Year of Czech music with ProART: Smetana 200 and Ogoun 100

21 March 2024, 1:00
Year of Czech music with ProART: Smetana 200 and Ogoun 100

The ProART art group is celebrating 20 years of its activity. In addition to the celebrations, the Year of Czech Music also commemorates the anniversary of the composer Bedřich Smetana and the Czechoslovak choreographer Luboš Ogoun. These anniversaries will be combined into one production, DREAMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

ProART in 2024 was inspired by the Year of Czech Music and two anniversaries. The work of composer Bedřich Smetana is at the centre of musical events in 2024, when we commemorate the 200th anniversary of the great composer's birth. At the same time we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the important Czechoslovak choreographer Luboš Ogoun. The Brno performance of the production entitled DREAMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS will be held on 29 April 2024 at Villa Engelsmann.

The two-part dance evening SMETANA 200 - OGOUN 100 (Dreams of Consciousness) can be described as an evening created for two different dance generations - the beginning (students of dance schools) and the ending (dance personalities in the twilight of their dance careers). The first part of the evening is based on Smetana's piano sequence played live and at the same time developed with contemporary music by composer Beata Hlavenková responding to it. The six-part musical cycle will be choreographed by choreographer-dancers Martin Dvořák, Daniela Hanelová and Kristýna Vébr and will also involve students of a local Primary Art School. The aim is to offer creators and performers to create to live music and to respond with a completely contemporary movement vocabulary to "old music", which is no longer choreographically trendy nowadays and places considerable demands on both choreographers and performers. Work with music - with bars, phrases, musical assignments. The idea is to create six completely different short pieces in different dance styles, which will have the music of Bedřich Smetana and his piano sequence SNY as a unifying element.

The second half of the evening will belong to the "senior" dancers. Those who are not starting out, but are instead approaching their artistic departure. The theme of the choreography is the iconic work of choreographer Luboš Ogoun - Hiroshima - Conscience, Order from the era of (not only) Ballet Prague. The personality of Luboš Ogoun is absolutely fundamental to the development of Czech modern dance and ballet. Alongside Pavel Šmok, it was he who brought elements of modernism to the ballet companies of the country’s theatres. Luboš Ogoun was a versatile choreographer who excelled in his movement inventiveness and directing skills. The narrative part of his work especially is one of the best that has been created in the history of Czech dance. Also worth mentioning are his credits for original or little-performed productions (The Ballad of the Sailor, Hiroshima, The Strange Mandarin, The Lady Among the Shadows, The Strangler and many others). He has always followed the legacy of Sasha Makhov, who taught him how to create dance theatre with all the attributes of drama. The Czech dance world still lacks an artist of his stature today.

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