Czech Republic » Tribes
Swans
The costumes for the 'Swans' Tribe were created for the Skutr group (Martin Kukučka, Lukáš Trpišovský) and for the 2014 production of 'Swan Lake' at the Klicpera Theatre in Hradec Králové. Origami swan masks s for the Tribes project were specially designed and realized by Ondřej Cibulka and Evžen Dub. "My name is Siegfried and today I turned 21 years old. I will take a walk in the woods, to the lake. Each step will sound as the echo of a passage I have never done, of the door I have never opened into the rose garden. That is how the echo of my words sounds in your memory. Why should I swirl dust on the round vase with rose petals, I do not know." Water as crystal which hangs above the dancers' heads in the castle's grand hall. Red lipstick, swan feathers, roots of memories. Reflection in the mirror. Soil. Black and white. Dreamless night. Past looking like drowning cathedral. Prince Siegfried, frond Beno, the Mother Queen, Redbeard, Odette, Odile and the cursed swans who change into illusions of girl in the moonlight. All of these are the attributes from the great myth known especially thanks to Swan Lake ballet of Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovski, Valentin Petrovich Begich and Fedor Vasiliyevich Gelcer. This myth is closer to our memories than a fairy tale; these memories get released as if from the Pandora box the moment the curtain closes. The curtain falls and the theatrical imagery lives on in our minds. Swan, ballerina, white girl, black swan, Bluebeard, prince…Often I walk through the historical centre in Prague and I see so many swans on the Moldau river. Usually they are white, the young ones grey and those who, confused, get onto the road are dark, dirty. Not inside but from outside, hit by the city dirt. Sometimes their landing on the street is fatal and their lives are ended by a car. Their gracefulness and matter-of-fact way in which they move is charming and the look at them is delightful. Our actors exit the narrow theatre space and our imaginations into the real city space where we will be able to observe their encounters with real swans. Should the swan in danger be lucky she will be saved.