The legendary founder of the Ekpresja Theatre Wojciech Misiuro comes back with Tamashii after years of silence. During the years of change in Poland, Misiuro’s theatre formed the foundations of TriCity dance theatre and educated dancers who write the history of Polish dance today. Tamashii (‘soul’ in Japanese) is a controversial come back as Misiuro returns to the Opera he once fled from, and to dancers he once rejected from his new theatre in favour of sportsmen. In his own theatre Misiuro focused most of all on the body, physicality and on searching for new types of movement whereas in Tamashii, as the title suggests, he places spirituality in the centre of his interests. He especially refers to Japanese spirituality and culture, generally known from Akira Kurosawa’s films or from samurai stories. During Musiuro’s performance we learn, among other things, how it feels to be a mute witness of seppuku, a Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. According to the Japanese tradition the soul houses in the stomach and cutting it open symbolizes innocence of the suicide and showes the honesty of their intentions. The brave samurai created by Misiuro are accompanied by strong and charismatic women.
