The Sun
“Excellent dance performances, surprising choreography, magical lighting design. Feelings of emotion and joy. A completely unexpected performance, close to a cinematic experience.”
Harpers Bazaar
“A liberating response to Squid Game.”
Something Fantastic
“Every new work by choreographer Jana Burkiewiczová arouses anticipation. She is an artist who has established herself on the dance scene with her interest in socially relevant topics, her refined movement language, and her ability to engage top dancers from home and abroad for her projects. She attracts attention with her interdisciplinary approach, drawing inspiration for her works from design, opera, and other artistic disciplines. (…) She confirms this in her new dance piece Slunce (Sun), in which she and the Burkicom ensemble explore the impact of artificial intelligence on humanity and investigate a new, posthuman world.”
Reflex
“The hyper-stylized space adds an emotional layer to the theme of perception and experience of reality. What is close and what is distant, what is real and what is illusory, what do we understand and what is foreign to us? In the foreground—that is, in the “reality” of the stage—we observe the process of learning and gradual emancipation of robotic beings throughout almost the entire performance.”
ČT art
Slunce (The Sun)
A dance sci-fi about humanity and hope.
A visually captivating dance show that will move and touch you. Excellent dancers, acrobatics, flying through the air, miraculous projections, and unforgettable lighting. In a forgotten corner of the world, a group of robots with human faces comes to life and discovers traces of humanity in the tangle of their programs.
Slunce (The Sun) is created in cooperation with Archa+ and with financial support from the grants of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Prague City Hall. Creative residency and presentation of work-in-progress will take place in collaboration with Holstebro Dance Company (DK) and with financial support from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.
Premiere on October 10, 2024 at Archa+.
“With the purest intentions and fear of misuse, we have imprinted significantly positive human qualities into AI – humility, a desire to understand, to comply. We have projected our ideal selves onto machines, crafting tools to reflect who we aspire to be. But what if these learning machines become more human than us? What if they outlast us?”
Jana Burkiewiczová
Direction, choreography: Jana Burkiewiczová
Concept, script: Jana Burkiewiczová, Tomáš Luňák, Jiří Macek
Music: Jiří Konvalinka
Scenography: Marek Cpin
Lighting design: Pavla Beranová
Director of projections: Tomáš Luňák
Projections: Michaela Karásek Čejková
Animation: Tomáš Hájek
Graphic design: Martina Černá / Imagery
Photography: Natálie Hofmanová
Promotion videos: David Krátký
Assistant choreographer: Paulína Šmatláková
Performers: Lorenzo Giovanetti, Michal Heriban, Hikaru Osakabe, Elena Praastrup Nielsen, Paulína Šmatláková
Production: Lenka Plottová
Booking: Ivona Szantová