Bolero, bebop i „bal nad bale” czyli taneczne metafory w wybranych tekstach piosenek Agnieszki Osieckiej

The article is an analysis of selected lyrics from Agnieszka Osiecka’s songs based on the theme of dance as a metaphor. The author of Sopockie bolero, To nasze sopockie bolero and Niech żyje bal uses dance as a lyrical situation which allows the author to analyze the lyrical I’s intensified emotions. Osiecka also uses the possibilities provided by the song form — rhythmicity, repetitions, the closeness of the language of the song to the language of choreography.

Dance in Indian culture: A cosmic manifestation of divine creation and a path to liberation

Dance is a human cultural activity aimed at non-verbal emotional communication, mentioned for the first time in the circle of European culture by Homer in the Iliad (8th/7th century BC). In Indian culture — the most extensive one of four contemporary civilizations of antiquity (next to Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Chinese), whose cradle is the Indus Valley Civilization — the first material evidence of the presence of dance is dated between 2300–1750 BC. It is a bronze statuette of a dancing girl, making us aware of the fact that this type of activity has accompanied people since the dawn of time, regardless of their origin and cultural affiliation. India and its oldest religion, Hinduism, have made this art highly prized because of its original, pure spiritual character. The first treatise entirely devoted to dance, entitled Natyashastra (Treatise on Performing Arts), was written according to tradition between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd century AD, although many premises indicate that its beginnings date back to the 5th century BC, and the final version — to around 5th century AD. Its author was Bharata Muni, an ancient sage, theatrologist and musicologist who allegedly received knowledge of arts from the god Brahma himself to create a symbolic representation of the world which, by showing good and evil, would persuade both the viewers and the performers to act ethically. From Natyashastra it appears that dance was created by the gods for their worship. In its most original form, dance grew out of the sacrificial ritual, hence the knowledge of it was secret, highly codified and communicated in strict confidentiality. The patron of the dance and its divine performer par excellence is the god Shiva in the aspect of Nataraja (Lord of the Dance), who in one image combines god as the creator, protector and destroyer of the universe, while simultaneously containing the Indian concept of an endless time cycle. Accurate recreation of the mythical dance initiated by Shiva guarantees that the faithful achieve salvation by overcoming sin, ignorance, and laziness represented by the demon Apasmara, on whom the god treads in a dancing trance. For the Indian Hindu culture dance has a highly important ritualistic and mystical meaning, hence it is also present along with music and singing, which is a melodic recitation of sacred verses, in all literature, from the Vedas (sacred books of Hinduism), through encyclopedic Puranas, to epics such as Mahabharata and Ramayana. Dance is indispensable to the theater as well as visual and audiovisual arts, brings relief to those in mourning and sorrow, leads to liberation from samsara (the wheel of incarnations), and is a reflection of divinity in its purest, most dynamic manifestation: movement. Thanks to dance being a rejection of oneself, entering a mystical trance, one can connect with the Absolute here on Earth and experience divinity.

The depiction of men in contemporary pornographic movies

This article describes how men are presented in pornographic materials available on one of the most popular thematic websites — PornHub.com. The article contains a disambiguation of the term ‘pornography’, and discusses the reach of the pornographic market, as well as the audience and specifics of PornHub. The main part contains an empirical study of fifteen movie productions divided into three categories: heterosexual, homosexual, and for women. The article presents both the physical description of what is happening in the film and the analysis of the gender roles of the depicted characters. All selected films were made in 2018 or later. Pornography research is an extremely broad field, which is looked into by many professions: sexologists, film experts, sociologists, psychologists and even feminist activists. Some findings were recalled at work, but this is only an outline of the matter.

The image of a rebel woman in the Czechoslovak New Wave based on the Daises by Věra Chytilová

Daises by Věra Chytilová is one of the most important films of the Czechoslovak New Wave, from which the image of a rebellious female figure emerges. Due to its complex nature, aesthetic and semantic diversity, this surreal image can be interpreted on many levels, often extremely different. It is both a criticism of consumerism and nihilism, and a feminist manifesto in the Central and Eastern European edition. The communism that dominated this area tended to institutionalize the inequalities between women and men. Due to the complexity of the problem and the multitude of possible interpretations, the film analysis is based on various methodologies oscillating between feminist criticism and Laura Mulvey’s reflections on the categories of corporeality, gender, and the masculinization of the viewer in narrative cinema.

