exposed

Innovative & interactive concept for festivals

10 - 30 min / _suitable for events & festivals _ /
no language barrier

Full lenght performance

60 min / suitable for theatre & schools & businesses & festivals /
available in CZ & PL & ENG

❝

"When I see a show that has something special, something original, something that engages the audience then for sure I will say so, that was you. I saw so many street shows and whatever it was you did, you really touched people." Ian Deadly, professional street performer

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"OMG this was the best thing everrr!!! Love it!! Amazing everything!! The acrobatics were insane!! Everything was soo on point. This is conscious art at it's finest. The power was felt even through video." Arrameia

"Admirable physical and artistic performances. Woman's cyclicality is so beautifully portrayed here. Also take your partner if you will ever be able to see this show. I am glad that the theme of femininity and cyclicality is coming to the theater as well. You will have fun, find yourself and accept ♡. "
Bagniari - coach, podcast Bagniari radio

• More reviews

exposed

Performance by The Same Self about the woman and her volatility throughout the menstrual cycle.

Women come alone, with brave partners, or even in groups of ten. They don't really know what to expect. It should be about women's emotions, maybe menstruation. Well, hopefully it doesn't leak out. And it does. But from the other side - tears of emotion and laughter. And if they came to the show under the cover of darkness so that no one could see them, they leave with a sense of accomplishment, confidence and a healthy pride in themselves. And the men? With the satisfaction of having understood a little more again.Top-notch aerial acrobatics, singing, live music, dancing, acting. An experience between new circus, theatre and meditation. An emotional multi-genre production Exposed is full of answers to questions that plague women and men, revealing the full range of emotions that both empower women and make them vulnerable.Since its premiere in 2019, there have already been over 20 performances and thanks to the feedback "every woman and man should see this"; "it had a therapeutic effect" or "I'm really proud to be a woman", there is no doubt that this artistic-educational fusion makes sense ♡.

• I wanna see it!

The whole story of the genesis of the performance read here.

I'm a lover of movement, an aerial acrobat and psychologist who is dedicated to the topic of female cyclicity. As part of my vision to encourage women to embrace themselves wholeheartedly and inspire men to embrace women, I founded The Same Self Project. Out of this - in collaboration with other artists - came the multi-genre production obnaŽENA (English title of the production: EXPOSED).I am originally from Ostrava, I have been practicing voltige (gymnastics on horseback) since childhood, competed in it until I was 18 and in recent years I was part of the extended Czech national team. I studied psychology at Masaryk University in Brno and since 2012 I have been working at LMC s.r.o. My current position as a "user researcher" is very closely related to psychology - I identify people's needs and behaviours and work with product and innovation teams to improve job search and education services.Parallel to my "official career" I am developing a movement career. After a serious accident (2010), I took up yoga to help me get back into the athletic-acrobatic life and after years of practice, I became a certified Kaula Tantra Yoga teacher. In 2011 I totally fell in love with Aerial Silks. I took classes at Circus trochu jinak, Cirqueon, KD Mlejn and AirGym Art Company.THE SAME SELF
In this project I combine psychology with acrobatics (and organizational skills :). I have been exploring women's issues in detail since 2014. A few years later, I started to elaborate it in movement with choreographer Sara Puchowska and since 2018 further with French dancer and choreographer Fanny Barrouquère. She later took on the role of director and together with the other artists we successfully launched obnaŽENA (then still only under the title The Same Self) with its premiere on 11 October 2019 at KZ Domovina.And because I believe that movement really heals, I have been studying Dance and Movement Therapy since 2019.

EXPERIENCE OVERVIEW

PERFORMACE EXPERIENCE SINCE 2013:
CZECH REPUBLIC
- Cabaret des Péchés (Brno)
- Colours of Ostrava
- Darling Cabaret (Prague)
- Duplex Club (Prague)
- Goldfingers (Prague)
- Prague Playoffs
- Theatre ROYAL (Prague)
- and over a hundred commercial appearances at events of various companiesABROAD
- Freeman Festival Munich, Germany (May 2022)
- UK Aerial Performance Championship, Mablethorpe, Great Britain - 2 gold medals in category "Professional Silks" (2019, 2020)
- La Vida club, Oman, Muscat (New Year‘s Eve 2019)ARTISTIC COLLABORATION SINCE 2013:
- AirGym Art Company
- Aliatrix - visual entertainment agency
- Bohemian Burlesque
- South Bohemian Theatre - Revolving Theatre Český Krumlov (Da Vinci)OWN PRODUCTION:FOUNDER OF THE SAME SELF PROJECT
- production obnaŽENA (EXPOSED)
- premiere Octobre 2019
- over 20 reprises played on various artistic, educational and self-development events
reaching thousands of viewersCO-FOUNDER OF ARTE LEVITE
- artistic group focusing on commercial acrobatic performance in the Czech Republic
- founded in 2013
- https://artelevite.cz/

