THIS RESTING, PATIENCE

“This resting, patience” is a choreographic performance that blurs the line between dance and installation. Since its premiere at Berlin's Sophiensæle in 2024, it has been presented dozens of times at the most important European festivals, such as Kunstenfestivaldesarts or ImpulStanz, and just before the Warsaw shows at the Festival d'Automne in Paris.

Instead of the classic narrative, “This resting, patience” suggests staying in time. Ewa Dziarnowska and Leah Marojević dance for three hours on a blue carpet covering the entire space, to the rhythm of the recurring song “What the World Needs Now” by Dionne Warwick. Their dance, solo and in duet, is about attraction and distancing, tenderness and tension, playing with form and feeling. The closeness of the dancers and the audience makes the mere viewing become a form of participation.

For Dziarnowska, improvisation and bodily knowledge are more important than virtuosity. Her practice grew out of opposition to rigid institutional frameworks and a fascination with what happens in the body “here and now.” What he calls “the eroticism of attention” does not consist in being seen, but in being present: with the other dancing body and with the audience.

“This resting, patience” is an invitation to slow down and be mindful, where dance is a practice of closeness, not a spectacle.