Choreography: Petr Zuska
Music: Spirituál kvintet, selection of music from the album „Písničky z roku raz dva“
Costume design: Roman Šolc
Staging and Choreographer Assistant: Linda Svidró
Performing: 8 dancers
Duration: 25 minutes
Písničky z roku raz dva is, I think, the very first album by Spiritual Kvintet. It was recorded long time ago, most of the band members were just a bit older than teenagers then. And my personal experience with this album, which I made some years later, of course, is largely related to my platonic as well as fulfilled romances. Although the songs represent new arrangements of Czech, German, French and Scottish ballads from times long past, the entire album is closely connected to youth. In 2010, I dedicated my variation on this theme to the young dancers – the fresh graduates from the Prague Dance Conservatory. And now, thanks to the close cooperation between the Prague Chamber Ballet and the Prague Dance Centre students, I can dedicate it to youth once again. Most of the dancers are, again, teenagers or just a bit older than that. They are at that age characterised by natural purity, honesty, humour, naiveness but, most importantly, love. The love which becomes a rose (the leitmotiv and title of this piece) which, just like love, has got fragrant petals but at the same time sharp thorns which hurt.
Petr Zuska