photo by Václav Jedlička

I love everything that helps to awake, to bring together the intricacies of life as well as its natural processes and whatever brings great inspiration to life. For twenty years, I have been running my project Acentrum in Prague – a conscious and active preparation for motherhood and parenthood with the focus on the support of natural birth and healthy functioning of the entire family.Now I work with women and couples before inception, during pregnancy, at birth, and after it I provide theoretical as well as practical guidance as a mentor and guide through pregnancy, birth and parenthood. In my courses, I also raise awareness precisely of the links between the monthly cycle of a woman with the birth process, which teaches us how to manage everything. It is amazing for me to observe how the urge to explore and understand oneself opens up in women also due to cyclicity, how the interest in this topic is steadily growing, how even some men are able to perceive and anticipate the moods of their female partners caused by the very hormonal changes in the course of the whole month and who are gradually coming to the realisation that they have a woman at their side who transforms herself into four different beings in one month. You can find more information about my work and about the possibilities of cooperation on my website.I am originally an actress. I was born in Bratislava. From the age of 5 until adolescence, I spent more time on the film set and in film and television studios than at school. After graduating from the theatre faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, I spent four seasons acting in theatre. I was invited to collaborate on The Same Self by Michaela Jonczy with whom I have been singing in the gospel group MGC since 2014.

photo by Matúš Lago

I come from the South Moravian wine village Kobylí, however, my destiny took me all the way to Prague, where I graduated from the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory, specifically playing the piano. I am currently continuing my studies at the Prague HAMU, I work in various music groups and I am also engaged in pedagogical activities.Music accompanies me in various forms from a childhood - from Moravian folklore, through classical, jazz, popular music to fusions of various genres. And just that diversity is one of the things that I really enjoy playing. The music is a bit like us women - there is one, but still several times :-)Jana joined The Same Self project in July 2021.

Woman’s monthly cycle as a theme of an aerial dance performance? Why not. A woman passes through various moods, her energy changes... So why not use it in a more creative way (especially when one of the phases of the monthly female cycle bears the adjective “creative”)The Same Self is a dialogue between an acrobat and a singer and a woman and her volatility in the course of the menstrual cycle. It aims to convey that a woman is one and yet four different beings. And therefore, in the course of the 60 minute-long performance, we can experience the full cycle from the dynamic, expressive and creative all the way to the reflective phase. In short, the woman in all her beauty. In the individual phases, aerial acrobatics (Ivana Kolcunová) blends with dance (Fanny Barroquère), singing (Michaela Jonczy), spoken word (Katarína Zatovičová) and live music (Viktor Kracik-Bartha).The performance is dedicated to women. It encourages them to lovingly embrace their nature. To stay in contact with all the gifts which the monthly cycle brings. To be able to use the volatility of their energy more consciously (be it in their private lives or at work).The performance is also dedicated to men. It gives them the possibility to see the potential concealed in the moods of women. To understand that even the “irksome” phase has its beauty and benefits. To respect the woman as a whole.HOW WAS THE IDEA OF THE PERFORMANCE BORN? AND WHY EXACTLY FEMALE CYCLES?Movement is something that I just cannot live without. 7 years ago I discovered aerial silks acrobatics and I totally fell for it. However, my approach to movement and to my own body had always been rather "masculine" – driven by power, competitiveness and the tendency to drive everything to the extreme and all the way to absolute exhaustion. Hence it is not difficult to guess that I was not exactly attuned to the "female energy."A breakthrough for me was a monthly yoga stay in India where I met women roughly 10 years older then me who were speaking about female topics very openly. And also about how they plan work, important decisions and even their attendance at parties according to their menstrual cycle. This opened my eyes a lot and I started to focus more on the changes in energy I was experiencing.I read the Optimized Woman from Miranda Gray, joined the female circles with Bára Zemanová and I gradually started to notice that on some days I really am more productive, while on other, I have much better and more interesting ideas and on even other days, I can communicate with everyone in an absolutely spontaneous and relaxed manner... And then there are days when it is almost certain that I will burst into tears even because of trifles. But most importantly, I noticed that it all happens over and over again. :) This realisation brought immense relief and joy – that on days when I feel that the world is going to end, I just have to realise that in a couple of days everything will turn for the better and that sometimes the best thing to do is to leave something for later.I started sharing my “new experiences” with my female friends and women in my surroundings and I started to realise that for many of them, it was the very same discovery as it was for me before my trip to India. And so an idea to give this idea some form and pass it on to the world gradually started to take root in my head. And aerial dance and music struck me as very effective media to convey these ideas. And yes, it all came to me in the creative phase :D

