Author: Emese Szabó
Thanks to the Beyond Front@ project, I had already seen a performance by choreographer Milan Tomášik in Zagreb, where his solo opened the Dance Week in June. Now, in Sweden, at Vitlycke – Center for Performing Arts, I had the chance to see one of his choreographies again, this time the Treatise. The two performances are very different, and at first, I couldn’t identify any similarities or distinct stylistic traits. Tomášik developed the Poetic Body method, a working method that views the body as “capable of expressing and embodying different qualities of movement, rhythm, tension, emotions, and immateriality.”¹ It is precisely this immateriality and intangibility that he tries to convey in Treatise.
Krakow Dance Theatre – Treatise by Milan Tomášik. Photo by Grzesiek Mart.
When a performance is based on an existing work, it predisposes certain thoughts in the audience’s mind. In the case of Treatise, the base was a very specific piece. Cornelius Cardew’s work of the same name, a 193-page score, which consists not of musical notes but of shapes, geometric drawings, and symbols. It is a work that questions the essence of classical music, experimenting and offering a free space for interpretation by working with visual forms (notation), which not every recreator or listener/reader can grasp or hear in the same way. It is similar to dance. Dance, much like this music notation, creates an opportunity for a different kind of expression, allowing for an exploration of art through self-expression and interpretation.
The space is white, the dancers are dressed in black, and they use black electrical tape to draw lines on the floor, resembling musical staff lines. But these straight lines are interrupted. The music played during the performance is also fragmented; it’s more like noise. Not only the black-and-white setting but also the dancers’ costumes evoke classical music. Among the costumes designed by Dominik Więcek, one stands out: a half-finished jacket, with one side missing, held together by a strap. It resembles a conductor’s attire, and the dancers (Agnieszka Bednarz-Tyran, Sławomir Juszczak, Agnieszka Kramarz, Patrycja Marszałek, Yelyzaveta Tereshonok) constantly pass it between them. Our attention is drawn to whoever is wearing the jacket at any given time, and by analogy, that person holds the conductor’s baton. In their relationships, we see that they are not like an orchestra that functions in full unity under a conductor’s direction; rather, each dancer is a composer who wants to control their own piece. There is little contact between the dancers; when there is, it’s more about distancing or pulling away from one another. Even when they perform the same movements, there’s always a shift in the rhythm, resulting in fragmented motion and keeping the audience slightly off-balance.
Krakow Dance Theatre – Treatise by Milan Tomášik. Photo by Grzesiek Mart.
The costumes, the monochrome setting, the noise, the sharp, dynamic movements, and the symbols drawn on the floor by the dancers all create an alert and attentive state in me. The dancers actively use their limbs in their movements, as if trying to create piercing, space-crossing lines or angles with their bodies, which my eyes constantly follow. Even their breathing becomes a rhythm, sharp and loud. What stands out is the force with which they exhale, reminiscent of stabbing or slicing.
With the tape, they gradually draw more complex elements from the original score, such as a sun-like symbol or a totem pole, which they then recreate with their bodies. This allows us to see the source of inspiration; we get a glimpse into the creative process, as every movement was born from them looking at the book Treatise and then creating their own interpretation through the body – an experiment that derives from the experiment in the book. The Krakow Dance Theatre’s Treatise is more about dance than music. The performance thus reflects on the nature of dance itself, emphasizing that just as music can be freely interpreted by musicians, dance too offers multiple layers of interpretation. First, the dancer interprets the choreography through their movement, and then the viewer is invited to form their own understanding of that movement, making both music and dance open to personal interpretation at every stage.
Krakow Dance Theatre – Treatise by Milan Tomášik. Photo by Grzesiek Mart.
This experience created by the dancers certainly raised questions. How does this performance become more than just a mere illustration of this special musical score? What does the use of the new medium, namely dance, add to the interpretation? In Milan Tomasik and the company’s interpretation, the forms go beyond the boundaries of abstraction, transforming the original shapes into personal, human experiences through the proposition that every dancer is their own conductor.
Vitlycke is in a remote location, on the edge of a forest, so attending a performance here requires some effort to get there. Still, there was an interested audience who stayed afterward for an informal discussion with the creators from the Krakow Dance Theatre, asking questions, sharing their opinion in the center’s living room. It was nice to hear this dialogue about the performance. We tried to explore how the performance deconstructs these forms and symbols, and how far the limits of the body’s expressive potential extend compared to the drawn shapes. The medium of dance utilized more dimensions than the score, incorporating both space and time, and this complexity encouraged an actively receptive attitude, which was noticeable during this conversation.
Krakow Dance Theatre – Treatise by Milan Tomášik
Vitlycke – Center for Performing Arts, Sweden
