FLASHBACK / Andrea Miltnerová (UK/CZ)

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Memory plays havoc with our minds: flashbacks from both the past and, paradoxically, the future ...

Partly drawing inspiration from the rigid code of baroque gesture,
a period where death was omnipresent in every aspect of life and from her idiosyncratic obsession with movement and partly delving into her own darker self, Andrea vacillates between the intangible worlds of life and death, casting up unexpected associations.

Jan Komárek's specific lighting design interwoven with old fashioned slide projection images 'à la Muybridge', creates a complex and animated environment.

Experienced Canadian musician and composer, Rainer Wiens, whose works have been highly acclaimed in the alternative dance scene
in North America and Europe, brings his own sensitive interpretation
of the theme expressed by his unique use of prepared instruments.

Andrea Miltnerová
British dancer and choreographer of Czech origin, who lives in Prague. For the past few years she has been specialising in baroque dance and its creative fusion with other techniques, above all contemporary dance. She was born and trained in London and came to Prague to dance with the Ballet of the National Theatre. She currently collaborates
as a performer with various Czech and foreign creators. Her deep interest in the baroque led her to collaborate on the reconstruction
of baroque operas and to create her own performances based
on movement analysis and ethnochoreographic research, for example The Baroque Body Revealed, Pentimento and Vertical Horizontal. She has worked as a director, choreographer and dancer with the early music ensembles Collegium 1704 and Collegium Marianum. She has danced in baroque operas at the National Theatre, at the Baroque Castle Theatre in Český Krumlov and in festivals in Germany, Slovenia and Hungary. She is currently working with French choreographer Françoise Denieau, performing in her productions throughout France, including Paris (Opéra Comique) and Versailles (Opéra Royale),
in Luxembourg and in Switzerland (Lausanne). Her contemporary dance solo Fractured was presented at the European Festival of Contemporary Dance in Poland and at euro scene Leipzig and Unidram Potsdam to critical acclaim. She has been invited to perform it at the Korzo Theatre in The Hague. Her latest solo Dance of the Magnetic Ballerina has been selected by the prestigious European network Aerowaves as one of their priority performances for 2013 and has been invited to Aerowaves' festival Spring Forward in Zurich (Zürich Tanzt), to East Gate Europe 2 Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, to The Place Theatre in London and to Paradiso as part of the Julidans Festival in Amsterdam.

Jan Komárek
He studied painting and graphic design at the School of Applied Arts. He worked in various different fields, as well as composing music for theatre and puppet theatre. After emigrating to France, he formed the ‛Mimo Theatre’, creating puppet theatre for both adults and children, performing himself as puppeteer and clown. In 1983 Jan moved to Toronto, Canada, where, together with composer Rainer Wiens he founded ‛Sound Image Theatre’, using actors as well as dancers and various performers to create image based, poetic performances with live music.
He received several prestigious Dora Mayor Awards for Best Play, Best Set and Lighting Design and Best Music. He gradually started to work as lighting designer for other professional theatre companies, particularly in the dance field in Toronto and Montreal. Jan moved back to Prague in 2001, where he became known on the alternative scene for his own shows and lighting design. He was voted ‛Theatre Personality of the Year 2009’ by the New Wave Festival and was awarded first prize for Lighting Design by an international jury at the 2010 Czech Dance Platform Festival. In Jan’s creations, sound, light and movement are inseparable elements and are created together.
He draws his inspiration from images, be they paintings, drawings
or photographs, as well as from the look and personality of the individual performers.

Rainer Wiens
Rainer Wiens' approach to musical composition is one in which openness and experimentation are key, and in which his works change dynamically to work with performer strengths and interests. Interactions with musicians and artists from other fields have been
a constant source of inspiration for Wiens throughout his career. Wiens has written and performed the music for an opera as well as several dance pieces, has scored numerous films, and has led avant-garde music groups. A theme running through all of Wiens' projects is the idea of achieving complexity through simplicity and freedom through limitation. This approach feeds into Wiens creation of uncategorizable music exploring timbral diversity and rhythmic instability. Wiens work with his current group, Dream Algebra, pushes his rhythmic explorations further than ever before.

Other performances:
Dance of the Magnetic Ballerina, Fractured.