Cultural Nomads / Jacek Hałas & Alicja Choromańska-Hałas / 2005–2015
We are nomads. Like our great-grandparents, we travel far and wide across Europe.
But the space of our pilgrimage is tradition.
We want to pitch our Yurt at the crossroads and invite you to meet.
Yurt
A tent with a simple wooden frame, built on a circular plan with a diameter of 9 meters, crowned with a conical, self-supporting roof. Covered with waterproof material and top-quality fabrics with a delicate weave and beautiful patterns brought from eastern lands scented with garlic, onions, and palinka. At one time, it can accommodate approx. 100 people, and the skeletal construction of the side wall allows an additional 100 people to participate passively in the event. The structure and method of erecting the building are modeled on traditional dwellings of nomadic peoples whose traces can still be found in eastern Poland—the Carpathian Vlachs, Crimean Tatars, or Kazakhs.
Music, stories, dances, workshops, and films—everything takes place in the Yurt, from dawn till dawn. For listening and for dancing, for laughter and for tears.
Journeys through time and space—following the tracks of village musicians, eastern nomads, Roma, Jews, Vlachs—from villages of the Lublin region through Bukovina all the way to Transylvania.
We offer traditional music from Poland and the eastern regions of Europe, concerts performed by the finest musicians engaged with living tradition, songs of wandering hurdy-gurdy players, and presentations of little-known instruments—the hurdy-gurdy, shepherd’s flutes, gardon, jaw harp.
In addition, during the day the Yurt space will be used for the dance workshops “Labyrinth,” referring to the most archaic dance forms—processional dances and whirling dances—and for handicraft enthusiasts, “Leluja”—workshops of traditional paper cut-outs.
Late at night, our guests will be wanderers of imagination—seasoned storytellers, but also musicians, singers, instrumentalists, who—living and dead—will meet for a moment in the Yurt transformed into our Caravanserai.
And, of course, a vigorous Dance Night, where you can put the skills acquired during the workshops to use and, to the sound of ancient instruments, whirl yourself senseless in an oberek with the most beautiful girl in the village.
Meeting
Building the Yurt
The beginning of the entire undertaking is the very act of building the Yurt. Two hours of working together on the construction and decoration has an extraordinary integrative value. The sense of participation and personal contribution to the creation of a space—which later is partly a stage, partly a craftsman’s workshop, also a gallery and a dance hall—also affects the quality of the artistic event itself.
It is a bit like building a house in which you later feel like the host.
Or building a ship on which you then set sail for unknown oceans, embarked on this voyage with one crew—for better or worse.
In two hours, a vehicle is created that transports everyone into another dimension. And it truly is a physical sensation—crossing the threshold, you enter a different reality, a different time.
All the laws of acoustics operating in the space of a cylinder covered by a cone seem to support the idea of returning to an archaic form of playing, singing, and listening without the mediation of electricity. A musician standing in the center of the yurt—even playing a very quiet instrument—is perfectly audible to the large audience and the dancers swirling around, and the sound spreads evenly throughout the entire yurt. The quietest word of an accomplished storyteller reaches every ear.
Labyrinth / Dance Workshop
1. Processional dances.
The most archaic dance forms referenced in our workshops are based on simple, repetitive sequences of steps (easy to learn) with gradually increasing dynamics, quickly creating a sense of community even among participants who have never met before. They originate from Eastern Europe, from regions where traditions maintained by local communities allow dances to be learned in their natural cultural context (Kurpie, Galicia, Bukovina, Transylvania). It was on such ethnomusicological expeditions that the founder of the Poznań Dance House – Jacek Hałas – learned these dances.
We start the workshop with simple “snake” games, progressing through processions in rows and half-circles, culminating in circular dances.
2. Whirling dances
OBEREK, MAZUREK, POLKA – closely related to the oldest ritual forms, dervish dances, Hasidic dances, and the therapeutic practices of tarantellas. In Polish ethnochoreology, whirling dances primarily refer to dances such as oberek, mazurek, polka, and their regional variants. Their defining feature—and a hallmark of Polish folk dance culture—is the spinning motion. This may have been influenced by southern (Balkan, Middle Eastern) cultures, just as figure dances reflect Western Europe, and processional dances reflect Eastern Europe. In folk ensembles, whirling is not taught; emphasis is placed on figures and choreography. The whirling oberek is governed by different rules than the “stage” oberek; it is danced for the deep joy of movement, not applause.
3. Live music
Live music accompanies the workshop throughout, adapting the rhythm of the session to individual needs. Played on authentic traditional instruments—accordion, hurdy-gurdy, drum, gardon, fujara—it harmonizes the shared space, transforming it into a magical zone for the duration of the session.
Leluja / Paper-Cutting Workshop
Alicja Choromańska-Hałas from Przeźmierowo (Greater Poland)
The tradition of cutting beautiful shapes from paper arrived in Europe from China. From the 16th century it gained popularity thanks to Jewish communities, and by the 19th century, with cheaper paper available, it also reached rural homes. There, traditional decorative forms—previously painted or carved—adapted to this simple technique, creating a unique art form known as “Leluja.”
Just a few cuts along the edges and axes of a folded sheet of paper bring the biblical Tree of Life to existence. With paper, scissors, and a bit of imagination, you can immerse yourself in centuries-old traditions—circles, stars, curled edges, and fringed roosters bringing luck to the recipient. The beauty of everyday life—flowers, deer, doves—is captured in a network of divine symmetry: squares, diamonds, and incisions.
We encourage you to try it yourself. By learning about traditional folk paper-cutting, its origins, and techniques, you can—with patience and creativity—design your own new patterns for decorations, gifts for friends, or even strangers.
Remember—the rooster brings luck to the recipient. And even more so to the giver!
Braid / Concert
An extraordinary journey through the land of the five senses—legends, fairy tales, epics, flavors, and the scents of old music. You will hear ceremonial and dance tunes, preserved for centuries in human memory and ethnographic manuscripts. You will also encounter the forgotten tradition of wandering singers—hurdy-gurdy players, storytellers, healers, and musicians.
Traveling storytellers in Eastern Europe once sang songs about saints, miraculous appearances, the end of the world and the Last Judgment, death, and the wandering of souls, as well as biblical and apocryphal tales and other tragic stories. They went from village to village, town to town, following pilgrimage routes to shrines and sacred sites, proclaiming God’s glory and praying for the souls of those who offered food, lodging, or a small gift. In the evenings, in inns, over a jug of fine drink, they would accompany dancers with swirling obereks and lively polkas.
Garlic and Honey / Dance Night
Raw, acoustic sound seasoned with a touch of melancholy and longing for times gone by. Music for listening, dancing, and savoring.
Ancient melodies, rhythms, and figures. Primarily processional dances: Polish and Eastern European, where the tradition of processional dance forms the foundation of dance folklore, still alive and practiced today—in Moldova, Romania, the southern Carpathians, and the Balkans. Also, whirling dances—majestic kujawiak, flowing polka, mystical oberek—enhanced with regional characteristics. Occasionally, we revive old courtly dances from Poland, which made their way to the countryside, blended with local folk elements, and remain present today (polonaise, contre, lipka).
The unique sound of accordion, voice, hurdy-gurdy, kaval, drum, and gardon.
For those who missed the workshops, learning the steps “on the spot” during the dancing is possible.
It is also a time for guests—local musicians, dancers, and all kinds of eccentrics.
