Performance / Stand-up / Workshop “For girls only” | Poland | PREMIERE
“For Girls Only” event is a three-part artistic activity:
I. "Red River" - a poetic-visual-musical performance
II. "Oh! By a little hair" - performative stand-up about sexuality, puberty and ovulation
III. "River of Blood" - visual arts workshop
Creators, production: CHOREA Theatre
Idea, producer: Ola Shaya
Illustration: Czarli Bajka
Date: August 30, 2025 | Saturday
Date: August 31, 2025 | Sunday
Time: 12 pm
Place: Room C_101, Art Factory in Łódź, 3 Tymienieckiego Street
Tickets: 40 PLN per person - early bird / 60 PLN per person - regular
Ticket sales: kicket.com portal / online payment
Early bird tickets: on sale until July 13, 2025
Regular and reduced tickets: on sale from July 14, 2025
The ticket price includes participation in all 3 parts of the event.
With your ticket purchase, you are encouraged to attend all 3 parts of the event.
Duration: 2.5 hours
Age Restrictions: girls 10+, accompanied by their close-ones
Language: performance, stand-up and workshops in Polish
Performance and stand-up on August 31, 2025, will be interpreted into Polish Sign Language (PJM)
I. Performance “Red River”
Direction, costumes, stage design: Daria Kopiec
Choreography: Urszula Parol
Dramaturgy: Justyna Wencel, Daria Kopiec
Music: Aleksandra Gronowska
Masks, stage design: Anastasia Rydlevskaya
Cast: Maja Caban, Dorota Porowska
Duration: 45 minutes
DESCRIPTION OF THE PERFORMANCE
“Red River” is a feminine circle of fairytale storytelling, celebrating female cyclicality. A theatrical journey of initiation, entwined on what is sacred and profane in the theme of female blood. The performance is an invitation for girls and women to be present together, tenderly, in experiencing what is alive in us women in this theme.
II. Stand-up “Oh! By a little hair”
Direction: Daria Kopiec
Dramaturgy: Magda Fertacz
Costumes: Marta Góźdź - El Bruzda
Cast: Małgorzata Lipczyńska
Duration: 30 minutes
DESCRIPTION OF THE PERFORMANCE
“Oh! By a little hair” is a hairy stand-up, reeled in by a lock of hair that everyone talks about in whispers. The first pubic hair will tell you what it's like to witness the greatest chaos in the history of the human body - the first menstruation. She was there when the hormones decided to have a party and no one knew where the tampons were hidden. She has watched parents try to explain something they themselves don't fully understand. But she knows the subject, because who better to tell you about puberty than someone who has seen it all from the front row? It's going to be funny, honest and without being overly dramatic.
III. Workshop “River of Blood”
Leaders: Aneta Stępień-Proszewska, Justyna Wencel
Duration: 60-80 minutes
DESCRIPTION OF THE WORKSHOP
We invite you to come together - as Mother with Daughter and Daughter with Mother - in closeness, attentiveness and the joy of creating and being together.
Creating together an amulet of strings, threads and elements of nature such as woods, shells and pebbles, braiding the intentions of girlhood and feminine power, recognising the path of femininity, the newly emerging one and the mature and established one - you will explore your personal relationship with cyclicity and monthly blood. Working creatively together, you will immerse yourselves in the feminine “River of Blood” and see each other in its current, allowing you to recognise the nature of the transformation that you both - Mother and Daughter - are experiencing here and now.
The amulet can become a visual trace, a souvenir, a shared object of power between Mother and Daughter, carrying the memory of your time of closeness, your relationship with menstruation, the living story of the femininity of each of you.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ola Shaya - curator, theatre producer, culture animator, international projects creator, director and coordinator. A graduate of Cultural Studies at the University of Wrocław and Postgraduate Studies in Cultural Marketing at the University of Warsaw (in cooperation with National Cultural Centre). Scholarship holder of the Federation of the Scottish Theatre (2014/2015) and of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2015). Creator and Artistic Director of the Picture-Book Festival for Children “Dot + Dash” in Łódź and the Festival of Polish Art for Children “Kite and Trumpet” in Edinburgh (Scotland) and Łódź. A lover of surrealism, ghosts, blue rabbits and pink mice. Her life motto is “Hey adventure, adventure!”.
