Suitcaseboarding
Four passengers liven up a boring waiting for a train or bus by riding on their suitcases. Suitcases were, are and will be for them the closest partners with a lifelong bond. Together with them, the four will discover countless mysterious nooks and crannies during many short, unguarded moments spent at remote railway stations. The longer they have to wait, the stronger their desire to play with the environment becomes. They want to get to know their surroundings not as a place that has a function, but as a place that can inspire them. For what? Let yourself be surprised.
Suitcaseboarding brings images from traveling. Situations that we all experience on the road in different variants, each of us a little differently. The environment and the people around us are changing, but we have something in common, we usually share the same intention on the road – we want to get somewhere. For us, the journey is not just about moving from one place to another, it is mainly about what happens during it. Do you know the hackneyed phrase "the journey can be the destination"? Along the way, there are many stops. To go through them, we usually have to wait in an unknown place, with unknown people, only with our luggage, until circumstances let us go on. And when that happens, we rush to the next point. We stop there and obediently wait again before we can continue. We are in a hurry to wait. We are waiting so that we can hurry.
What do you do when you have to wait on the road? Are you trying to tame your fidgety luggage? Do you feel the need to connect with other travelers? Or are you trying to sublimate out of the crowd of difficult fellow passengers and are you impatiently waiting for a connection? Where's your suitcase? Do you move it around the stop, bench, departure board or other passengers? The desire to share these moments unites our group of "suitcasepeople" who are heading to you.
The project was originally created in 2021 as an outdoor performance. From 2023, we play it as an indoor version. The project also includes movement micro-interventions in public space based on a workshop with a specific local group.
Authors, performers: Felix Baumann, Sean Henderson, Lukáš Karásek, Johana Pocková/Eva Mora González
Dramaturgy: Sára Šimek Arnstein
Music: Lukáš Palán
Lighting design: Zuzana Režná
Movement cooperation: Eva Stará
Stage design: Hynek Petrželka
Costumes: Barbara Horáková Fehérová, Hynek Petrželka
Current indoor version
Production: tYhle, Ludmila Šindlerová
Co-production: Cirqueon, festival Cirkopolis
Partners: Tanec Praha, Studio ALTA, Kasárna Karlín, Kredance
Acknowledgements: Mikuláš Bartoň, Dušan Krucilák, Šárka Maršíková, Tereza Vohralíková, Nikola Brokešová, Florent Golfier-Brechmann, Eva Judová
The premiere of the indoor version of Suitcaseboarding took place on 18th February 2023 at the theater PONEC - dance venue.
Micro-interventions in public space
From 2024, the outdoor variant of the project works as a series of movement micro-interventions in public space. The authorial team, together with a specific local group, works with movement situations from an indoor production, which they adapt and develop in various ways. In the public space, unexpected small dance-movement-acrobatic situations and etudes are created.
Original outdoor version
Production: tYhle
Co-production: Cirqueon, festivla Cirkopolis
Partners: Studio ALTA, Kredance, Karlín Barracks
Photos, documentation of the outdoor version: Dušan Krucilák
Acknowledgements: Ludmila Šindlerová, Šárka Maršíková, Tereza Vohralíková, Nikola Brokešová, Florent Golfier-Brechmann, Eva Judová
The premiere of the outdoor version of Suitcaseboarding took place on 10th June 2021 at Kasárna Karlín as part of the Cirkopolis festival.
Grants and other support of the project
The Suitcaseboarding project was created with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the City of Prague, the Statutory City of Brno, the Czech State Fund for Culture and the Municipal District of Prague 8.
In 2024, the project is also being implemented with the financial participation of the EU through the National Recovery Plan as part of the tYhle on the road project.
