Amareya Theater & Guests - theater of movement and body; one of the leading independent theaters in Poland. It was created in 2003 on the initiative of Katarzyna Pastuszak, Aleksandra Śliwińska and Agnieszka Kamińska. The performances and performances of the Amareya Theater are regularly presented at festivals in Poland and abroad, gaining high critics' acclaim for their powerful and critical physical and visual performative language. In 2014, the group expanded and operates now under the name of Amareya Theater & Guests, which also includes Pastuszak, Kamińska and Sliwińska: Joanna Duda, Louise Fontain, Yuko Kawamoto, Kae Ishimoto, Rui Ishihara, Ichi Go, Magda Jędra, Monika Wińczyk Barbara Szamotulska-Dziubich, Jan Grządzielnia, Daniela Komęder, Przemek Jurewicz, Bartosz Cybowski (Technical Chief). Theater activities include three fields: artistic - performances, projects; didactic - dance / theater workshops, voice workshops, lectures, publications; cultural animation - the activities of the Amareya Art Association and the Gdansk Butoh School. The most important performances in the repertoire of the Amareya Theater / Amareya Theater & Guests are: "Kantor_Tropy: COLLAGE" (2016, directed by K. Pastuszak), "Memory of Water" (2016), "fetish.wtf" (2014, directed by Dorota Androsz) "2" (2013, directed by K. Pastuszak), "Nomadka" (2012, directed by K. Pastuszak), " Empty house "(2011, directed by A. Kaminska). Amareya Theater also implements theater projects with people with disabilities, blind people and addicts. Amareya Theater & Guests was nominated for "Best Performance by OFF-OFF" in the Gazeta Świętojańska ranking in 2016, and in 2017 won the 2nd prize at the Klamra Festival in Torun. Since 2004 Amareya Theatre has been closely cooperating with the Japanese theatre company Gekidan Kaitaisha led by Shimizu Shinjin and together they realised numerous performances and workshops within the framework of “Dream Regime” project directed by Shimizu Shinjin.
Selected highlights of the Amareya Theater & Guests performances abroad:
- “Dream Regime project” organized by Gekidan Kaitaisha, Morishita Studio Tokyo (Japan, 2011)
- Tanztage Festival Salzburg (Austria, 2013)
- Redplexus Festival - Préavis de Désordre Urbain, Marseille (France, 2014)
- International Festival "Sound Around Kaliningrad" BBNCCA (Baltic Branch of the National Center for Contemporary Arts, Kaliningrad, Russia, 2014)
- 11. Theater X International Dance and Theater Festival, Tokyo (Japan, 2014)
- Sukkot Dance Festival, Mitzpe Ramon (Israel, 2014)
- Fringe Festival in Aomori, (Japan 2015)
- Butoh International in Minato; Noguchi Room, Tokyo (2015 Japan)
Kulturhus in Sisimiut (Greenland) and the Greenland National Theater in Nuuk (2014, 2015)
- Ethos Festival Ankara (Turkey 2016)
- Bartin Theater Festival (Turkey 2016)
- 30th Anniversary of Hijikata Tatsumi - d-Soko Tokyo (Japan 2016)
- Pestka Festival Jelenia Góra (Poland 2017)
- Bartin Theatre Festival (Turkey 2016)
- Ethos Festival Ankara (Turkey 2016-2017)
“Nomadic Woman” - Amareya Theatre & Guests
Concept and direction: Katarzyna Pastuszak
Performers: Louise Fontain, Katarzyna Pastuszak, Aleksandra Śliwińska, Daniela Komędera, Monika Wińczyk, Magdalena Jędra
Technical manager: Bartosz Cybowski
Music: Joanna Duda
“NOMADIC WOMAN” is a performance about women and their inner and outer immigration. On the one hand it is a para-document inspired by the true life story of Louise Fontain (Greenland/Norway). Her “nomadic” life started in Greenland from which she was deported as a child to a foster family in Denmark within a Danish government educational/colonisation programme that included thousands of inuit children in 1960s/1070s. Louise Fontain did not come back home to Greenland for many years – like hundreds other inuit people she lost her mother tongue and contact with her family. Circulating around the life story of Louise Fontain, the performance touches on the theme of systemic violence, identity and conciliation. On the other hand “NOMADIC WOMAN” speaks not only in the voice of deported Greenlandic children but also raises the theme of contemporary hidden forms of colonisation of inuit people and of human bodies being colonised by regimes. We also refer here to the concept of fluid subjectivity as theorised by Rosi Braidotti (nomadic subjects).
“NOMADIC WOMAN” has been presented in various festivals in Poland and abroad. It was especially important for the artists to be able to perform it in Greenland (National Theatre of Greenland in Nuuk and Sisimiut Kulturhus in Sisimiut) where it was very well received. In 2015 “NOMADIC WOMAN” was nominated for the prestigious prize “Splendor Gedanensis” and in 2017 it won the 2nd audience prize at the Festival Pestka in Jelenia Gora.
“NOMADIC WOMAN” is created by a group of interdisciplinary performance artists including Louise Fontain (Greenland/Norway, storyteller/performer), Katarzyna Pastuszak (Amareya Theatre, performer/dancer), Daniela Komędera (dancer), Magdalena Jędra (performer/dancer), Aleksandra Śliwińska (Amareya Theatre, performer/dancer), Monika Wińczyk (performer). Music was composed by Joanna Duda (Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet).
