In 2021, the jury of the Paradiso section of Divine Comedy / Boska Komedia Festival awarded Ramona Nagabczyńska for Silenzio! (Nowy Teatr, Warsaw), praising her “ability to deconstruct theatrical codes and challenge both social and artistic stereotypes”. In Silenzio!, she critically examined opera and the images of operatic divas it constructs. Kocham balet / I Love Ballet – her new work – is a choreographic study of classical dance: its aesthetics, its ideology, and the model of femininity it promotes. Nagabczyńska and her stage partners – Aleksandra Borys, Karolina Kraczkowska, and Iza Szostak – revisit their own ballet experience, as they were all trained in classical dance, to reflect on and reconfigure that experience.

With dramaturg Agata Siniarska – known to Divine Comedy / Boska Komedia audiences as the choreographer of null&void, shown at last year’s festival – Nagabczyńska devised Kocham balet / I Love Ballet as an exploration of movement and its perception. In the opening sequence, the dancers invite the audience to revel in the beauty and suppleness of their bodies as they bend into balletic poses. Gradually, they free themselves from the discipline of classical dance, presenting a joyful choreography of bodies aware not only of their grace, but also of their strength. The performance’s energy owes much to the music by Daniel Szwed, whose dynamic percussion and electronic sounds accompany the punk ballerinas. Dominika Olszowy – a visual artist with whom Nagabczyńska previously worked on Silenzio! – designed the costumes and set with a tongue-in-cheek emphasis on the naivety and perversity of ballet tulles, roses, and feathers, filling the stage with dozens of pairs of worn-out pointe shoes.

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The show uses artificial smoke and loud music.

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Photo by Pat Mic