Welcome to my blog. You will find here some news and texts that come side by side to my artistic activities as choreographer, dancer and performer.

Saturday 16 March 2013

SUBSTITUTE SHOW at imagetanz

SUBSTITUTE SHOW will be presented on Monday and Tuesday (18 & 19 March) at brut/Konzerthaus at 20:00.
It's a new solo by Radek Hewelt.


 photo: Łukasz Unterschuetz

In Substitute show, Polish performer Radek Hewelt embarks on a personal journey back in time into his past and ends up in communist Poland. The political and economic crisis has a tight grip on the country, but the young man’s ardent wish to found a punk band is stronger. The only problem: an electric guitar is neither to be found nor affordable. Necessity is the mother of invention, so a tennis racket is simply converted into an instrument which magical sounds can be charmed out of. Twenty five years later, again in crisis-torn times, Radek Hewelt remembers such almost forgotten skills – not to make a guitar this time, but to create a performance.

More information on the website of brut:
http://www.brut-wien.at/programm/detail/876/en/

Thursday 7 March 2013

"Substitute Show" at imagetanz in Vienna

"Substitute Show" - a new piece by Radek Hewelt


The premiere of Substitute Show will take place on 18 March 2013 at 20:00 in brut/Konzerthaus in Vienna. The performance will be shown also on 19 March at 20:00 in the same location. Both shows will be presented within imagetanz festival.


 photo: Łukasz Unterschuetz                                       


In Substitute show, Polish performer Radek Hewelt embarks on a personal journey back in time into his past and ends up in communist Poland. The political and economic crisis has a tight grip on the country, but the young man’s ardent wish to found a punk band is stronger. The only problem: an electric guitar is neither to be found nor affordable. Necessity is the mother of invention, so a tennis racket is simply converted into an instrument which magical sounds can be charmed out of. Twenty five years later, again in crisis-torn times, Radek Hewelt remembers such almost forgotten skills – not to make a guitar this time, but to create a performance.


Concept and performance: Radek Hewelt  
Dramaturgical advice: Filip Szatarski

A-co-production of imagetanz/brut Wien and Visitores – Association for the projection of artistic ideas. The work came into being as part of the project Europe in Motion. A work-in-progress was presented at the Springdance Festival 2012 in Utrecht (Netherlands) and in Teatr w Oknie in Gdansk (Poland).

Links:
http://www.brut-wien.at/programm/detail/876/en/
https://www.wien.gv.at/vadb/internet/AdvPrSrv.asp?Layout=VAErgebnis_neu&Type=K&ID=324509&return=

Wednesday 6 March 2013

CLEVER PROJECT review (english translation)


"It Might Be Your Last Day"

Radek Hewelt and Filip Szatarski dance a "Clever Project" at WUK Vienna.



 

The arts sector benefits from the crisis - provided it is clever. Or rather, provided all sorts of art dealers, agents and speculators are clever. The two performers Radek Hewelt and Filip Szatarski - aka The Clever Team - want to be as clever as possible. That is why their "Clever Project", which currently premiered at WUK Vienna, is so touching.


The two performers are well aware that there is no large profit to be made in contemporary dance.  Still, it should at least be possible to place a few bets on it. This is put to the test here. The audience knows right away about their first bonus of the evening: They get ten performances for the price of one.


At the beginning, a song for two voices defines the basis of a proper speculation: "Tomorrow, when you open your eyes and you look through your window, remember: It might be the last day of your life."  Right, it is the mood that counts! The awareness that death might be at your doorstep creates a demand for whatever you would still like to indulge yourself in.


Becoming a tree, for example. Even in the theater, if need be. With your life at stake, dreams are in great demand. The same goes for meditation, just in case you might become a bit tight. So, the Clever Team - with plenty of commonplace phrases - guides the audience through a group meditation, which soon dissolves into the nirvana of an opera spoof.


At this point, the piece turns into a pearl of irony, which gets even bigger, as Radek Hewelt grabs his ukelele and - tender at first, then with more and more rock 'n' roll force - sings the same line over and over: "When I was young, smoking, fucking, drinking all the night, my mind was drugged." The sentimental values of rock 'n' roll are a safe bet these days, just as those of high culture.


Why? As an answer, the two performers tell their own biographies. Good choice. Firstly, because this always works, and secondly, because it is a way for us to understand our own finite lives better.


Radek and Filip set out together to find the Holy Grail, to conquer the world. They suffered hunger and rejection, invented a healing-method - and the first projector. They thought they were the center of the world. Until dark clouds loomed over the horizon and a "Stagnator"-monster descended upon them.


It won´t be revealed here how the Clever Team mastered this crisis. Yet something obvious needs to be said: This piece is a both excellent and poignant satire on crises and emotional speculation in our cultural life.


(Helmut Ploebst, DER STANDARD, Vienna, 11.2.2013)