Treatise dance performance choreographed by Milan Tomášik is inspired by the eponymous graphic score by Cornelius Cardew, written between 1963-1967. The musical graphic score consists of 193 pages of symbols, lines, and various geometric and abstract shapes. According to David Hall, Treatise is the ‘Mount Everest’ of visual musical scores and graphic notation. When published in 1967, Cardew did not offer a thorough explanation of how to perform the score except in Treatise
Handbook (1970) to indicate that the interpretation is ‘to be musical’. Although Cardew’s score was intended to be a music score, it surprises with its unconventional, though original visual notation, which is in a way closer to an abstract typography, rather than music partiture. It is exactly its visual richness, from simple dashed lines, curves, dots and spirals, to overwhelming intricate structures that offered Treatise dance performance its starting point.

The challenge became an excitement: how to interpret, transform a music (though visually impressive) music partiture into dance and choreography. The performance is playful at the same time thorough exploration of physical, visual, and sonic manifestation of one of the potential interpretations of selected pages of the score. Every single action is built within the score but in its final form and composition goes beyond: Krakow Dance Theatre performers create their own spatial, temporal, unique universe.

Milan Tomášik (SK/SLO) is a choreographer, performer, dancer, artistic director and teacher working internationally in the field of dance and performing arts. Milan has performed professionally for twenty years, collaborating with diverse artists across Europe. He is cofounder of the Les SlovaKs dance collective with whom he created and performed critically-acclaimed works internationally. Milan is regularly invited as a guest teacher around the world to deliver his signature workshop Poetic Body. He was a recipient of the Dance Web Scholarship at ImpulsTanz Festival (AT), was awarded the Prize of the City Prievidza (SK) and received an award for the solo performance Off-beat at international festival Cortoindanza in Cagliari, Sardinia (IT).

His choreographic experience includes commissioned works for companies, theatres and schools, a trilogy of resounding performances: Hunting Season, Silver Blue and Fight Bright (Milan Tomášik & Co), and outstanding solo performances: Within, Off-beat, and Solo 2016. Currently, he is creating a commissioned work, Treatise, for Krakow Dance Theatre in Poland, premiering in March 2024. Milan was an associated artist of Scenario Pubblico in Catania (IT, 2018-2020) and artistic curator of Out of the Toolbox workshop festival in Ghent, (BE, 2022).

Milan is regularly invited as a guest teacher around the world to deliver his signature workshop Poetic Body. He was a recipient of the Dance Web Scholarship at ImpulsTanz Festival (AT), was awarded the Prize of the City Prievidza (SK) and received an award for the solo performance Off-beat at international festival Cortoindanza in Cagliari, Sardinia (IT).

More info: here

The performance is produced by Beyond Front@: Bridging Periphery – a Creative Europe project (2023-2026) created by Central Europe Dance Theatre – CEDT (Hungary), Bunker (Slovenia), HIPP (Croatia), Krakow Dance Theatre (Poland), M Studio (Romania) and Vitlycke – Centre for Performing Arts (Sweden) to foster local development of the contemporary dance fields.