Hidden Landscapes - Jana Návratová

Belgian choreographer Thomas Stayert (previously from Ultima Vez) fell back on the means of surrealism and the pictures of Francis Bacon to create the new production, Hidden Landscapes, for the DOT 504 dance company. The choreography has a crazy, poetic logic to its dream-like scenes and in places one is reminded of Lewis Carroll´s Alice in Wonderland. Here, Alice is an adult man, played by Rostislav Novák, who becomes lost by the snares of his unconsciousness. The choreography is a study of social communication and rituals, respectively its unfaithful, primal displays. The characters come onto the stage wearing social attire, as if they were attending a gala event, but their faces are adorned by animal masks, suggesting characters from some old fables. Their movements are filled with tension and twitches, uncoordinated invectives, shuffles and sly aggression. Either fear or passion motivates their mutual interaction. Images of the obvious and hidden, images of their public and intimate world are projected onto the scenic elements of the stage that divide the space into two separate planes. The sound of wood being split comes out from behind the sub-translucent wall, where trees seem to grow or or stars seem to shine. It is an obscure space where the “animals” hide themselves – in short, it is a world full of idylls and safety, a world in which we all desire to live. Stayert offers his audience an interesting stage form in which he utilises new elements of his gifted actors who know how to move, thus articulating the talents of the Dot504 dancers. Here, he was able to find another shade in the aesthetics of the physical dance theatre, a style that the Dot504 company has subscribed to.

For more information: www.dot504.cz