Music by Johann Sebastian Bach and works by Artur Zagajewski are experienced not only through hearing but also resonates in the body, gesture, and breath. Four dancers – Stanisław Bulder, Olga Bury, Radosław Lis, and Georgy Puchalski – along with Janusz Orlik, responsible for the concept and choreography, and the Polish Cello Quartet, have prepared an innovative project in which sound can be seen, movement heard, and the viewer and performer can be intertwined in a single melody.

Despite the fugue’s roots in absolute music, the concept itself is etymologically linked to movement; the Latin word “fuga” means escape. The association of this word with movement encourages us to observe the theme the composer develops in successive parts of the sonic fabric. As the musical ideas emerge in intersecting lines, creating the impression of a pulsating stream of sounds, we attentively pursue the resulting arrangement. Paradoxically, when we carefully observe the elusive sound structures, we can be completely grounded in the here and now and thus be consciously present. When the Polish Cello Quartet’s playing is accompanied by the movement of dancers searching for energy and tension in the polyphonic material, the music written by Johann Sebastian Bach three centuries ago will find its embodiment. We will be able to experience The Art of Fugue with multiple senses, and feel the closeness, intensity, and intimacy of the music. Movement will become a visual reflection of the musical structure being played – the repetitions, counterpoint, dialogues, also revealed in muscle tensions and tremors, but also in the tension built between sound and gesture.

Before the artists tackle the work that crowns the Baroque era, they will interpret Artur Zagajewski’s cello compositions. In his youth, he was a member of a punk band, so it is no surprise that his trademark is breaking barriers, including unconventional combinations, which perfectly fits the character of this unusual musical performance. Despite his academic education and professional ties to academia, Zagajewski seeks inspiration outside the world of the philharmonic. He thrives in the dialogue of artistic media, seeks a synthesis of the arts, and understands the bodily aspect of sound – translating what is heard into what is more than seen, what is felt in the body, what causes its movement. His composition, sculpture (from the way of the cross), was created in 2016 for the Polish Cello Quartet. In it, the composer draws on the architecture and sculpture of the famous Sagrada Familia – Antoni Gaudí’s magnum opus. Two other works by the Polish composer will also be performed, including the Canzona from 2014 in a new arrangement for four cellos.

Janusz Orlik

Dancer, choreographer, and dance curator. Author of the performances Exérèse monobloc, and Thy Neighbour as thyself, Live on stage, The Rite of Spring, Mute, Insight (Special Award of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage for the best choreography awarded as part of the Polish Dance Platform 2014), Coda (a tribute), and Symphony No. 3 (honourable mention in the Competition for a Choreographic Piece to Music by a Polish Composer organised by the ZAiKS Association of Authors). His choreographic works have been presented in Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Brazil, China, Denmark, Georgia, Spain, Israel, Luxembourg, Germany, Palestine, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Italy. Since 2002, he has been a permanent member of Vincent Dance Theatre (UK). Since 2021, he has been collaborating with the Kochanowski Theatre in Opole and theatre director Norbert Rakowski, creating choreographies for the performances Strictly Confidential Research, Four Good Reasons to Drop Everything to Hell, and I'm Nowhere/Disappearing.

He is the creator of the Poruszeni (Moved) series of dance and movement workshops, which were held regularly in 2018 in collaboration with various institutions across Poland and were aimed at individuals who, for various reasons, have found themselves socially excluded.

Since 2021, he has served as the artistic supervisor of the Klucz Theatre, located at the Zamek Cultural Centre in Poznań. For the Klucz Theatre, he has created the performances Tranquillo (main prize at the 5th “The Best Off” Competition for the Best Performance by an Independent Theatre), Intermezzo, and Amoroso. He has collaborated with artists such as Charlotte Vincent, Nigel Charnock, Rosalind Crisp, Joanna Leśnierowska, Isabelle Schad, Ugo Dehaes, Olga Cobos, Peter Mika, and Daniel Landau. He leads numerous choreographic workshops for a number of educational institutions and cultural centres in Poland and internationally.