In the Name of KAR

In the Name of KAR is a new theatre / dance performance created by two dancers – Markéta Jandová and Jitka Tůmová, in collaboration with Belarusian musician and accordeonist Aliaksandr Yasinski. 

A „kar“ is a funeral feast where people get together to remember the soul of the departed. As in any feast, food  is one aspect of kar. This is both natural and absurd. By its very nature, a feast is full of symbolic meanings and can be understood as a perfect  social metaphor. 

In the Name of Kar explores the subject of death as a natural part of life. The main inspiration was Czech sociologist Jiřina Šiklova’s book Death Banished, which explores how death has come taboo in contemporary society. The performance deliberately points out how we close eyes before this topic, we don’t want to talk about it and we are not willing to accept it as a part of our life, the same way we accept birth. Instead of looking for the tragic dimension of death, the creators try to talk a more natural viewpoint, focusing on the rituals associated with it: burial, funeral rites, bidding farewell.

About the Company

Markéta Jandová is a graduated in Choreography at the Academy of performing Arts in Prague (HAMU). At the moment her main focus is a new project In the Name of KAR. As a freelance artist and choreographer, Markéta wants to be open to all possibilities that the art world has to offer. That is the reason she likes to collaborate with other creative personalities from all other artistic fields and disciplines. Film is becoming her main fascination in creation because it offers even impossible.
As a dancer, Markéta can be seen in Art performance Eroze (by Lukáš Homola), opera The Excursions of Mr. Brouček (The National Theatre Prague), Animal Exitus (Spitfire Company).

Jitka Tůmová started her professional training at the age of 14 whilst attending the conservatoire Dance Centre Prague. After graduation she continued her studies at the London Contemporary Dance School where she gained a BA Hons degree in Contemporary dance. In 2008 Jitka studied and performed at SUNY Purchase College, NY as part of an exchange programme. In August 2009 she joined Phoenix Dance Theatre as an apprentice dancer under the apprentice scheme at The Place, London and became a professional dancer for the company in March 2012. She joined Prague Chamber Ballet in 2015, touring with the company until now as well as working on several projects with choreographers Markéta Jandová and Hana Polanská Turečková.