The stage designer is Małgorzata Szabłowska, the costumes are by Katarzyna Rott, and the lighting designer is Maciej Igielski.
Anna Hop is an artist of the Polish National Ballet and has already presented her original choreographic miniatures during the company’s annual choreography workshops. She created the children’s show Bajki ci opowiem… (I’ll Tell You Some Tales…) set to music by Witold Lutosławski for the Szczecin opera and was involved in the production of Katarzyna Jungowska’s film Fanciful. Pupa is her official choreographic debut at the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera. As a choreographer, she focuses on observing the human body and even its individual parts, undertaking a dialogue with Gombrowicz’s grotesque images and absurdities of daily life. In our everyday relations with other people we assume a number of poses, play all kinds of roles, becoming actors in the theatre of life. Sometimes we even direct reality, or adopt positions that we are assigned. ‘Gęba’ (an ugly face, a mug) and ‘pupa’ (bottom) in Gombrowicz are precisely symbols of social relationships which we often enter completely unconsciously. The ballet’s title, drawn from Ferdydurke, signifies the vitality of such poses and labels.
Pictured: Anna Hop in rehearsal with the Polish National Ballet’s dancers
Photo by Ewa Krasucka
