Seniorskie potańcówki
Seniors Dancing

On Choreographies Susceptible to Getting Frail

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses selected strategies of theatrical collaboration with male and female seniors with no stage experience where the aim is not only to encourage health-promoting behaviours in a group with difficult access to culture, but also to produce events of high artistic value that might be included in the professional theatrical circulation. The author describes two performances – Barbara Bujakowska’s The Voice of Seniors and Daria Kubisiak’s Przyjaciółka (A Girlfriend) in which senior people are empowered and share in the creative process together with professional artists. The article also draws attention to the dangers associated with tokenistic, i.e. apparent, inclusion and emotional exploitation of other bodies, and points to possible alternatives to the narratives that infantilise older people. Referring to Judith Butler’s reflections on frail bodies, the author analyses theatrical practices of care and concern. The article argues that stage emanations of the frailty of old bodies disenchant the stereotype of old age as a time of radically limited possibilities.

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