STICKY FINGERS
CLUB
I almost got the flowers and I almost knew what the champagne tasted like.
I mistook the brake for gas.
I am the first to be out of the podium. I overtook all those who are behind me.
I almost have a reason to be proud.
I got lost in the same place again.
I almost got a standing ovation.
CHOREOGRAPHY, CONCEPT:
Daniela Komędera-Miśkiewicz, Dominika Wiak, Dominik Więcek, Monika Witkowska
DRAMATURGIC SUPPORT:
Konrad Kurowski
LIGHTING DIRECTION:
Krystian Koźbiał
MUSIC:
Przemek Degórski
COSTUMES:
Designs by Krystian Szymczak, Edvard Kuzmich, Roman Marchewka
Sticky Fingers Club
is a performance about failing, where the characters are the background. Notoriously on the fourth place, competing with the unrivalled Meryl Streep fighting for an Oscar. Facing constant defeat, they create a space of celebration where they are the stars. On their own terms, they celebrate being imperfect, supporting each other and challenging each other. Among the expressive characters there is an opera singer who loves music without reciprocity, a neurotic lady, an out-of-date star and a dancer who was never able to dance a solo scene.
The performance, both in the sphere of movement and in the expressive, frontal "attitude" of the performers, refers to queer and ballroom culture and vogue dance itself. Here, for social exclusion and non-normativity, a space is opened to reveal colorful identity. Pop-culture references to the queer mainstream, popular fashion shows, or the Bohemian Rhapsody of Queen, giving Sticky Fingers Club a huge dose of humor and self-irony. The performance deals with the wider problem of failure, and the consequent of exclusion and forgetfulness, without resorting to generalizations or moralizations. It uses theatrical and choreographic tools; thus, it is difficult to pigeonhole and classify it. By undermining social norms, it becomes a critical choreography.
The performance appears sophisticated. Stylish black costumes - the color of success and mystery – which emphasize expressiveness of the dancing bodies, and the light not only brings out depth of the figures, but also becomes the subject itself. It includes some and ignores others. Is an object of desire that is being fought for - a race for attention and achievement? Everything is characterized by a delicate humorous twist, which makes the performance, despite its difficult subject, not overwhelming; lightness and seriousness are respectively balanced. Watching Sticky Fingers Club is a huge pleasure.
A sense of humor, originality of movement, excellent harmony and throwing the viewer off the beaten paths of associations - these are the advantages of "Sticky Fingers Club", in which smooth transitions from group scenes to solo performances allowed to highlight the strengths of each dancer. They started with a joke - and ended likewise. They can still amaze. They alternately entertained the viewers and demanded their concentration. They engaged the entire space of the stage, including the balconies. They were self-ironic, because wasn’t it about how much artists love splendor, take failures badly, and envy each other - was it intelligently playful? But were they just artists?
Daniel Komęder-Miśkiewicz
Daniela cooperated as a performer, among others with the Dada von Bzdulow Theater, the Amareya Theater, the Lublin Dance Theater, the Ochota Theater, Agnieszka Glinska, Weronika Pelczynska, Quan Bui Ngoc. She collaborated as a choreographer with Brian Michels As you like it and Much Ado about nothing. She was the co-creator of the show Heimsuchung/Visitation, and in 2012 she won the Golden Mask award. The 'Room 40' performance, in which she danced, won the Audience Award at the Polish Dance Platform. She performed at festivals in Brazil, the Netherlands, Japan, Greenland, Sweden, Russia, Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus and others.
Monika Witkowska
Graduated from Dance Theatre Department in Bytom AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow. She held scholarships at Dance Department of Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen and at Dance Theatre Department of Kibuttzim College of Education in Tel Aviv. She worked, among others, with: J. Luminski, M. Kuzminski, C. Thomas, H. Kaalund, B. Michaels, J. Stuhr, W. Mochniej, A. Piotrowska. Co-creator and member of Vagabond Physical Collective – informal artistic collective. Currently working at the Art Spaces in Katowice.
Dominik Więcek
Dancer, choreographer, performer, fashion photographer and stylist. A graduate of the PWST in Krakow, the Department of Dance Theater in Bytom, a scholarship holder of the Folkwang Universität der Kunste in Essen. He collaborated, among others with Jacek Łumiński, Jerzy Stuhr, Giorgia Maddamma, Idan Cohen, Jeans van Dael. In 2016-2019, the dancer of the Polish Dance Theater in Poznań. He creates his own performances: among others the award-winning solo Dominique, Bromance, Musica Posthumana.
Dominika Wiak
Dancer, performer, choreographer. A graduate of the Faculty of Dance Theater in Bytom, PWST in Krakow. Her latest productions include MANHATTAN, co-created with Daniela Komędera-Miśkiewicz, and STICKY FINGERS CLUB. She collaborated with the National Stary Theater in Krakow, Teatr im. Juliusz Słowacki in Krakow, the Silesian Theater in Katowice, the ROZBARK Theater and the Krakow Choreographic Center. She took part in the performances of: Monika Strzępka and Paweł Demirski, Jakub Lewandowski, Dominika Knapik, Eryk Makohon, Sylwia Hefczyńska-Lewandowska, Maciej Kuźmiński, Radosław Rychcik, Magdalena Piekorz, Quan Bui Ngoc.
MAKING OFF
Producers: Gdańsk Dance Festival / ŻAK Club, Lublin Dance Theater
Premiere: 03/09/2020 / 12th Gdańsk Dance Festival
The performance was created as part of the "Spaces of Art" program financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, implemented by the Institute of Music and Dance and the Theater Institute. Zbigniew Raszewski. The operator of the project in Lublin is the Cultural Center in Lublin.
We would like to thank the Oddaj Ciężar Studio in Warsaw, the Theater Institute in Warsaw. Zbigniew Raszewski and the Krakow Choroegraphic Center for providing space for rehearsals.