WHEN YOU HAVE A STRONG PURPOSE, YOU FIND WHAT YOU NEED...Originally, I was inspired by my former boyfriend, a multi-genre musician and composer, to create a dialogue between a man and a woman. I imagined that we would create an intimate perfrormance together where he would musically convey his perspective on the female phases and I would dance. When we started working on it, I also started my collaboration with Sára Puchowska. Unfortunately, I and my boyfriend broke up and Sára had a serious car accident (from which she has already recovered luckily!) Therefore, The Same Self was left dozing for a while.Despite these unexpected and sad circumstances, the idea of the female cycle in movement somehow stayed with me and I tried to spontaneously develop other choreographies.But it was already clear to me that there is no way I could handle the performance on my own. Acrobatics and movement are a big hobby of mine, but I have no art education. I am a psychologist by profession and I have a "casual office job".For inspiration purposes, I once attended a dance workshop of the 420PEOPLE company, whose performances I have been admiring for a long time. After the workshop, I mustered all my courage and approached Václav Kuneš, the art director of 420PEOPLE, and asked him if he could help me out with the choreography for The Same Self or more precisely, if he could connect me with someone who would be interested in such a collaboration. And so I got acquainted with French dancer and choreographer Fanny Barrouquère, a repeated nominee for the Thalia Price, who lives in Prague and collaborates on various projects with Václav Kuneš or Lenka Vágnerová.I and Fanny have known each other for almost a year now and we have spent together tens of hours in a gym. She helps me to instil meaning, subtlety as well as the right dramatic drive to movement. And in return, I am delighted that my aim – for the Same Self to contribute to raising awareness of femininity – happens already in the creative process. In Fanny's words:"This project is very interesting for me because despite being a woman, I had never had any idea of "female phases" until I joined the project. I feel that there really is a lack of knowledge about this topic. Since I learnt more about all of it, I have started to accept myself and my own nature."And I am also extremely happy that Fanny will eventually be part of the performance itself, so in addition to dance in the air you will get to see dance on the ground as well.However, dance cannot exist without music... for which we originally looked in our memories and on Spotify. And this year in July I fished out of my memory a singer who I had been acquainted with by my former boyfriend back then. And without further ado, she said YES.

