The Secret Places of the Soul

In the piece we tend to combine experience, technique and choreographic style of Jacek Łumiński and use them as the artistic value of the performance. The topic of the work is Resilience / resistance to adversity, and perseverance, including the following issues: 1) persistent identity systems, 2) ecology in the broad sense of the word - at the level of the individual, population, community, ecosystem and biosphere, 3) cultural change, i.e. the dynamic transformation of shared practices, beliefs and behaviors within a community or society over time. 4) the human body is located in the center of the universe. That's why in the piece we deal with the senses. The sense as a biological system is used by the body to feel, the process of collecting information about the world and responding to stimuli. In many cultures around the world, these systems still occupy a central place around which the culture has been shaped. 5) By treating memory as an important cultural element and not just an individual attribute, we try to show how practices of embodiment underlie tradition, the present and the future. Images of the past and knowledge about the past are transmitted and maintained through ritual performances, and performative memory is corporeal memory. Social bodily memory is an important aspect of social memory. According to research by anthropologists and sociologists of several generations, it is not literary texts that should be treated as a metaphor for social practices, but embodied practices, including dance. Through dance, we draw attention to the importance of the body in shaping personal, family and national memory and in the process of giving meaning to history and making it understandable, even in its contradictions. Ethnographic research conducted in Poland and many other countries focuses mainly on the construction of family resemblances as an embodied experience of the past and a starting point for research on collective and personal memory. The relationship between body and memory emerges in the tension between history and heredity, the latter encompassing both social and biological transmissions. The second connection between corporeality and memory in family narratives is built on the 'gender' and 'ethnic' image of the individual and the social body. Thirdly, memory is considered a body technique that involves the senses and practical skills. The concept of embodiment therefore contributes to a more dynamic, performative and intersubjective understanding of memory.

After graduating from the pedagogy department of dance at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Jacek Luminski established the Silesian Dance Theatre in Bytom (Silesia), the premiere contemporary dance company of Poland and an institution dedicated to the development and promotion of dance nationally and internationally. As executive and artistic director of the Silesian Dance Theatre, he designed educational and community outreach programs to promote dance and audience development. Supported by the EU, the Silesian Dance Theatre cooperated with six European dance schools under Luminski’s guidance, developing the country’s first accredited university dance curriculum. Luminski’s artistic work has earned him an international reputation. His unique dance style and movement technique has evolved through twenty-five years of research. He has focused on Polish folklore and folk traditions of the Polish-Jewry, along with the constant investigation of contemporary movement and theatre trends. Luminski has received numerous national and international awards for his outstanding achievements in developing a unique style, technique, and form of dance theatre. He serves as Adjunct Professor and the Head of the Dance Division at the Academy of Music in Katowice. For more than a decade now Luminski has been a main figure behind the institutionalized creative support for young and independent choreographers in Poland – an idea seen in the Art Spaces-Katowice Program established a few years ago with a support from the Institute of Music and Dance (as well as Ministry of Culture and National Heritage); currently he is working on international dance projects including “Traditional Future – New Traditions” which he invented along with professional partners from Mexico, United States, India, and Malaysia. Recently, he's been instrumental to establishing Katowice Research on Movement and Choreography, an organization specially designed to cross discipline, cross genre dialogue to stimulate forward the development of arts and economy partnership; the organization serves as an umbrella for many activities including cultural diplomacy and reserach. For the dancers wishing to continue growing their passion for bodily immersive technique (Polish Contemporary Dance Technique) Luminski Dance Project has been created. Notwithstanding this Luminski organizes festivals, academic conferences, keeps himself busy creating new dance works internationally and he is pursuing his new academic career with the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. His main areas of interest include, persistent systems of identity formation, embodied culture, contemporary transformations of citizenship, dance as window to cultures, etc. Luminski serves positions in international organizations including International Consortium For Advancement in Choreography.