“Undanced” is an intimate, biographical monodrama combining contemporary dance, documentary theatre, and elements of emotional movement and personal testimony. The project represents an attempt to process the experience of losing one’s childhood and sense of safety as a result of the war in Ukraine. It addresses themes of trauma, body memory, migration, identity, and the transformative power of art.

The performance “Undanced”, created for Anastasiia Khvorost at the Rozbark Theatre under the artistic supervision and direction of Anna Piotrowska, draws inspiration from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In the character of Juliet, the artists discovered deeply resonant motifs—delicacy, rebellion, and unfulfilled love—which became a point of departure for a personal reflection on their own experience of loss.

Through the creative process, by exploring personal tragedies and the fragility of dreams, a new, biographically marked perspective emerged—honest, sensitive, and authentic. The performance incorporates archival recordings and emotional testimonies of the artist, who experienced the Russian invasion of Ukraine. From this voice of pain emerges a story of interrupted time—a childhood that never had the chance to mature, and plans that could not be fulfilled.

The title “ Undanced” refers to a real episode from the artist’s life—to a dance that never took place, taken away by war, just like a part of her life. It is a poetic reflection on what remains of the “self” after trauma, on existence suspended between past and future—in a space where memory and the body dance to the rhythm of a lost waltz.

Anna Piotrowska

Habilitated Doctor of Arts in the discipline of film and theatre arts. Doctor of Musical Arts in rhythmics and dance. Choreographer, theatre director, contemporary dance teacher, dancer. Founder and President of the Board of the Dance Development Foundation – eferte, and founder of “mufmi” in Warsaw (1995).

Since 1996, she has created over 130 original choreographies and theatre productions. She is currently the Director of Rozbark Theatre and a Professor at the Faculty of Dance Theatre in Bytom, part of the Stanisław Wyspiański Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków. From 2019 to 2023, she served as Vice-Dean of the Faculty. She is a two-time recipient of the Silesian Voivodeship Award “Golden Mask” (2016, 2022).

Artistically, Piotrowska is focused on improvisation and on deepening body–mind awareness as a tool for multiplied, multifunctional observation. She explores the relationship of the objective body within a category she has defined as “onebodyspacerecognizer.” For many years, she has been engaged in process-based artistic work, developing tools for laboratory work with text and character creation, as well as intensifying experiences of heightened states of body and mind through imagination- and emotion-based practices. These processes influence movement creation and the search for energetic channels that release dance itself.

piotrowskacompany.com

teatrrozbark.pl

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