In this surprising performance, the artists become two unruly pupils who, in the teacher’s absence, discover freedom – and, along with it, pleasure and violence.

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Photo: Pat Mic (from I Love Ballet)