In Gdańsk, I had the opportunity to held four sessions for this project. In the first one, I collaborated with the contemporary/jazz dance student Aleksandra Metera and we toured some of the most iconic places in the city centre like the Main Train Station, Mariacka Street and a park nearby the train station. The second session was at the Oliwski Park with the (really) young ballet student Kornelia Paszka. In my third session, I’ve met the brothers and ballet students Basia and Bartek Michalski and we walked among the city center and the Old Town. In my last session, I collaborated with the ballet student and professional gymnast Lena Banaszek, in several places outside the city centre (like the Ulica Elektryków) and also the Szeroka street close to the famous crane from the 15th century, Brama Żuraw.
Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic coast of northern Poland with a population of 470,805. Is the capital and largest city of the Pomeranian Voivodeship and the most prominent city in the geographical region of Pomerania. It is Poland’s principal seaport and the country’s fourth-largest metropolitan area. The contemporary city was shaped by extensive border changes, expulsions and new settlement in or after 1945. In the 1980s, Gdańsk was the birthplace of the Solidarity movement, which played a major role in bringing an end to Communism in Poland and helped precipitate the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. Gdańsk has also topped rankings for the quality of life, safety and living standards worldwide, and its Hanseatic Old Town was listed as one of Poland’s national monuments.
Date of the session: August of 2021
Dancers: Aleksandra Metera, Kornelia Paszka, Basia Michalska & Bartek Michalski and Lena Banaszek.