Dance in the region between the vampire and the werewolf

*ENGLISH FRIENDLY* Nina Van­ge­li navští­vi­la New York. Při té pří­le­ži­tos­ti uspo­řá­da­la před­náš­ku „Dan­ce in the regi­on between the vam­pi­re and the werewolf” o čes­kém tan­ci. Při­ná­ší­me její celý pře­pis. / Nina Van­ge­li visit New York last Year. We are brin­ging trans­cipt of her Mas­ter Lectu­re about Czech Dance.

The regi­on between the vam­pi­re and the werewolf – this is how I term Cen­t­ral Euro­pe. – Dan­ce is the art of the body in spa­ce; with the geo­gra­phic area, the sha­pe of the land­s­ca­pe, its plas­ti­ci­ty, its enc­lo­sed­ness or open­ness, its colour sha­des, the high or low sky abo­ve the land having an effect on the cha­rac­ter of dan­ce. And it does not only con­cern the geo­gra­phic but also the emo­ti­o­nal spa­ce, the inner sub­stan­ce of the land­s­ca­pe. The emo­ti­o­nal spa­ce of the regi­on is for­med by his­to­ri­cal trau­mas, as well as myths and legends, and is also moul­ded by the natu­re of the cli­ma­te, which influ­en­ces the sta­te of mind and expres­si­on of the dan­cers, the sha­pes and moods of dan­ce. Well, and the dan­ce spa­ce of Cen­t­ral Euro­pe lies between the Car­pathian Moun­ta­ins, the birth­pla­ce of blo­od-suc­king vam­pi­res inha­bi­ting Car­pathian cast­les, and the Sude­ten­land, an area engen­de­ring werewol­ves, a regi­on in which para­nor­mal phe­no­me­na have frequent­ly occurred, and also the pla­ce of the still raw trau­ma of World War II, a sour­ce of guilt among the Czechs.

The myths of vam­pi­res and werewol­ves are fables of the body; they are arche­ty­pal images of the tensi­on within the body. The legends of vam­pi­res sacra­li­se blo­od as the resour­ce by means of which the body can be res­to­red, you­th pro­lon­ged. The legends of werewol­ves are a hypo­thesis of cor­po­ral trans­for­mati­on. The Cen­t­ral Euro­pe­an spa­ce between the vam­pi­re and the werewolf con­ce­als and con­den­ses the boi­ling mag­ma of sym­bo­li­cal the­mes. The most dis­tinct trend of the con­tem­po­ra­ry dan­ce sce­ne in the Czech Repub­lic, phy­s­i­cal the­a­t­re, har­bours – I assu­me – in its gene­tic memo­ry this numi­nous secret of the Cen­t­ral Euro­pe­an landscape.

I am tal­king about the Cen­t­ral Euro­pe­an cha­rac­ter of con­tem­po­ra­ry dan­ce so as to high­li­ght that the bor­ders of dan­ce regi­ons are not iden­ti­cal with the poli­ti­cal bor­ders. To a sig­ni­fi­cant degree, con­tem­po­ra­ry dan­ce in the Czech Repub­lic sha­res the artis­tic atmosphe­re of Cen­t­ral Euro­pe, its type of emo­ti­o­na­li­ty and expres­si­on. My sta­te­ment of this fact will be followed by pre­sen­ting the specificities.

ZBYTEK TEXTU NALEZNETE ZDE / YOU COULD FIND REST OF THE TEXT HERE