Daria Kopiec - film and theatre director, music video maker and animation author. She graduated from the Secondary Art School in Gdynia-Orłowo. She is a graduate of the Film School in Łódź (cinematography department) and the Theatre Academy in Warsaw (directing department). She is a trainee at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels La Cambre in Brussels (animated film department) and a resident at the International Puppet Theatre Institute in Charleville-Mézières, France, and a participant in the Berlinale Talents 2017 programme. She is an independent artist, collaborating with various cultural institutions. In her professional work, she combines her passion for film and theatre. She directs on theatre stages all over Poland. She is a laureate of the “Konrad Laure”’, a prestigious theatre award, which she received in 2018, as well as the Main Prize of the Jury of the 9th Koszalin Young Confrontations “m-teatr” for her performance “Zakonnice odchodzą po cichu”. Her TV theatre “The Case of Rita G.” received the Grand Prix at Teatroteka Fest, and awards at the 42nd Montreal World Film Festival in Montreal, at the Canada International Film Festival in Vancouver, at the Worldfest Independent Film Festival in Houston.
Urszula Parol - choreographer, performer. Graduate of the Academy of Music in Łódź (specialisation: choreography). Associated with theatre for many years. Her professional experience includes cooperation with numerous theatre productions as a choreographer and dancer, e.g. in Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw, Stefan Jaracz Theatre in Łódź and Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków. She has worked on international artistic projects, enriching her practice with inspirations from different cultures and theatrical environments. Her interests include somatics, dream work and psychoeducation, which she transfers to her stage activities. In her projects she combines artistic sensitivity with a deep understanding of the body and movement.
Justyna Wencel - artist, art workshop instructor, translator and graphic designer. Graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and in English Philology from the University of Warsaw. In 2013, she obtained her doctoral degree at the Faculty of Media Art of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In her works she uses video, installations and objects. She also works with art in public space. She addresses issues of memory and identity. Together with Marcin Chomicki, she created the artistic collective Zmiennicy, which operates in the area of transformations of the city topography. Between 2012 and 2013, she was the curator of Galeria 2.0.
Aleksandra Gronowska - music composer. Graduate of the Academy of Theatre Practices “Gardzienice” and the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław (Media Art Department). As an actress and singer over the years she has collaborated with many theatres and groups, including: Centre for Theatre Practices “Gardzienice”, Teatro Koreja, Orchestra of World Music at the National Forum of Music, Jubilo Foundation, musical project “Gliniane Pieśni”, Mercury Theatre, Interkunst, Witkacy Theatre in Slupsk, L.U.C & Rebel Babel Film Orchestra. She won the award for Best Actress for her performance “La Parola Padre” (dir. Gabriele Vacis) at the Mittelfest Festival 2014 in Italy and at the XI International Theatre Festival Apollon 2012 in Albania. Composer of theatre and film music. She collaborated with theatres and collectives: Wrocław Pantomime Theatre, Wrocław Contemporary Theatre, Maska Theatre in Rzeszów, Polish Radio Theatre, Helena Modrzejewska Theatre in Legnica, Baltic Dramatic Theatre in Koszalin, Wojciech Bogusławski Theatre in Kalisz, TESSEN Collective and School of Fighting Fans, Jubilo Foundation, Aurora Collective. She has also co-created music for the short films of the duo Bui Film, and (together with the band KOSY) for the film “Day and Night” (dir. Kasia Machałek, Łukasz Machowski). Her music for the performance “History of Sin. Told anew” (dir. Daria Kopiec) realised in the Helena Modrzejewska Theatre in Legnica, was awarded a prize at the 3rd Festival of Masterpieces of the Rzeszów Theatre Meetings 2024. Founder and co-creator of the band KOSY. The band is the winner of many awards, including: Mikołajki Folkowe Festival 2019, New Tradition Festival 2022, and Radio Wrocław Culture “Emotions” Award 2024. KOSY were also part of the official selection of the world's most important World Music festival WOMEX 2021. The band has two albums to their credit: “Siew” (2022), and “Siew Symfonicznie” (2023), i.e. KOSY with the Sudecka Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Agnieszka Franków Żelazny and orchestrated by Łukasz Bzowski. Voice and theatre pedagogue. She conducts workshops, urban choral projects, as well as art-resocialisation projects in excluded communities, e.g. in the Penitentiary Institution in Wrocław and the Detention Centre in Świdnica.
