Boa

Boa is the first choreographic play in the history of the National Stary Theatre in Krakow. Its main theme and explored space of movement is desire, how it is demonstrated, embodied, and performed. In “Boa,” choreographer Paweł Sakowicz wonders about paths by which desire circulates in the body; how it is created through a spatial orientation of bodies; how it can be intermediated through popular culture, discourses, and technologies, and what its embodied consequences are. Delving into the trajectories of desire, “Boa” mainly focuses on two parts of the body: the hips and the eyes, which do not need the sense of touch in order to touch. Sakowicz draws from cinematic tools that build relationships, organize images, and internalize the outside gaze, though there are no cameras on stage. The bodies here bear traces of stolen choreographies and scraps of fiery soap-opera plots. The actors practice culturally stereotyped dances of the South, and they seduce a non-existent camera, the existing audience, and one another. Seven bodies of various ages and shapes start gyrating their hips, which becomes a way of being in the world, just as fluid and unusual as the queer desires and relationships that reject the straight and narrow path. In Paweł Sakowicz’s “Boa”, desire is like a fawning cat—persistent, single-minded, but not necessarily predatory, mad, or inordinately sensual. It seems to be the default position, a modus operandi. […] All this whirls about in a choreography lasting just over an hour, like a carousel in a surreal and postmodern fairground of sensations, and when you get off, you may be weak in the knees. Alicja Műller, teatralny.pl The performance uses strobe lights and loud music.

Paweł Sakowicz is a choreographer and dancer. He is particularly interested in the history of dance and issues of cultural appropriation in choreography. Paweł’s works include: ”Jumpcore” (Zachęta - National Gallery of Art), “Masakra” (Nowy Teatr in Warsaw), “Amando” (National Museum in Warsaw), ”Vortex” (Theatre Institute in Warsaw), “Imperial” (Komuna Warszawa Theatre), “Fatamorgana” (Studio Hrdinu in Prague), “Boa” (National Stary Theatre in Kraków) and ”Laguna” (TR Warszawa). He has shown his work at, among others, three editions of the Polish Dance Platform, the Divine Comedy Festival, Santarcangelo Festival, Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Sirenos Festival, Warsaw Gallery Weekend, La Biennale de danse du Val-de-Marne, Muzeum Susch, Kunsthaus Hamburg, Tramway Glasgow, CAC New Orleans, NYU Skirball and Bohemian National Hall in New York City. He regularly collaborates with Anka Herbut, Anna Smolar and Łukasz Twarkowski.