AGATA ŻYCZKOWSKA

ACTRESS / PERFORMER / DIRECTOR / DRAMATIST / EDUCATOR / PRODUCER / MANAGER

AGATA ŻYCZKOWSKA

Choreographer, dancer, dramaturgist, performer, actress, manager and dance promoter born and based in Warsaw. Graduate of the Performing Arts Department of the National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź/Poland (2001) and postgraduate studies at the Cultural Diplomacy Department of the Institute of European Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (2021).

Photo: Marta Ankiersztejn / Anna Ciupryk / Karolina Jóźwiak / Pat Mic

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AGATA ŻYCZKOWSKA

Since 2009 she is president of the Theatre Development Foundation ‘NEW WAVE’. Since 2011 she has been leading the dance collective HOTELOKO movement makers. She gained dance and performance education under the guidance of such artists and creators as: Nadia Kevan, Eugenio Barba, Abani Biswas, Jairo Cuesta, James Sloviak, Bruce Myers, Toshi Tsuchitor, Akira Matsui, Augusto Omolú, Ileana Citaristi, Gennadi Bogdanov, Ana Woolf, Raúl Iaiza, Claire Heggen, Yves Marc, Lina do Carmo, Thomas Leabhart, Ray Chung, Natalia Iwaniec, Michal Sayfan, Anna Godowska, Weronika Pelczyńska, Iza Szostak, Maria Colusi, Silje Solheim Johansen, Giovanni Zappulla, Jacqueline Fisher, Jackie Taffanel, Pedro Pauwels. She took part in the projects of the Body/Mind Foundation: she co-produced and directed the casting of the cast and was a performer in the Polish version of the performance “The SHOW MUST GO ON” chor. by Jérôme Bel as part of the Body/Mind Festival (2011), took part in the social projects “Clean Room” by the Spanish artist Juan Dominguez (2013) and “Family Affair” by the Italian collective ZimmerFrei as part of the Warsaw Dance Scene (2015), made an original film as part of the CU project “21 Artists for the 21st Century” (2020), realised the performance “Don’t Stop Me Now” on the occasion of the 20th edition of the Body/Mind Festival (2021). She has also collaborated with Wojciech Grudziński, Dawid Żakowski and Joanna Chitruszko, among others. As part of the HOTELOKO movement makers collective, she has realised over a dozen performances including her own concept: “frau / mujer / femme” (2016), “Darklena”(2018), “frau blush”(2018), “Axiom of Choice” (2019), “Extinction” (2021), “Extinction; REplay” (2022), “SOLARPUNK” and “LUXA”.

For her performance “Absolutely Fabulous Dancers” in her own direction and dramaturgy and choreographed by Magdalena Przybysz, she received the jury award “Coup de Coeur” for originality at the Quartiers Danses Festival in Montreal (2019). She also received the first prize – Large Theatrical Consequence at the 4th Sopot Theatrical Consequences Festival – 2020 for her performance “Axiom of Choice”. Her performances are also invited to festivals in Poland and abroad (Mandala Performance Festival/Wrocław, Festival Kalejdoskop/Bialystok, Festival Localize/Potsdam, Festival Quartiers Danses/Montreal, Festival Dances-Cités/Carcassonne).

Her performance LUXA was selected for the Polish Dance Platform by the Polish National Institute of Music and Dance 2024.

She took a part in the projects “DANCE HIGHWAYS”,  “Viral Visions”, “Innovative Tools for Dance Teachers In.To.Da.Te.” and “CODASI – Contemporary Dance for Sustainability and Inclusion” as part of the European Commission’s ERASMUS + programme for art education for adults with European partners from France, Belgium,  Spain-Basque Country, Italy, Norway, Germany, Austria, Serbia and Croatia.

In 2021 she established a new festival in Warsaw: the U:NEW Dance Wave Festival.

U:NEW DANCE WAVE FESTIVAL IN WARSAW

From 2016 to 2019 she was the director of the Dance Art Centre project in Warsaw, which she also co-authored.

She is a member of the presidium of the Sectoral Commission for Social Dialogue on Dance and a member of the Sectoral Commission for Social Dialogue on Culture at the Culture Office in Warsaw. She is a member of the Forum of Dance Art Environments and the ZASP association.

Actress in the season 2002/2003 and an award for her performance of Venticelli in Amadeusz directed by Waldemar Zawodziński, in which she also was the director’s assistant, and a team award during the I Festiwal Prapremier festival in Bydgoszcz in 2002 for Rodzina Wampira directed by Paweł Szkotak (where she also worked as the director’s assistant on this show).

In 2003-2009, editor-in-chief and marketing and promotion specialist for the socio-cultural magazine ‘RAZEM. The world as we see it”.

EDUCATOR

She has been conducting cultural education for children and young people for several years. In her pedagogical work, she combines art fields: theatre, dance, performance, video, music, photography, literature, and visual art. She works with young people on searching for their own identity. She is also interested in ecological art, which she often weaves into her pedagogical work. She leads a series of workshops as well as projects that lead to a final presentation for the public.
She led recitation, music and theatre workshops as part of the project “Weekends around the Tea House: Targówek direction” in the Brudno Sculpture Park (2012), as well as dance and movement workshops combined with physical theatre for young people titled “A POZYTYNA ALCHA” (2012). “POZYTYWNA ALCHEMIA” at the Theatre Academy and the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle (Culture Interventions 2013). She is the author of the concept of educational workshops based on recycling for children aged 5-11 years, titled “Encounters with the Roller and the Kool”. She is the author of the concept of educational workshops based on recycling for children aged 5-11 called “Encounters with the Roll and the Cap”. She also led an original workshop for children “Body and Voice” as part of the Dance Art Centre in Warsaw at the Mazovian Institute of Culture (2016).
Agata Życzkowska has implemented two educational projects with young people as an author, educator and coordinator: “new: liberation – performance for youth” based on Witkacy’s texts at the Centre for Culture Promotion Praga Południe in cooperation with the Youth Sociotherapy Centre in Zielonka (2015) and the project “Syrena herbem twym zwodnicza: A THING ABOUT FREEDOM” based on texts by Cyprian Kamil Norwid at the Saska Kępa Promenade of Culture and the Centre for Promotion of Culture in collaboration with the Youth Education Centre No. 4, the Youth Sociotherapy Centre No. 2 “KĄT”, Middle School No. 22 at Boremlowska Street (now the General Piotr Szembek Primary School No. 374) and the Juliusz Słowacki Secondary School No. VII in Warsaw (2016). She conducted theatre and recycling workshops in the Complex of Special Schools No. 78 in the Institute “Pomnik – Centrum Zdrowia Dziecka”, in particular for children and young people from the Department of Neurology. She cooperated with the Stołeczne Towarzystwo Oświatowe (STO), where she conducted theatre workshops on improvisation for children. She also realised, in collaboration with Magdalena Przybysz, a dance performance with young people aged 13-17 years “Insta Show” (2018), as well as, in collaboration with Dawid Żakowski, a dance project for young people “Pass the dance on” (2019).