The Staniewski Center for Theatre Practices, better known as Gardzienice, takes its name from the village where it was founded in 1978 by artistic director Staniewski - a village that prospered centuries ago as it was located on an important merchant route, the "King Sobieski route," from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea. Thereafter, Gardzienice fell into an extended period of desolation, coming to life in the summers with the arrival of wealthy families from Krakow and Warsaw. Wlodzimierz Staniewski established his Center in Gardzienice decades ago, in the deeply-held conviction that "culture is born from an image of one's own earth, from an image of one's own garden". In fact, the company's renown has served a dual purpose, allowing the group to identify more closely with the place, and the small Eastern Polish village to take pride in the theatre's reputation around the world. The troupe has created only six separate major productions to date, but its work is evolutionary and cannot be directly compared with conventional theater productions. The performances are based on a long and gradual evolutionary process of collective research into the fast-fading rural folk traditions of Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to rigorous drill in dance, song, and acrobatics, Gardzienice's members make expeditions to study the music and rituals of Ukrainian, Belarussian, Roma, and Jewish communities. The group has developed a vast international following and over the years has received praise from eminent theatre scholars and practitioners such as Richard Schechner, Andre Gregory and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Gardzienice has been credited with creating a unique genre of theatrical culture based on musicality, theatrical dynamism, and gesture. Staniewski's work is known for its synchronistic interweaving of text, gesture, and body movement. Musicality in the works of Gardzienice replaces verbal discourse and its works are best viewed as living creations. The company's previous works include An Evening Performance (1977), Sorcery (1981), The Life of Archpriest Avvakum (1983), Carmina Burana (1990), Metamorphoses (1997); and most recently in the United States, Electra (2005), which Alexis Soloski of The Village Voice called, "the liveliest lecture on semiotics ever produced." Gardzienice has performed its unique brand of theatre at Stratford's Royal Shakespeare Company in the U.K, in Sweden, Germany, Japan (Suzuki's Toga Festival), Brazil and Egypt, where the director Staniewski was honored for his outstanding contribution to world theatre. The company has appeared in NY previously at St. John the Divine as part of the 1st NY International Festival of the Arts, and at La MaMa, as well as the Theater of Nations Festival in Baltimore. For more on the Gardzienice Theatre, visit www.gardzienice.art.pl