The polonaise from the film Pan Tadeusz directed by Andrzej Wajda as a choreographic work protected by copyright

Choreographic work was the object of copyright protection under the Berne Convention, as revised at Berlin in 1908, as well as under the historical Polish copyright legislations — the 1926 Act (as an original, “not based on any existing work of art” work of “rhythmic art (choreography)”) and the 1952 Act (as a “work of choreographic art” preserved in “scenarios, drawings or photographs”). It was also included, as a “choreographic work”, in the exemplary catalogue of works protected under the Act of 4 February 1994 on Copyright and Related Rights (“the Copyright Act”), currently in force. The purpose of this paper, due to limited framework, is to analyse some basic concepts related to the conditions that a movement composition shall meet in order to qualify as a choreographic work in the meaning of the Copyright Act. It is shown based on the polonaise from the film Pan Tadeusz, directed by Andrzej Wajda. This choice allows to introduce threads related to folklore as well as the use of unprotected pieces of the public domain in choreographies into the discussion. Moreover, the article briefly presents the correlation between choreographic work and other intellectual works — literary, musical, and audiovisual.

Folk dance as a tool of socialist propaganda based on Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cold War

The article addressed the issue of using folk dance as a tool of propaganda by the communist party. It is not uncommon to associate the activity of folk groups with the period of socialist realism and the years that followed in. Folk song and dance ensembles have always been a colorful showcase of the country outside of its borders and have often added splendor to distinguished national events with their performances. Nevertheless, their artistic activity was not motivated solely by the beauty of Polish folklore, for folk ensembles formed after World War II were often created to aid the goals of the communist party. Reaching for folk repertoire and transferring regional songs and dances to the stage was seen as opposition to the elite culture. Cultural reform made performances accessible to the working class, and folk song and dance expressed admiration for the work of people in the countryside. In addition to traditional songs from various regions of Poland, the repertoire of these ensembles also included many songs in honor of Stalin and about the Polish-Soviet friendship. Paweł Pawlikowski’s award-winning film, Cold War, which partially follows a song and dance ensemble (aptly named Mazurek), shows many of the dilemmas and controversies that the artists of this period had to face.

Body and camera in motion — a dialogue between film and contemporary dance theater based on the experience gained in the making of the experimental art documentary Tensity

The paper presents the relationship between the worlds of film and dance theater, and the ways in which the medium of the performing body can be translated onto the screen by the director and cinematographer. By analyzing his own experiences and related artistic decisions made during the realization of the experimental documentary Tensity, the author looks at the clash of two different media and the relations that may result from the effort to translate dance theater performance into traditional film medium. Along with the change of medium, the nature of the work also changes and a completely new artistic value is created, enriched with elements unknown to theater, such as film editing, camera work and, finally, screen time. A film work based on the theatrical medium becomes a separate artistic creation, allowing the director and the cinematographer to build upon the foundation of the performative art of the actor/dancer.

Research on female humor to the accompaniment of not-always-serious music and some alcohol — based on the Laskowik & Malicki program

The article contains a description of the entertainment TV program Laskowik & Malicki. It is an event combining cabaret and music, with performances from two artistic groups: Kabareciarnia Laskowika and The Philharmonic of Wit. The author stresses the topics of feminity, music and alcohol, as well as finds moralizing and educational value in the performances.

Manipulated memory. Right-winged media narratives about homosexual prisoners of concentration camps

The article offers a critical interpretation of the chosen online activity of right-wing journalists and Internet users that seem to sympathize with this political option. Selected Tweets and articles are understood as exemplifications of either intentional, unconscious or ignorance-caused manipulations of memory, its object being homosexual prisoners of the Nazi concentration camps. Placing selected Tweets in a broader social, political, as well as historical context, the author shows the discursive exclusion of this group of the Nazi’s “forgotten victims” in the Polish media sphere, (re)producing the negative only image of homosexual prisoners and the tendency to falsely identify camp homosexual violence with camp homosexuality as such.