(Ne)boj

(Ne)boj is a duet by performers Lukáš Karásek and Florent Golfier-Brechmann, in which they explore the complex terrain of conflict – both a challenge and an opportunity for personal and relational transformation. The choreographic language incorporates variations on brute force, gentleness, precision, and inner energy transformed into physical strength. The performers’ bodies merge and separate; they embrace and reshape each other’s strength while simultaneously suppressing and transmitting their own. How can we experience conflict without resorting to violence, fostering mutual respect and kindness, and nurturing the hope that it may lead to positive outcomes?

Why am I scared of confrontation? When I enter a conflict, my throat constricts, I inhale and expect an attack. I am also ready to attack myself. I feel trembling and uncertainty – what will happen, what will I do. My body, my chest moves back a little, my gaze fixed on the supposed opponent. Must we stand on opposite poles of this uncertainty? Can we not inhabit it together?

It is through conflict that I realise my fear and vulnerability. I am surprised by all the feelings that arrive, I struggle to find my way around them, they swirl like a hurricane and I stand in the eye of it. Silence. There’s total emptiness inside me, too. Dust falls on me. I have no idea who stands facing me and whether it isn’t myself.

What would it look like if we always agreed on everything? Is such a relationship even possible? And is it desirable?

People are different, they have various desires and wants, and what’s more, these are constantly changing, which is why conflicts of interest are unavoidable and successfully negotiating them represents a crucial need for a healthy individual as well as a healthy society. Nevertheless, conflict is often perceived to be an undesirable or negative component of relationships, as it is accompanied by unpleasant emotions including uncertainty, fear, confusion, anger, and futility and can even lead to aggression and mutual harm, physical and psychological violence, both at the personal or political levels.

But what possibilities does conflict open up if we set off on a joint path through its uncertain terrain with the aim of making it to the other side without creating winners and losers?

In their duet (Ne)boj, Florent Golfier-Brechmann and Lukáš Karásek use movement and the body to explore being in conflict from various perspectives, both alone and in connection to one another; conflict as a shared demanding and lengthy path that everyone must walk alone, with their own challenges, yet the direction remains the same. They touch their own strengths and weaknesses, the strength and fragility of the other, the strength and sensitivity to both act and accept. They invite various qualities of conflicts we form part of and that take place at various systemic levels (geopolitical, occupational, personal, internal, transgenerational, and others).

A central component of the development of the choreography was an exploration of theoretical concepts concerning conflicts and practical methods of addressing conflicts (Leimdorfer, Boghossian & Lindsay, Avanessian, Dobšovič).

Authors, performes: Florent Golfier-Brechmann, Lukáš Karásek
Dramaturgy: Barbora Liška
Lighting design: Zuzana Režná
Music: Ian Mikyska
Costumes: Stella Šonková
Movement collaboration: Tomáš Wortner, Vojtěch Karásek, Kateřina Eva Lanči
Production management: Ludmila Šindlerová
Produced by: tYhle
Partners: Divadlo X10, Cirqueon, Nová síť, Stodola Drozdov, Industra, Centrum choreografického rozvoje SE.S.TA, Moving Station
Acknowledgment: Dominique Rebaud, Eva Judová, 5M Fencing

Premiere: 14^th February 2025, Divadlo X10, Prague

Workshop

To accompany the choreography, the creative team also offers an accompanying interactive workshop focused on conflict, how we perceive it, accept it, and reject it, and what possibilities the situation offers. The aim of the workshop is to process, along with the audience, experiences and impressions from the performance, introduce the concept of conflict as an opportunity to transform oneself and one’s relationships and attain greater empathy and understanding, and collectively reflect on our own experiences with conflict and our position within it.

Concept of workshop: Barbora Liška
Conductiong the workshop: Radka Krylová / Barbora Liška / Eliška Pomyjová / Lilly Roll-Naumann
Production management: Laura Golfier-Brechmann

This project was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the City of Prague, the State Cultural Fund of the Czech Republic, by the EU through the National Recovery Plan, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Czech-German Fund for the Future and Nová síť, z.s. and as part of the residency programme of CIRQUEON.

The co-producers and partners Moving Station and Nová síť supported the project within the financial participation of the EU through the National Recovery Plan, from City of Pilsen, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Johan o.s. and Nová síť, z.s.