PULSE
Immersive performance and DJ set
A synergy of performance, DJ set, party and contemplation.
A wish come true and a thrilling experiment.
The Christmas party of our dreams.
23Poems and an international team of fifteen dancers invite you to an evening of constant pulse. We present PULSE – an exclusive showing of a new performance that gradually turns into a dance gathering open to everyone.
We draw on the movement vocabulary and musical motifs of the performance RAPTURE. We are fulfilling our own wish to experience it with many times more dancers, as well as the wish of audiences who have repeatedly felt the urge to join us in movement.
Come and spend a Friday Advent evening, 11 December, with us in an unconventional site-specific take on the PONEC theatre.
We dissolve the boundary between stage and auditorium and turn the theatre hall with its seating into a space of scenographic segments, places to rest and paths of free movement. We bring the space to life with gripping choreography, projections, mirrors and light design. We open the doors to the foyer and the café and let the whole building breathe with a celebratory multi-genre gathering.
Programme
- 18:30 – Opening doors
- 19:30–20:30 – Performance PULSE
- 20:30–23:00 – DJ set by Rok Zalokar
- 23:00–01:00 – Free movement through the space, music and the shared afterglow of the evening
- 01:00 – Closing
PULSE is a synthesis of performance and concert in which the individual parts amplify each other.
During the performance, the audience is gently guided and at several moments is given the chance to take part directly. The closeness and physical intensity of the choreography create a strongly shared situation that opens up a more intense awareness of one’s own body and naturally awakens the need to move.
In the second phase the relationship shifts: the audience is invited to join in, the boundary between dancers and audience disappears, and an open, non-hierarchical space of shared experience emerges, in which everyone can find their own way of taking part.
Thematically, PULSE reflects current trends in electronic music and club rave culture and places them in the context of collective, even ritual forms of sharing music and dance. In doing so, it builds on principles naturally present in many traditional cultures that have gradually weakened in the Western world.
- For everyone who, during gripping performances, didn’t want to just sit. For those who want to dance for a few hours to hypnotic music.
- For those who would rather rest, just watch the performance, then close their eyes and lose all sense of time and space in the music.
- And for those who simply want to meet before Christmas in an interesting setting, let the evening flow and decide as they wish, here and now.
PULSE breaks the traditional two-dimensional perspective of the audience and invites a closer experience. It leaves room for watching, moving and resting. Everyone can choose their own path through the evening.
Seating will also be available for those who prefer to watch the performance from a distance. Apart from the performance itself, the café is open all evening. Once the performance ends and flows into the DJ set, the evening becomes more relaxed: you can move freely between the hall, the café, the terrace and the foyer, have a drink, chat, come back and let yourself be drawn into the dance. Drinks and refreshments will be available in the café and the foyer; please do not bring them into the hall.
NOTICE: The evening includes loud electronic music and intense light design with changing effects.
Creative team
- Idea, concept, artistic direction: 23 Poems Collective
- Lead choreography: Kristýna Peldová (CZ/SLO)
- Visuals, graphic and light design: Enya Belak (SLO)
- Music (live set): Rok Zalokar (SLO)
- Dramaturgy: Aljoša Lovric Krapež (SLO/CZ)
- Technical realization: Matěj Kubíček
- Production, PR, promotion: 23 Poems Collective z. s.
- Co-production: Zavod Flota (SLO), Tanec Praha z. ú. / PONEC – theatre for dance
- Dancers: Eliška Benešová, Tereza Krejčová, Kristýna Peldová, Karolína Šnajdrová, Aneta Bočková, Eva Mora González, Débora Posada Sanchez, Zuzana Sýkorová, Lara Matea Ivancic, Sara Janaškovic, Tina Habun, Alja Branc Barbosa and more to be announced.
23 Poems Collective consists of four independent artists – dancers, choreographers and teachers: Eliška Benešová, Tereza Krejčová, Kristýna Peldová and Karolína Šnajdrová. Their work ranges from theatre and site-specific productions, through teaching diverse groups, to short dance films and photography.
Since 2023 they have been in creative dialogue with the cultural space ÚL, where in May 2024 they presented their site-specific debut S.I.O. – Sides of In and Out. In 2025 they created the multimedia production Rapture in collaboration with Slovenian visual artist Enya Belak, co-produced with Tanec Praha z. ú.
Beyond these projects, the collective continuously collaborates with cultural institutions and regional venues, including Sladovna Písek, Stodola Drozdov, Vzbuďme Vary, ZŠ a ZUŠ Šmeralova in Karlovy Vary and the SIRAEX festival.
Rok Zalokar (SI) is a Slovenian musician, composer and producer whose work moves between jazz, electronic music, improvisation and sound experiment. In his projects he combines acoustic instruments with synthesizers, electronic textures and rhythmic structures. His work ranges from intimate piano compositions through experimental electronics to collective musical improvisation. For the dance performance RAPTURE he created a striking electronic score, which he now builds on in PULSE. Through his DJ set he develops its pulsating energy and opens space for shared movement, rhythm and experience.
What critics wrote about the performance we draw on:
“Rapture is an intoxicating, captivating, and almost spellbinding performance, composed of powerful and energetic fragments born from ritual, passion, surrender, and deep contemplation.”
Tobiáš Waller, tanecniaktuality.cz
“Overall, however, the choreography leaves the impression of a great feminine force — one that seems to tear through what binds and encases it.”
Lucie Kocourková, operaplus.cz
“If this group, this fusion of dance and visuals, keeps its drive and energy, 23 Poems Collective can go far. For me it was the discovery of last year, and the production one of the highlights of this year’s Malá inventura.”
Vladimír Hulec, divadelni.net
