Folklore School
Saturday 2026/06/27
10:00 - 11:00
Knights' Hall
Author:
Daniela Stavělová
The programme focuses on the work of choreographer Alena Skálová created for the Chorea Bohemica Artistic Group in the second half of the twentieth century, with attention to the specific conditions that shaped her distinctive signature. Her work was influenced by a unique constellation of collaborators, thanks to whom a whole range of sources of inspiration opened up to her. The purpose of the programme is to capture and recall the key moments in Skálová’s work: the personalities of her collaborators, inspiration from the visual arts, the period context of interwar modernism and post-war folklorism.
Music or image? It is difficult to separate these two sources of inspiration, which became for Skálová the starting point for knowledge and reflection on the staging of elements of folk dance culture. Her musical feeling and her visual impressions merged into one whole, drawing on expressions of music-and-dance culture from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, which also became a source of inspiration for the composer Jaroslav Krček. Their shared creative journey thus gave rise to music-and-dance images that departed from the contemporary conception of folklorism, made use of elements of folk culture that had not yet been employed on stage, and soon attracted attention.
Chorea Bohemica as a state of weightlessness. The collaboration between the two creators led to the founding of the Chorea Bohemica Artistic Group; even the name suggested a different view of folk culture from what was customary at the time. In the context of the second half of the twentieth century, this work was understood in contradictory ways. On the one hand, enthusiastic audiences perceived, for example, Christmas legends with religious themes as an expression of resistance to the political mainstream; on the other, assessment committees at folklore showcases and festivals saw them as a dangerous provocation or as a disparagement of folklore. For ensemble members and their supporters, this direction and its atmosphere became a kind of island of freedom, or an alternative to the restrictive understanding of culture at the time.
“Who would notice?” With this saying, Skálová often commented on carelessness or lack of concentration during rehearsals and the preparation of programme numbers. She required complete harmony with the idea that was the source of the experience and expression of the final form. It should be recalled here that she was a pupil of Jarmila Kröschlová, a representative of expressive dance. This modernist conception of dance creation accompanied Skálová throughout her creative period, and the linking of the principles of First Republic dance modernism with expressions of folk dance became characteristic of her.
Epilogue. Skálová’s work has its epigones, supporters and critics. Czech Legends and Christmas Songs, performed every year in pre-Christmas Prague, continues to enjoy great popularity. Alongside the unrepeatable artistic experience, it is also worth understanding the way in which this work viewed traditional folk culture and how deep knowledge, experience and understanding of its principles were combined with other musical, dance and theatrical means of expression.
Performers:
Markéta Čermáková, Václav Žižka – tanec
Martin Vydra – klavírní doprovod
Music or image? It is difficult to separate these two sources of inspiration, which became for Skálová the starting point for knowledge and reflection on the staging of elements of folk dance culture. Her musical feeling and her visual impressions merged into one whole, drawing on expressions of music-and-dance culture from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, which also became a source of inspiration for the composer Jaroslav Krček. Their shared creative journey thus gave rise to music-and-dance images that departed from the contemporary conception of folklorism, made use of elements of folk culture that had not yet been employed on stage, and soon attracted attention.
Chorea Bohemica as a state of weightlessness. The collaboration between the two creators led to the founding of the Chorea Bohemica Artistic Group; even the name suggested a different view of folk culture from what was customary at the time. In the context of the second half of the twentieth century, this work was understood in contradictory ways. On the one hand, enthusiastic audiences perceived, for example, Christmas legends with religious themes as an expression of resistance to the political mainstream; on the other, assessment committees at folklore showcases and festivals saw them as a dangerous provocation or as a disparagement of folklore. For ensemble members and their supporters, this direction and its atmosphere became a kind of island of freedom, or an alternative to the restrictive understanding of culture at the time.
“Who would notice?” With this saying, Skálová often commented on carelessness or lack of concentration during rehearsals and the preparation of programme numbers. She required complete harmony with the idea that was the source of the experience and expression of the final form. It should be recalled here that she was a pupil of Jarmila Kröschlová, a representative of expressive dance. This modernist conception of dance creation accompanied Skálová throughout her creative period, and the linking of the principles of First Republic dance modernism with expressions of folk dance became characteristic of her.
Epilogue. Skálová’s work has its epigones, supporters and critics. Czech Legends and Christmas Songs, performed every year in pre-Christmas Prague, continues to enjoy great popularity. Alongside the unrepeatable artistic experience, it is also worth understanding the way in which this work viewed traditional folk culture and how deep knowledge, experience and understanding of its principles were combined with other musical, dance and theatrical means of expression.
Performers:
Markéta Čermáková, Václav Žižka – tanec
Martin Vydra – klavírní doprovod