Tomasz Rodowicz was performer and co-founder of the acclaimed Polish theatre company Gardzienice. In 2004, after 27 years, he left Gardzienice to form his own performance company, Chorea. Earthfall’s Jim Ennis was a performer with Gardzienice over a period of four years before founding Earthfall with Jessica Cohen in 1989. Rodowicz followed the development of Earthfall’s work over the years and invited Cohen and Ennis to collaborate with him to create and develop a multi-media performance trilogy using ancient and contemporary song and urban physicality, to depict a narrative of love and war.
Cohen and Ennis made several trips to Poland to rehearse the company in Gardzienice’s Centre of Theatre Practice to create, shoot film and develop choreography to a soundtrack of live songs from the oldest surviving music of ancient Greece.
In association with Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff and St Donats Arts Centre, Hôde Galatan premiered in Wales in late 2003 and began an important international theatre partnership between Earthfall and Chorea that continues today.
The work combines highly contemporary physicality with choral and modern song and film; in essence, a moving choir.
