Homo religiosus / Karol Miękina
choreography: Karol Miękina
music: Paul Tinsley
costumes: Zofia Jakubiec
dancers: Paulina Jaksim, Katarzyna Sikora, Sandra Szatan, Dominik Olechowski, Grzegorz Polański, Paweł Trust
poster design: Jola Drozd
premiere: November 14, 2014 BalletOFFFestival prologue
The project was implemented as part of the “Young Poland” Scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.
The performance was created as part of the residency program at the Krakow Choreographic Center.
People started to worship gods at the same time as they began to create art. And just like art, religion has always been an attempt at finding the meaning and value of life. This search has always come from our consciousness, the sense of who we are and what our place in the world is. It is one of the factors proving that our kind has acquired clearly human traits. A spiritual attitude, oriented at experiencing the sacred, has accompanied people throughout the ages. Therefore, as an important dimension of the human existence, religiousness also determines our humanity. One could conclude that the Homo sapiens is at the same time the Homo religiosus. This category expresses man’s natural longing for God.
The point of departure for the performance is the human desire to unite with something larger than ourselves. Something beyond and above us, and maybe even hidden somewhere deep within us. The need of humankind to have faith, create a transcendental world, and search for God becomes the inspiration here. Without a doubt, these needs stem from our fears accompanying life and death, the desire to explain the mystery and tragedy of life. Religiousness ingrained deep within us expresses our complex and complicated nature, tells us something important about the human mind and the essence of our aspirations.
