"This year's edition is full of names that are not matter of course. There are artists with whom we have been dealing for many years and I am happy that this year such stars as Jan Martens, Peeping Tom or Yasmeen Godder will come together and at the same time great artists such as Silvia Gribaudi, Oona Doherty or Flávia Tápias and others are returning here. The popularity of the festival among these people is great and we are very pleased, they are ready to share their experiences in discussions and workshops, Flávia will directly involve local artists in her project, including Ukrainian ones. Cooperation between foreign creators and our performers always bears interesting fruit," says Yvona Kreuzmannová, founder and director of TANCE PRAHA.

Program Tips:

The main part of this year's TANEC PRAHA will be opened by the world premiere of the GRAND JETÉ production on Wednesday, June 7 in PONEC – dance venue. Its author, Silvie Gribaudi, is one of the festival's favorite guests. At GRAND JETÉ, together with the Italian dance troupe MM Contemporary Dance Company, she poses the question with humor and exaggeration: Where does ballet actually end?

The passion for dance will unite spontaneous and wild Brazilian dancers with artists from the Czech Republic and Ukraine under the baton of Brazilian choreographer Flávia Tápias in the Rotas Afora production. The result of their unique meeting will be on display in Broumov, Prague, Brno, České Budějovice and Liberec. The world premiere of the site-specific project, which takes place in public spaces, will be presented by TANEC PRAHA in co-production with the Brazilian festival Danca em Tránsito.

The Junior program line, aimed at the youngest viewers, will offer a production by the artistic association Ostružina (Lenka Jabůrková, Barbora Látalová, Anna Línová, Anna Romanovská, Marika Smreková) at the PONEC theater on June 10, as the opening of the Czech Dance Showcase for PQ+.

Focus Ukraine cannot be missed this year either. On June 11, Yana Reutova will present a part of the triptych Together Alone with the subtitle Invisible Traces at Žižkov. The program will be complemented by examples of the work of other artists from Ukraine - live and with projections as possible.

Like the rest of the world, the coronavirus pandemic has thrown the famous Israeli choreographer Yasmeen Godder into isolation. And so the very first solo of her twenty-five-year career was born, which she will present at the PONEC theater on June 12. The project Practicing Empathy #3 is a personal, intimate experience of a period of limitation, solitude and loss of control, in which through her body and performative art he explores not only how to connect more deeply with others, but also with herself.

The festival traditionally gives space to experimental and genre-crossing acts. This year, for example, it will be Pietro Marullo's participatory work WRECK – The list of extinct species, which also caught the attention of the Prague Quadriennale (PQ), with which TANEC PRAHA is once again cooperating closely. The main protagonist of this production is a floating colossal black entity. What is it really about? You can find out on June 16 and 17 in the Small Hall of the Trade Fair Palace, home of the National Gallery, or on June 18 in Štvanice.

Jan Martens, an iconic figure of the Flemish conceptual scene, will be among the big names that TANEC PRAHA will welcome for the first time. His seventeen performers aged 18 to 71 will take the stage of the Hybernia Theater on June 19. The production called any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones is a source of hope and contagious energy - not only thanks to the grandiose finale, which will not let the audience sit still.

The festival audience is invited to a journey through time and around the world on June 21 at the PONEC theater in Jacopo Jenna's production of Some Choreographies. In it, the performer Ramona conducts a dialogue with a quick sequence of videos, which are a parade of all possible ways of human movement. On the same day, another of the talents of the Aerowaves platform to support young choreographers will perform in the vicinity of PONEC - Olga Dukhovnaya in the work Swan Lake Solo.

On June 22, the Archa Theater will host a darker, philosophical production of Navy Blue by Belfast choreographer Oona Doherty, with twelve performers' emotionally charged dance performances and their relentless struggle for survival in today's unforgiving world.

TANEC PRAHA brings the art of dance to non-traditional public spaces - on June 23 and 24 it will be Révové nádvoří in the premises of the National Library of the Czech Republic. On the most beautiful Clementinum square, dominated by an early Baroque fountain and whose walls are overgrown with climbing vines, an interactive performance by the Austrian choreographer Helene Weinzierl and her troupe CieLAROQUE: IT'S ALL ABOUT… will take place.

The next production will follow it on the evening of June 24. In her choreography I Carry, You Hold, Olivia Court Messa, together with her dance and life partner Yochaim, destroys traditional ideas about the duet of a man and a woman. Both performers embody what a relationship entails: communication, trust, support, respect and independence.

What does it mean to dance to music? And how to compose music for dancing? Ingrid Berger Myhre and Lasse Passage will reveal the answers on June 26 at the PONEC theater. The title of their duet Panflutes and Paperwork alludes to contrasts: Panflutes (Pan's flutes) are playful and passionate on the one hand, Paperwork on the other hand refers to symbols of bureaucracy.

The spectacular ending of TANEC PRAHA 2023 will be provided by the legendary Belgian ensemble Peeping Tom, which will return to the festival after ten years, on June 27 in the Karlín Theater. In the two parts of Diptych: The missing door and The lost room, we go into a dark world on the border between reality and dreams, in which we are lost just like the eight protagonists. Exceptional dance and acrobatic performances, moving almost beyond the limit of human possibilities, impressive visual and sound effects, captivating atmosphere... This stormy voyage into the most hidden corners of the human soul will be truly unforgettable!

In the regional part of the program, TANEC PRAHA 2023 will present a number of works awarded in recent years by the international jury of the Czech Dance Platform. For example, the production of the POCKETART collective (Sabina Bočková and Johana Pocková) Jáma lvová (UNLIMITED version involving local interested parties) and Treatment of Remembering. Viktor Černický will present PLI – a production that straddles the border between installation, performance, dance and circus. This also includes Celestial Odyssey (Andrea Miltnerová, Monika Knoblochová, Jan Komárek) and their trip to another universe of imagination or SOFT SPOT of the ME-SA ensemble (Adrienn Hód, Martina Hajdyla, Soňa Ferienčíková). Last but not least, Microworlds – a playful and poetic production for children from the workshop of Jazmína Piktorová and Sabina Bočková.

An interactive work by Ukrainian artists working in the Czech Republic, On the Road, choreographed by Yana Reutová or Boxing by Mirka Eliášová, is also intended for children. Family Friendly is undoubtedly also Zero etc. Cecile Da Costa.

Specific projects will be presented by artists for the Benedikt Rejt Gallery in Louny, namely Yana Reutova, Tereza Ondrová and Tereza Lenerová. She also has another invitation with a display duet, which she created together with Jitka Čechová.

An attractive accompanying program will be part of the festival.