Glove Concern / Rukavičkářské závody - New creation in process

Concept and directed by: Tereza Lenerová and Jiří Havlíček

Performers and created with: Andrea Miltner and Jitka Čechová

Music: Floex

Light design: Jan Hugo Hejzlar

Dramaturgy: Maja Hriešik

Production: Alena Cardová

Coproduction: Tanec Praha z.ú. / PONEC – divadlo pro tanec

Partners: Švestkův dvůr, Studio Truhlárna

First public showing planned 8.11.2022, Ponec Theater Prague

A dance performance with elements of mystery and thriller. The theme is partly coming from Tereza Lenerová’s  family history, when both her grandparents worked in the Glove Factory in small town Dobříš in Czech republic as well short thriller story, written by writer, curator and film maker Jiří Havlíček.

The glove factory in Dobříš, which was created in year 1948, was one of the most famous enterprises for gloves. It created up to 6 millions pairs of gloves every year.  From the year 2002 the factory has completely stopped and since then it is an abandoned place of many empty buildings with almost no utilisation. We are fascinated by this situation of a space, that has stopped in time and is awaiting its future.

Tereza’s  grandfather was a professional currier.  He knew how to make a fine quality leather from the animals skin.  ‘As a child I used to watch him work out big pieces of leather, remembering the specific animalistic smell, that was connected with this handicraft.  His working space used to remind me something very primal, basic and instinctive, that meets life and death at the same time and that we would like to explore in this project.’ explains Tereza.

The work with the leather and the leather gloves is bringing us to the theme of SKIN. The word skin is associated with several sayings in Czech – not to be in your own skin (identity), to go with your own skin to the market (public speaking), to put yourself in someone’s skin (empathy) and to have goose skin (fear). Skin is the embodiment of a thin border that separates a human individual from others and at the same time connects them (touch). It is a layer that protects from the environment and at the same time mediates contact.

In this new creation we would like to tell a story. A thriller story, that will combine the fiction story of Jiří Havlíček with the documentary stories of Tereza’s grandfather, the formal glove factory and everyday testimonies of the relationship with our own bodies and our own skin.