8 OCTOBER  20:00 - 20:50  House of Culture Boris Hristov

SPITFIRE COMPANY & DAMÚZA (CZECH REPUBLIC)

Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee. – Muhammad Ali

The Spitfire Company was inspired by Muhammad Ali for their award-winning performance ONE STEP BEFORE THE FALL. In this contrasting solo dance, we see art punching heavyweight jabs to awaken the fighter in each one of us. The public is drawn into a dramatic interpretation of triumph and fall. Powerful dance by Markéta Vacovská and hypnotic sound by Lenka Dusilová give viewers a hint to their own identify.

Ali’s story, from champion boxer to Parkinson’s sufferer, is in fact the story of everyone’s fighting fate. When the body and the mind are challenged to resist at any cost. As in life, the stage is turned into a boxing ring where unbending destiny meets our refusal to surrender. Until the very end.

ONE STEP BEFORE THE FALL debuted in 2012 in Trutnov (Czech Republic). On the following year the spectacle won Herald Angel Award of the British newspaper “The Herald”, when it became the favorite of the public at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. Markéta Vacovská and Petr Boháč, founder and artistic director of Spitfire Company, created the concept and the choreography of this unique theatrical experience.

The multi-genre project deals with the themes of fighting, exhaustion, the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease, and collapse.

PRESS QUOTES
Theatrical knock-out’ Times. In this award-winning show, that has captivated audiences from Stockholm to Beijing, dancer and singer fight in the boxing ring for their destiny. ‘gut-wrenching tour-de-force” – The Herald

The passion, the desperation, the drive, the joy, the weariness, the pain, an exploration of what it means to be a boxer unencumbered by the usual clichéd storylines.” – Total Theatre

SPITFIRE COMPANY
Founded in Prague, Spitfire Company is an artistic platform for physical, visual, and dance theater. It is currently one of the most progressive ensembles of author theater in the The Czech Republic. Their success is marked by creativity in connecting different genres and finding new visual stimuli.

Spitfire’s productions include a number of distinguishing features: the emphasis of physical acting on the stage, experimenting with new theatrical features, existential imbalance of the figures and so on.

Petr Boháč
While artistic director and co-founder of Spitfire Company, Petr Boháč is also working as guest director of Tantehorse company (new physical mime and dance) and venue programmer of Palac Akropolis Theatre. His performances have been presented in eleven European countries, the United States and Africa.

Petr Boháč is also founder of The International Festival Zero Point, which brings the best of physical, mime, visual and multigenres theatre forms to Prague.

His productions received several prestigious awards, including the Herald Angel Award and the Total Theatre Award (nomination) at Edinburgh Fringe. Boháč was also awarded the Outstanding Performance Award at Prague Fringe, the Next Wave Festival Award for the Personality of the Year, and the Award of Czech Theatre Times for the Personality of the Year at category Alternative Theatre. He is currently working on a new production called Vladimir Macbetin.

Markéta Vacovská
Choreographer and dancer, Markéta Vacovská joined Spitfire Company in 2008. She has been involved in many of the ensemble’s productions since then. 2013 was a very successful year in her career – then she won the Czech Theatre Times Award for Personality of the Year (Dance and Choreography), The Herald Angel Award for ONE STEP BEFORE THE FALL, and was also voted Dancer of the Year by the Czech Dance Platform.

In addition to performing, Vacovská is teaching classes at the Theatre Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She has been working as certified Bikram yoga instructor since 2006.

Lenka Dusilová
Regarded as a phenomenon of the Czech music scene, Lenka Dusilová is more than an acclaimed rock and pop star. She goes beyond different music styles into deep personal experiences. Her third solo album, Between Worlds, recorded in San Francisco with American musicians and produced by Ben Yonas, earned several Angel Awards in 2005. Her fourth solo album, Baromantika, yielded a unique musical landscape oscillating between seething and frigid acoustic electronic environments, and earning Lenka a fifth award as Singer of the Year 2011. It has been nominated for the new music Apollo Awards.

AWARDS
Nomination to Thália award 2012
Dancer and lightdesigner of the year (Czech Dance Platform 2013)
Award of the Czech Theatre Times for the concept and direction 2012/13
Award of the Czech Theatre times for choreography 2012/13
The Herald Angel Award, 2013
Total Theatre Award (shortlist), 2013
Aerowaves Priority Company for 2014
Dance Transit Festival award 2015

Duration: 50 minutes
Concept, Directed by: Petr Boháč
Choreography: Markéta Vacovská
Dance: Markéta Vacovská
Music, Vocals: Lenka Dusilová
Scenography: Petr Boháč, Jeník Bubal
Light Design: Martin Špetlík
Producers: Tereza Havlíčková, Barbora Kalinová
Production: Studio Damúza o.s., Bezhlaví o.s.
Co-producers: UFFO – SCT, Experimental Venue Roxy / NoD
Photos: ©Martin Mařák и ©Jiri-Strebl

The show will be presented in Plovdiv with the support of Czech center in Sofia, Embassy of the Czech Republic in Sofia, Ministry of Cuture Czech Republic.