Created as part of Archa Theatre’s long-term project Dialogues on Escape, Dance through the fence records various phases of the life of a refugee: actors and dancers interpret the authentic accounts of people with uncertain fates, people who are looking for a new life.

Dance through the Fence is a theatrical mosaic which, on the basis of long-term co-operation between professional artists and asylum seekers, tells the authentic stories of Chechen, Burmese, Georgian and Kurdish refugees.

Before each performance, the audience were able to join in creative activities, based on creative work undertaken in refugee camps and led by Radka Dohnalová.

Dance through the fence was also be accompanied by an exhibition in the theatre foyer, presenting photographs from David Kummerman, video-installation from Nadim Mohamed and creative work from the residents of refugee camps at Bělá pod Bezdězem and Přílepy.

Theatre incorporating video-projection, live music and physical theatre. In Czech, with explanatory texts in English. No language barrier rate: 50%

Concept and Direction: Jana Svobodová
Written by: Hana Androniková
Music: Michael Romanyshyn
Featuring: Eva Hromníková, Daniel Raček, Petra Lustigová, Philip Schenker, Jing Lu, Jan Březina, Gugar Manukjan, Abdulrahman Kasem

All Star Refugee Band: Gugar Manukjan (accordian), Abdulrahman Kasem (oud, singing), Jan Středa (trumpet), Adam Koller (drums), Michael Romanyshyn (clarinet), Jindřich Krippner (clarinet, saxophone)

Download songs created for the performance by the Allstar Refugee Band!

On film: Jan Budař, Jan Kraus, Václav Moravec, Jiří František Potužník

Production: Pavlína Kalandrová, Jindřich Krippner
Technical co-operation: Vladimír Hubička
Photography: David Kummerman
Documentary film: Jan Šípek
Graphic design: Adam Uchytil

Premiere: 11th of March 2008 at 8pm at Archa Theatre

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FROM THE PRESS

“The performance takes place throughout the entire space of the Archa Theatre. The audience follows a trail from one stage to the next, each with a different story. A major part of the show is the ‘klezmer’ orchestra led by the USA’s Michael Romanyshyn. Jing Lu from China as a bizarre singer of shrill Chinese tango is irresistible.”
Nina Vangeli, Hospodářské noviny

“With this project Archa Theatre has crossed the boundary of pure artistic theatre towards social and documentary drama. It is a worthwhile and important theatrical enterprise.”
Vladimír Hulec, Reflex/exonline

Thank you. Dance Through the Fence was one of the most powerful theatre experiences of my life and I mean that in the most positive sense of the word.
Audience response on www.myspace.com/allstarrefjudziband

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We would like to thank: The Refugee Facility Administration of the Ministry of The Interior of the Czech Republic and Czech Television.

The premiere of the project was presented as part of the One World festival.

Supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism intermediated by the Civil Society Development Foundation (NROS).

         

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INTERVIEW WITH JANA SVOBODOVÁ ABOUT THE PROJECT DANCE THROUGH THE FENCE

The director Jana Svobodová is working on what is now her third performance where professional performers come together with refugees who are looking for a new home in Czech Republic. The first big project,  At 11.20 I Will Be Leaving You, took audiences into refugee camps, the second project Strange Neighbour was created in the administrative building Danube House in Prague’s Karlín district. This time, however, Dance Through The Fence, is staying in the theatre, although it is far from being an ordinary performance….

In what ways is the current project different from the ones which have gone before?

I will start with what they have in common. All the projects carry the message that we no longer, and will not in the future, live in a culturally homogenous society.

And it what way is it different? In the previous performances, immigrants have appeared on stage alongside professional actors, musicians and dancers. We tried to create the conditions, in a theatrical context, where everyone had an equal position. We looked for a general life situation which everyone had experienced and on which it was possible to build an emotional consonance between the audience and refugees from Chechnya, Tatarstan, Burma, Angola and other countries.

This time we are telling the authentic stories of Khupi, Gugar, Marina and Kasem. These people are of course not just the subjects of the narration, but also active participants. They are the authors, dramaturges, consultants and often even the directors of their own stories. The positions have been divided differently. The actors are in the role of intermediary of the stories.

How did you choose the right intermediaries?

I chose awfully carefully and spent a long time looking. Even if someone is an outstanding actor, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she has a capacity for social sensitivity. In a certain way the phrase “leave your ego at home” is very apt here. The performance is not about them, but about someone else. I looked very carefully for actors, dancers and performers who have experience from work outside the theatre. Petra Lustigová, for example, works in hospitals as a clown doctor. That requires a very similar approach. A person must use his or her talent to accomplish something other than the presentation of “high art” to the audience.

In the end we put together an interesting team, including some people who we had worked with before (Eva Hromníková, Petra Lustigová, Jing Lu). I knew Philip Schenker from previous work in independent theatre here and abroad. The team also includes the dancers Daniel Raček  and Honza Březina.

Did a very close relationship have to develop between the performer and the immigrant beforehand?

This sort of project is always a risk. It was not a given that Daniel Raček would be able to empathise with the Kurdish refugee Kasem. First of all I explained everything to him, and then we went to meet Kasem in the refugee camp. At that point, it became clear to me that Daniel was the right person. Not to boast, but I wasn’t wrong in a single case. But the search took me six months.

Another member of our team is Michael Romanyshyn, our band leader. Michael, who was trained in Peter Schumann’s Bread and Puppet theatre, knows how to create a band from people of various levels of accomplishment on musical instruments. In his band, virtuosos like the jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas play alongside farmers, who had scarcely held a musical instrument beforehand. I don’t know anyone like that in Czech Republic. I wanted all the participants of our performance to play in the band, and Michael created a system in which everyone could find their place in the orchestra. I see this as the basic principle of the whole performance. Each individual contributes what they can and doesn’t just flaunt what he or she is best at.

Did any cultural differences come to light during the rehearsals?

It is cultural differences that we are generally looking at. During rehearsals, however, personal characteristics, experiences, cultural habits were all mixed in together. So I can’t really differentiate. I don’t know if it is a Chinese national characteristic, but rehearsing with Jing Lu can sometimes be very difficult. Either she is embarrassed or she giggles. On the stage, however, she is fantastic. If I had to judge what Kurds are like from what I know of Kasem, I would say extraordinarily careful and sensitive people. Up the moment when, in creative fervour during improvisation, he nearly injured his partner.

The important thing is that we created a safe environment during our work, where each person can openly give their opinion. When, for example, we talk about Islam, it is possible to go wrong. Therefore it’s good to have someone who will say “hang on, it’s not like that at all”

What about being a refugee in itself? Have you personally ever thought about fleeing your country?

That’s a good question. Perhaps it would be easiest to say no. But I openly admit that when I first travelled to the US in 1988, I thought about it. I had been invited there by the Bread and Puppet theatre. I longed to stay and do more work with them, but at the same time I knew that I wasn’t allowed. That knowledge was awfully traumatic for me. I said to myself that, if I hadn’t had a daughter, who the regime was holding hostage here at home, then I would have stayed. Perhaps it is a good thing that I didn’t actually do it in the end, and found my own path. In any case, though, it was a real temptation for me.

I am doing this work because I want to say: Don’t look down your nose at immigrants. Because you never know if, in a few years time, you couldn’t be in the same situation. We can’t be so confident and conceited to think that it couldn’t happen to us and that bad things happen far away to the east and south of us.