Pauline and Stach were by after breakfast to help get us over to our first appointment. As always, we were running late. We met with the Ewa Wycichowska and Jagoda Ignaczak, the director and deputy director of Polski Teatr Tańca. They talked a little about their school and their influences. A number of our group are interested in finding out about how groups are funded. The ladies responded to this query and the subsequent suggestions as if they were holy martyrs. Theirs was a non-profit organization that got very little support from the city or state government. Any other sort of fund raising they might do would cut into the money they would receive from the city. They were unwilling to pursue corporate sponsors because they wished to avoid association with large corporate entities. It seemed that they were quite content to wallow in their own misery.

  
At Polski Teatr Tańca. The first of the day's many spreads of refreshments. A very officious sign indicating the room was reserved for our visit.

Next up was a meeting with the staff at the Arsenał, a municipal art gallery. The director, Wojciech Makowiecki, seemed like a pompous ass, treating his staff like children and cutting them off whenever he though of some point he wanted to make.

  
With the administrative staff of the Arsenał. Wojciech Makowiecki, the director.

  


Some of the artwork on display at the Arsenał.

Zipped over to the InnerSpaces gallery so the rest of the group could see it. Got another long spiel from Tomasz. Nearly left Sheila behind.

  
Back at InnerSpaces Gallery.

  
We had a little snack at a place with a counter made up to resemble a Russian nesting doll.

Drove over to Teatr Nowy to meet with its PR specialist, Agata Grenda. The theater is a much more traditional space a number of long-running productions (12 years for a couple of them.) on three different stages. A number of their repertoire actors are also in television shows and one of them, a lady in her 70s, became famous for playing the male painter Nikifor in a film about him entitled Mój Nikifor.

  

  

  
At Teatr Nowy. Being toured around by PR specialist Agata Grenda. Views of the premises. Krystyna Feldman, who became famous in her 70s, for playing the male painter Nikifor in a film about him entitled Mój Nikifor. A tree that had been incorporated into an expansion rather than uprooted.

Headed over to the Stary Browar to see piece from of Polski Teatr Tańca. Stopped by the Internet café again to take advantage of the free wi-fi. The piece started out pitch black with what sounded like very sexual sounds. As the lights cam up slowly it turned out to be a group of people engaged in various forms of stretching and exercise. The group then started moving around through the stage and eventually drifted off to leave two ladies engaged in an aggressive dance. Ewa, the company director appeared and acted as the ringmaster throughout the rest of the piece. There were some very interesting interactions between the dancers and the musicians (two with electronics and one with a whole variety of traditional instruments) At one point Ewa’s voice was sampled onto tape and it was spooled off and manipulated. Later on a large figure, made up to be a seductive belly dancer, complete with a number of veils, made an appearance. After another long dance segment, the veils slowly came off to reveal a muscle-bound man who kept contorting his face and body to drastically change his appearance. Toward the end of his segment, he stripped off about five pairs of successively smaller underwear. The piece ended with the members of the group moving through the audience to elicit clapping. This went on for an inordinately long time and eventually the audience finally got the hint that it was part of the piece and started to file out of the room.

  
Polski Teatr Tańca performance at Stary Browar.

Grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant that Pauline found on the rynek before going on to see “III Sympathy for the Devil: Sex, Drugs and Rock’n’Roll” by Teatr Usta Usta. As we got to the gate, it started to pour. There was some debate as to whether we should stick it out or not. We hung in there and quite a while after the piece was supposed to have started, we were let in. I found a spot toward the back that afforded me a good view and after some jockeying was able to dig out my little camera to document the event. The piece was on a round stage with four video projections spaced at the perimeter and a large red-curtained structure at the back. It started with a heavily manipulated sample of Darth Vader repeating, “Give in to the dark side,” while a man in nothing but a loincloth lay in the center of the space getting pummeled with the rain. Eventually a dwarf appeared to delivery a long monologue and the man in the loincloth was dressed and presented as the devil. A long dance number ensued with a chorus line being formed and a hard metal band belting out Sympathy for the Devil. The staging was quite well done with elements for each ensuing section being slipped onstage while the audience was distracted with whatever was currently going on. The devil’s mother made and appearance and was followed by Marlene Dietrich. The chorus girls dressed in concentration camp style stripped tops to go with their fishnets and high heels backed up her segment. They eventually fell in a heap and while the dwarf sat with his back to them enjoying a can of Campbell’s soup, the girls were picked up and loaded onto the front of a forklift. The devil returned and a table was lit on fire. It was eventually put out and the company filed out to make their way around the perimeter of the stage. Everyone was surprised to see a pair of camels emerge with the group and then a second pair. After several circuits, they group filed back out and the piece was over.

  
Had a little dinner between shows. Waited in a downpour for Usta Usta's “III Sympathy for the Devil: Sex, Drugs and Rock’n’Roll”

Our bedraggled group split up again, with a number of us opting to hike back. Dropped my things and went back out.