Review: POLISH DANCE PLATFORM 2026 in Wrocław

I was over the moon when I learned that the Polish Dance Platform was coming to Wrocław. And a second later, I started to wonder: what does Polish contemporary dance actually mean?

As it turned out, that was the first question on a very long list I had before the event. We can see all kinds of dance and choreography in musicals and ballet, but what does the contemporary Polish dance scene actually look like? And another question: is a jury made up entirely of international guests the right filter for choosing a Polish “visiting card” of dance?

The questions multiplied. I still don’t know all the answers, but I did come away with a few thoughts.

The first - and probably the saddest - was that many of the shows were quite similar. By the end, I could have played contemporary-dance bingo:

• slow motion
• nudity
• no storyline
• no music (silence or a beat instead)
• no synchronized choreography
• if there are any lines, they’re in English
• a neighbour in the audience checking their phone during the performance (Is that the sign of our times?)

Unfortunately - especially when it comes to the last one - almost every show ticked at least two of those boxes. And the very characteristics that were supposed to make the pieces original sometimes blended them all into one big, slightly mysterious formula.

I admit it: I missed synchronized choreography. A story. Apparently, contemporary dance is now often an individual expression surrounded by other people. Fair enough. I can swallow that pill (but I’m still waiting for the synchronized pirouettes).

For me, the highlights were:

I Love Ballet - a funny and interesting story about ballerinas, told with a healthy dose of distance and self-awareness about the ups and downs of the profession. Honest, sometimes almost ruthless, but very easy to watch. And finally: graceful movements in ballet shoes. Yes, please.

Glory Game - even though it ticks six boxes on my list, it is executed so well that watching it is like sipping a really good coffee: intense, rich, and impossible to rush. Here, the body is a tool - a beautiful one. And my, oh my, I could watch those carefully arranged sequences of competition, anger, and physical intensity for hours. This is beauty in its purest form. The lighting is part of the story, and so is the sand.

Rapeflower - a vulnerable and honest story about dance and the body, touching on a difficult subject with grace, respect, and delicacy. It doesn’t need to shout to stay with me.

WoW - synchronized choreography at last! Energy. Movement. Exactly what I had been waiting for. A funny dancing story, beautifully performed, that somehow makes the whole audience want to move.

And then, beyond the regular programme, there was My Home, No Home by Nazareth Panadero and Michael Strecker. This piece had us all in its hands, squeezing so tightly that we almost forgot to breathe. Now this is what I call an amazing piece - the kind that stays with you for a very long time. There is such tenderness in the movements of these former members of Pina Bausch’s ensemble. They put a spell on us with their bodies, and the audience surrenders without a fight.

And then there was the dance battle, which, in my opinion, should have been at the very core of the event.

Eight different personalities of movement. Eight differen

t styles. All brought together in front of our eyes, in real time. Round three, when four dancers moved together spontaneously for ten minutes, was a real bombshell.

This is exactly why humans have danced since the beginning of time. To be together. To interact. To put our energy together. To synchronize while remaining aware of one another. To build something out of interaction.

It was all there! Nice and clean (plus a lot of pirouettes). Music. Dance. Energy.

This is what dance is about to me.

Photo: Tobiasz Papuczys

Reader Reviews

To post a comment, you must register and login.

Otrzymuj wiadomości z Broadwayu na WhatsAppie

Otrzymuj najnowsze aktualności, wiadomości i ekskluzywne treści bezpośrednio w aplikacji.