Inhale. Exhale. We listen to our bodies. We lie down, we sit, we get up. We begin a dance that will lead us inside, to our interiority. In the rhythm of a beating heart, in the rhythm of pulsating blood cells, in accordance with the sound of a deep inhale. We will embark on a journey in which we will get an unprecedented opportunity to look at the heart, blood cells and lungs. Sometimes slowly, steadily, in another moment more energetically and with more verve. Sound, movement, sound, movement – like the ticking of a clock hidden in the belly.
The youngest children absorb the world with all their senses with equally great passion and curiosity. They do not yet guess which organs are responsible for breathing, digestion or increased activity, but they already recognize certain sounds or gestures that their body performs. During Bodyplaying they will have the opportunity to take a look at their inner world, how it sounds and how it moves, experience it.
Bodyplaying is a show in the serie of performances for the youngest public produced by Baj Theatre. It is first one that was created at the Baj Theater on the basis of dance, movement and choreography. Soft plastic forms on a macro scale, inspired by selected biological processes: breathing, digestion, blood pulsation, fill the entire space of the Small Stage, creating an organic place reminiscent of the inside of the body in a free and non-literal way.
Choreography and direction: Renata Piotrowska-Auffret
Scenography: Zuza Golińska
Music: Simon Auffret
Stage movement consultation: Dana Chmielewska
Cast: Elżbieta Bieda, Adriana Paprocka
Photo: Albert Roca Macia
Reviews
Katarzyna Gawkowska-Marciniak on Karmione Kulturą blog:
“The ability to create conditions for the meeting of the youngest audience with the dance and theatre maker may seem like a piece of cake. It’s only an illusion, and addotionally very dangerous one – it’s easy to assume the role of that wise adult who says with his art „Now I’ll show you, dear children, what the world is all about”. I run away from such art where the pepper grows. I am allergic to didacticism and schematic thinking about a young man.
Renata Piotrowska-Auffret, performer, choreographer and director knows it all. She is aware that young children discover the world through action. In motion, preferably with their whole beings. Piotrowska-Auffret has been dealing with the subject of corporeality in her art for years, so it seemed natural to me that her performances for the youngest also talk about it.
Bodyplaying is inspired and deals with the processes that take place in our body – we can discover e.g. how the respiratory system works, we see the process of digestion and excretion (there was a lot of laughter!) and the way blood travels.
Moving us inside the human body is an interesting, abstract procedure that stimulates the imagination. Bodyplaying is a family show on a highest artistic level. I reccomend it to all.”