Anastasia Rydlevskaya - born in 1995, in Minsk, Belarus, is a multidisciplinary artist and musician based in Gdańsk, Poland. Moving across visual arts, text, music, and performance, she creates intimate spaces where personal and collective mythologies weave into contemporary experience. Deeply inspired by her pagan worldview, natural rhythms, and ancestral myths, Rydlevskaya explores the subtle transitions between inner and outer worlds, tracing the invisible threads that connect memory, identity, and the living presence of existence. Working with oil painting, drawing, textile, papier-mâché, natural materials such as dried flowers, voice, music, and the written word, she crafts poetic acts of metamorphosis - delicate, layered, and breathing with mythic undercurrents. Her practice unfolds as a quiet investigation of belonging, transformation, and dialogue with the world - reaching beyond binaries, beyond trauma, into a living, breathing conversation with life itself.
Maja Caban - actress, dancer, performer, culture manager and ashtanga yoga teacher. Member of CHOREA Theatre where she is working on various fields and is responsible for planning, fundraising, coordinating and producing performances, concerts, educational, theatre and social projects. She has been dancing since she was 5 years old, starting with folk dance and ballet, then discovering contemporary techniques and contact improvisation, falling in love for a couple of years with Argentinian tango. She practices Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, focusing on steady development and finding harmony between body and mind. She cooperated with various artists in dance and theatre projects, such as: Yukari Uto “Nigero” project, Zorka Wollny “Museum” and “Composition for 12 actors and Lido factory” projects, v-js ElektroMoon on “Octopus Mantra” project, short movies “Tactum” and “Grzeczny-grzeszny” and dance performances “Agui y Ahora” and “Flying Circus”. She loves eastern flavours, cooking, dancing, laughing and occasionally leaving everything behind and traveling. Jan Wieslaw's wife, mother of Zosia, Wiesio and Irenka.
Dorota Porowska - actress, theatre director, choreographer, theatre workshop instructor, academic lecturer. Leading member of Centre for Theatre Practices “Gardzienice” 1984-2004. Leader of theatrical workshops at the Royal Shakespeare Company, at the Acting Departments Columbia of Stanford University and at the Institute of Meyerhold in Moscow. In 2002 co-created a dance group “Labyrinth Dances”. CHOREA Theatre Association co-founder and member since 2004. Constantly works as an educator running workshops for students of theatre and cultural studies at the Universities in Poznan, Łódź, Wrocław, Lublin, Warsaw and School of Theatre in Liège (Belgium). In her artistic biography, apart from acting and directing theatre performances, she is occupied with analytical work on human creativity and perception, and the mechanisms which control our way of being in a separated space dedicated to the creative act. It is an unusual and very concrete space, natural for everyone, and it is worth visiting… from time to time.
Małgorzata Lipczyńska - actress, dancer, choreographer, culture animator and pedagogue. Born in Zamość. Lives in Łódź. Graduated from Social and Cultural Studies at UMCS University in Lublin (Poland). Dancer in the “Labyrinth Dances” group. Co-founder and member of CHOREA Theatre Association. In 2006-2008 worked as choreographer and theatre and dance workshop instructor in Juliusz Osterwa Theatre in Lublin. As an actress, dancer and performer she co-created many interdisciplinary theatre and artistic projects, for example: “maProject” (international dance project in Vilnius, Lithuania), “Kukła-Kantor/Remix” (neTTheatre, Lublin), “Project Mermaids” (dir. Gerald Tyler, Warsaw), “From the other side” (Korniag Theatre, Minsk). In 2011 she created her monodrama performance “forsuremaybe”, based on texts of Romanian writer Aglaia Veteranyi. She also worked as a dance instructor in creating an awarded CHOREA Theatre musical and dance performance “Oratorio Dance Project”. She cooperated as dancer, writer and choreographer with KIJO Dance Theatre - a contemporary dance formation. She is an experienced theatre and dance workshop leader. She cooperated with the Warsaw University and Institute of Polish Culture in Warsaw as a theatre instructor.
Marta Góźdź - El Bruzda - philosopher and clothing designer. Prizewinner of Off Fashion in Kielce, First Award at the festival of production and costume designers Vizuart 2013 in Rzeszów, “Klasyka Żywa" and Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper. She is currently working in Poland and Germany.
Aneta Stępień-Proszewska - economist and psychologist, graduate of the Warsaw School of Economics, MBA University of Minnesota and SWPS University of Humanities and Social Sciences in Warsaw. Ambassador of Nonviolent Communication, enthusiast of interpersonal neurobiology and conversational intelligence. Resonance Healing Practitioner, certified PCC ICF coach, trainer of interpersonal, leadership, parenting and empathetic communication skills, mediator in the Nonviolent Communication trend, advisor to boards, facilitator of dialogue circles and repair circles.
