Three Polish performance artists make UK debuts at Fierce Festival 2026

21/09/2026
Events

Ewa Dziarnowska, Hana Umeda, and Wojciech Grudziński bring three distinct choreographic works to the UK for the first time, with support from the Polish Cultural Institute and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

Ewa Dziarnowska, Hana Umeda, and Wojciech Grudziński will make their UK debuts in Birmingham at Fierce Festival 2026 (14-18 October), joining artists from across the globe working at the forefront of international live performance and interdisciplinary practice including Faye Driscoll, Dana Michel, Ligia Lewis and Steven Cohen.

One of the most exciting voices in contemporary European dance, Ewa Dziarnowska presents the UK premiere of This resting, patience (17-18 Oct) at Birmingham’s Eastside Projects. Part ghostly repository of unconsumed sensuality, part somatic (strip)tease, This resting, patience addresses attraction, voluntary objectification, and the aesthetics of bareness. This three-hour durational performance employs an experimental format, stepping away from the tradition of viewing dance as an alienated spectacle. In its devotion to the body, This resting, patience proposes sensuousness and dancing as timeless, quintessentially tender, infatuated, and attentive.

Hana Umeda’s RAPEFLOWER (17-18 Oct) is an investigation conducted within one’s own body. This is a story about rape understood as a condition, not just a single event. In this UK premiere Umeda evokes the traditions of the classic Japanese Jiutamai dance, a 19th-century art performed in Japan exclusively by women. Using her personal history and the jiutamai tradition, Umeda reflects on whether dance or theatre can become a space for emancipation and healing.

In Threesome (14-15 Oct), Wojciech Grudzinski goes cruising through the biographies of the legendary dancers Stanisław Szymański, Wojciech Wiesiołłowski, and Gerard Wilk. For Grudzinski’s UK debut he presents an exercise in phantasmagoric choreography, a hazy posthumous ballet, a repressed legacy, a reenactment, an act of somatic plunder and transformation.

These works are presented at Fierce Festival 2026 (14-18 October) as part of a major new international partnership between Fierce, the Polish Cultural Institute and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and presented as part of the autumn season of THIS IS DANCE, an ambitious initiative developing Birmingham’s position as a global centre for dance. THIS IS DANCE partnership includes Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Fabric, Fierce Festival, Midlands Arts Centre and Sampad Arts.

Anna Tryc-Bromley, Director of the Polish Cultural Institute said, “The Polish Cultural Institute in London is delighted to support Fierce Festival’s first-ever focus on Poland. At its heart is Ewa Dziarnowska, one of the most exciting voices in contemporary European dance, whose acclaimed This resting, patience is a deeply sensual and immersive exploration of intimacy, presence and the body. Together with powerful performances on sensitive and difficult topics by Hana Umeda and Wojciech Grudziński, it reveals the vitality and courage of Poland’s contemporary performance scene.”

Olga Brzezińska, Deputy Director of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute said, “Ewa Dziarnowska, Hana Umeda and Wojciech Grudziński represent three very different approaches to contemporary performance, each rooted in a personal relationship with the body, memory and identity. Together, their work offers a glimpse of the breadth and richness of Poland’s current performance scene. We are very glad to support their participation in Fierce and to help create a space for these artists to share their work, encounter new audiences and build connections within the UK’s vibrant performance community.”

Clayton Lee, Artistic Director of Fierce said, “Following the sold-out success of our presentation of Ramona Nagabczyńska’s Silenzio! In 2024, we’re thrilled to follow it up with a Polish focus for this year’s Fierce Festival. As we’ve spent more time understanding the contemporary performance ecology in Poland, we’ve fallen in love with the work and practices of Ewa Dziarnowska, Wojciech Grudziński, and Hana Umeda and can’t wait to introduce them to UK audiences.”

As the UK’s longest-running live art festival, Fierce continues to position Birmingham as a centre for groundbreaking contemporary performance, presenting internationally celebrated artists whose work is rarely seen in the UK, and creating opportunities for local artists to collaborate and experiment.

LISTINGS

This resting, patience (Ewa Dziarnowska)

Eastside Projects

Sat 17 Oct: 3:00 PM & Sun 18 Oct: 1:00 PM

Duration: 3 hours

18+

wearefierce.org/fierce_events/this-resting-patience/

RAPEFLOWER (Hana Umeda)

Midlands Arts Centre

Sat 17 Oct: 3:00 PM & Sun 18 Oct: 2:00 PM

Duration: 50 mins

18+ (Includes depictions of sexual violence)