Zodiakin huhtikuun kantaesitys on kansainvälinen yhteistuotanto TEACH ME NOT!. Kysyimme teoksen tekijöiltä Wojciech Grudzińskilta ja Maria Magdalena Kozłowskalta muutaman kysymyksen teoksen taustoista. Haastattelu on englanninkielinen.
- TEACH ME NOT! takes a look at the power structures involved in a teacher-student relationship. Can you tell a bit more about why you are interested in this thematics?
Wojtek: Having a background in ballet, I grew up in the tradition of classical art education, where hierarchies still play a big role. This experience has made me aware of how authority, discipline, and power dynamics shape not only the learning process but also the body itself, how movement, memory, and behavior become coded through these relationships. In TEACH ME NOT!, we explore how these experiences influence one’s trajectory long after formal training ends. While the piece draws directly from the landscape of ballet and classical art education, it also speaks to a more universal theme. The teacher-student dynamic is something many people have encountered in different forms. It’s an attempt to question these power structures and ask what happens when we try to unlearn the lessons imposed on us.
Maria Magdalena: When I was 7 I started going to music school, which in Poland meant that your childhood was over. Learning music theory, practicing the instrument as an addition to completing regular education, didn’t leave too much time for friendships or play. It was also a rather ruthless environment, emotionally speaking, even in a small town that I come from. The teachers make it clear that If you are not talented enough, no amount of hard work will ever make up for it. This obsession with craft and your special function in society somehow bonds dancers and musicians.
- have you worked together before? If yes, what kind of topics have you dealt with earlier?
Wojtek: Even though we share the same circles of friends, we first met three years ago in Amsterdam. A bit later, we had the chance to work together for the first time in the studio on Maria’s project. That’s how our collaboration started—first with me working on Maria’s project, and then with Maria joining TEACH ME NOT!. I think we’re both drawn to exploring themes of Polish and Eastern/Central European identity, likely influenced by our experience of living abroad in the Netherlands. This perspective adds another layer to our work—shaping an embodied sense of melancholy that feels both twisted and complex.
- I was intrigued in Wojciech’s bio with this description “He works without boundaries, shame or coyness …” How does this manifest in your works? For example, what can we expect from TEACH ME NOT! in the light of this sentence?
Wojtek: Yes, this phrase about working without boundaries first came up when I was developing Dance Mom, a project I created together with my mother. I remember that my starting point was the idea of a performative challenge on stage—inviting my mother to perform with me was part of that. For me, the performance space is a landscape where I can ask questions freely, or at least, I like to think of it that way. TEACH ME NOT! carries some of that same unapologetic energy—there’s a willingness to blur the lines between structure and rebellion.
- I’m also fascinated by the term “sonic utopias” in Maria Magdalena’s bio. Is this something that will also be present in TMN!?
Maria Magdalena: In the previous years I often worked outside the studio, sometimes in experimental settings, like public spaces or bodies of water. I developed a particular interest in water as a resonator, amplifier and a stage at the same time. As a singer I’m often looking for small displacements of how we usually hear or make a sound. I’m curious about the labour of a singing body, how it refers to itself, how intimate the voice is and also how public. It comes from within and yet, when loud, can signify a presence much stronger than anything visual. It originates in the depths of the body, but when it’s leaving it, it sort of radically belongs to everybody. This conundrum doesn’t cease to fascinate me and I am sure the audience will have the opportunity to catch a glimpse of that fascination in TEACH ME NOT!.