THE SAME SELF IS DEFINITELY NOT A ONE-WOMAN SHOWWhen singer Michaela Jonczy joined the performance, the entire project gained a whole new dimension. Michaela is a pop and gospel singer, but also a composer who has composed many songs with beautiful female lyrics. She is the author of all songs in The Same Self – she has selected those songs from her repertoire which fit, based on their meaning as well as mood, in the individual phases of the cycle and form a perfect link between the choreographies. She has also worked with the theme of femininity in the music video of her song Na Věčnost, in which a woman is captured across different generationsThanks to Michaela, the team was expanded by other indispensable people. She decided to collaborate with Viktor Kracik-Bartha, with whom she created new musical arrangements for the existing lyrics. In addition, they have been developing other musical material which will accompany acrobatic dance. Viktor has ample experience with theatre and film music and therefore knows how to grasp the whole concept of the performance.Due to the fact that Michaela comes from an artistic family, she invited her sister, fashion designer Veronika Bijok to join the project. Veronika is interested in folklore, traditions and the status of women in today's world. We have used a couple of pieces from the existing collection Fragile for a photoshoot with another inspiring woman – photographer Jana Němcová who breathed the female spirit into the whole project by visual means. In addition to that, the photoshoot was a lot of fun and it produced great photographic material for this website and for promotional purposes. But the cooperation with Veronika did not end with the photoshoot. She also created the costumes for the performance.During our discussions with Michaela about where else we'd like to take The Same Self, Michaela mentioned Katarína several times, saying she might be interested in it. And so one day we were joined by Katarína Zatovičová – an actress and founder of A centre, a project concerned with conscious and active preparation for motherhood and parenthood focusing on the support of natural birth and healthy functioning of the entire family. Coincidentally, in her courses of pre-birth tuning between partners she had been explaining to women for several years that their monthly cycle prepares them for the birth process and promotes the need to be aware of their cyclicity. Katarína provides a spoken word accompaniment to the performance.And so the crew was complete and the premiere took place on October 11 (2019) in KZ Domovina in Prague Holešovice.THE PREPARATIONS ARE NOT OVER AT ALL...In a way I am pleased now that I had no idea what the preparation of the performance will entail. Be it from the time, organisational, financial as well as physical perspective. In short, from all the possible viewpoints :) Because, if I knew all this at the beginning, I would probably be too scared to plunge into it in the first place.The individual "female phases" of course project themselves in the preparation too. Sometimes I am just so exhausted, I don't have the energy to practice or do anything. But it is precisely the realisation that in a couple of days I will advance to a different phase and everything will change for the better that often saves me from total panic. Some concerns, however, prevail irrespective of the phase I happen to find myself in :))How do I manage not to fall short of breath?I have experience from several dozens of aerial silks performances with our art group Arte Levite. The only difference is that these shows always took five or ten minutes at most. In The Same Self I spend 30 minutes suspended in the air. I tried to keep myself calm by relying on "performance adrenaline" and assuring myself that I will have enough energy. But when I consulted the performance with Petr Horníček, the manager of Losers Cirque Company, he warned me to get prepared for the fact that the performance itself will be much more physically demanding than the rehearsals. And that adrenaline, on which I wanted to rely, works more at shorter shows. But an all-night performance is a totally different kettle of fish. A backup plan? It would not to be that difficult to come up with one because I have an acrobat twin. People often ask us at performances if I and Martina from Arte Levite are sisters and sometimes we ourselves cannot tell one from another when we see pictures from performances. :)) So at the actual performance you can guess how many people you actually see dancing.Can my pocket stretch to it?I am funding the whole performance from my own long-term savings. People ask me – did you apply for any grants or sponsor gifts? Yes, one from the Život Umělce Foundation. If I received the contribution, for which I would be very grateful indeed, it would cover only 20% of the costs, which have already surpassed 150,000 Czech crowns. I am still waiting for our Hithit crowdfunding campaign to get approved, but it is hard to guess how many people it will "grasp" and if we will manage to meet the 60,000 CZK target. It would be of course great to receive financial support from more sources, but looking up and applying for grants, as well as searching for sponsors takes time, which I have limited amount of. And that's why I decided to focus more on practicing and only the most necessary promotion so that the final result achieves the purpose behind me doing all this: For The Same Self to help smash what still remains a social taboo and what also happens to be the most natural thing in the life of a woman.HOW DO PEOPLE IN YOUR SURROUNDINGS REACT TO THE SAME SELF?Very differently. But they are usually interested. I have already trained myself to pronounce without a blink and hesitation in my voice that "I am preparing an acrobatic performance about the changes in female energy in the course of the menstrual cycle". It is usually followed by a moment of silence and suspense. And then I hear reactions such as:"Alright, I'm gonna come with my wife. That could bring light to many things we're experiencing."or:"Ahh. I get that every month at home, so there's no point in going to the theatre and paying for it."Women often look forward to the rendering of the creative phase and add "finally someone will get it!" and are generally very supportive and encourage me. And I also have a very quirky friend from Russia who commented on it as follows – "Ivana, and you really think that anyone will be interested in your menstruation and that you'll make them see the light? It's just you Czech girls who probably don't understanding any of it, the Russian girl knows all about it!"Well, if it's like that, then that's marvellous! However, for example in Sweden, it is still far from being accepted as commonplace. At the beginning of September I got a neat email from Swedish "menstrual activist" Kim Lindqvist who has been organising educational seminar and promoting menstrual cups within her initiative Bloody Good. Her boyfriend lives in Prague and she was apparently immensely thrilled when she heard about a performance inspired by the cyclical woman in movement.Well, let's wait for more reactions after the October premiere or the December rerun!
_____________________Author: Ivana Kolcunová – acrobat and author of The Same Self published 26/09/2019