Birth Days

“Birth Days” (Polish: U-rodziny) is a dance performance exploring pregnancy and birth. It is a poetic journey through the mysterious acts of creation, the formation of the human body, and the awe-inspiring physiology of being born. It speaks of the intimate processes that shape new existences and unfold untold stories. A celebration of life as it emerges—an invitation to open ourselves to what it brings. “Existence”—a word that defines our central task—carries within it the echo of birth as an emergence. In classical Latin, ex sisto meant, quite literally, “to step out,” “to surface,” “to be born.” [...] Together with all living beings, we belong to the realm of those who reveal themselves through birth, stirred by the movement of becoming. The possibility of existence is thus granted at the cost of an effort made against stagnation.” “Cracks in Existence”, Jolanta Brach-Czajna

Hanna Bylka-Kanecka – choreographer, researcher, mother. Since 2018, she has been the artistic supervisor of Dancing Families program – the first initiative in Poland focused on the development of contemporary dance and experimental choreography for families, continuously active since 2011, made in cooperation with the Performat Foundation. (www.dancingfamilies.org) She is the initiator and co-founder of the Holobiont collective (2016–2024), which created dance performances for family audiences. Their works have been widely presented both in Poland and internationally (www.holobiont.pl). As an independent choreographer, she created the interactive dance solo Somatulki for preschool children (2023, supported by a grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage) and the performance Birth Days (2025), about pregnancy and childbirth, addressed to families with children aged 3 and up (produced by the Children’s Art Centre, co-produced by the Performat Foundation, with the Rodzinne Epifanie festival as a partner). She closely collaborates with the Children’s Art Centre in Poznań, where, among other things, she co-curated (with Joanna Żygowska) the international Forum on Contemporary Dance and Choreography for Young Audiences. Since 2022, she has been a board member of the Young Dance Network – a global platform for exchange operating under the umbrella of ASSITEJ International. She volunteers her time to promote and strengthen dance and choreography for young audiences, viewing them as tools for social change. (www.youngdancenetwork.com) She has published in important Polish magazines “Kultura Współczesna” and “Didaskalia”, among others. Her creative and research interests lie at the intersections of psychoanalysis, somatic practices, posthumanism, and childhood studies. She finds her greatest artistic inspiration from embodied observation of the many hues of her own motherhood. www.hannabylkakanecka.com