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2025 performance wilderness

LUSH BLAST:
TASTING
THE UNTAMED

A dance performance grounded in the soils of Carpathian high altitudes.

Can dance mend our ties to the land and intimately connect us?
LUSH BLAST: TASTING THE UNTAMED explores the relationality between natural and artificial, wild and domesticated. The performers guide the audience through varying atmospheres - from evocative songs to acidic humor - asking what remains of the wilderness in and around us. Using their physicalities and voices, they morph their presences inviting the audience into a sensual feast and a cruel battlefield.

The project began in the summer of 2022, when, during our first field study in the Carpathian Wilderness, we encountered a young bear and an over 800 year old arolla pine. Since then, they keep learning from the old-growth forests and wildlife about what ‘power’ and ‘relatedness’ mean. Dance performance becomes a transformative space of re-articulating power as a vital force rather than a tool of control and exploitation.

PERFORMANCES:
DOCK11, Berlin (DE), 10-12.04.2025 - BERLIN PREMIERE
BAZAAR FESTIVAL, Prague (CZ), 27.03.2025
CO.LABS, Brno (CZ), 24.03.2025 - PREMIERE

CREDITS:
Choreography Dorota Michalak, Alica Minar
Creation and performance Dorota Michalak, Alica Minar, Breanne Saxton, Ola Zielińska
Music Ola Zielińska, Vi Huyen Tranová
Dramaturgy Maikon K
Set design Natálie Rajnišová
Light design Raquel Rosildete, Teres Bartůňková
Production Dorota Michalak, Alica Minar & col.
Pictures Asidron, Vojtech Brtnicky
Poster Lena Czerniawska

Thanks to Erik Baláž, Alina Hriscanu, Ondrej Kameniar, Anna Poppa and the team of Foundation Conservation Carpathia, for guiding us through Tatra and Fagaras Mountains and sharing stories about wilderness, Carolyn Hall and Matthias Nuß for exchanging perspectives
on the relationship of science and art

PARTNERS
Dock 11 in Berlin (DE)
Bazaar Festival in Prague (CZ)
CO.LABS in Brno (CZ)
Divadlo Radost in Brno (CZ)
Teatrul Andrei Muresan in Sfantu Gheorghe (RO)
Studio ALTA in Prague (CZ)
Hellerau - Europäisches Zentrum der Künstein Dresden (DE)

SUPPORT
Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, National Recovery Plan & European Union
Culture Moves Europe & Goethe Institut
State Fund of Culture of the Czech Republic
Prague City Hall
Czech-German Future Fund
IDU Prague & PerformCzech
Contemporary Arts Alliance Berlin