U:NEW Hoteloko Festival is a recurring event dedicated to contemporary dance and experimental choreography, organized in Warsaw since 2020 by HOTELOKO Company and the “NOWA FALA” Theater Development Foundation.

The festival is an intergenerational gathering of emerging and established artists, as well as a space that engages the audience in a discussion about sustainable development and diversity in social life and the art of dance.

The sixth edition of the U:NEW festival centers on the idea of an island—as a place of seclusion, refuge, and dreams, but also as a boundary, a site of conflict, and a place of encounter with the Other, the Strange, and the Unknown—as announced by the festival’s curator and artistic director, Agata Życzkowska. The island becomes not only a point on the map but also a metaphor for contemporary experience—a space from which one can try to escape, to which one can return, and where dreams, memory, the body, and reality constantly intersect, creating various images of the island: the real and the imagined, private and communal, safe and marked by everyday life, which does not always lead to world peace.

The evening’s program at the Dance Pavilion will feature two performances. The first is the latest production by the festival’s organizer, HOTELOKO Company—“Shared Dreams,” a choreographic collage of diverse sensibilities that takes the rhythm of nature as its starting point. The second is “La Performance Agricole,” performed by Cie Vialuni from Corsica, which explores the relationship between women and nature. The program will be rounded out by a screening of the film “becoming taiga,” directed by Agnieszka Gąsiorek.

As part of the festival’s full program, which will begin in October at the Center for the Promotion of Culture in Warsaw, there will also be evenings featuring performances, video dance works, and dance etudes by artists from Italy, France, Ukraine, and Belarus.


In the program:

• welcome to the festival by artistic director Agata Życzkowska
• screening of the film "becoming taiga"
• "Shared Dreams" performance (40 min)
• technical break
• "Agricole" performance (20 min)

Descriptions of the works, along with the full Festival program, are available at: https://www.hoteloko.pl/festiwal-hoteloko-company/

The performance of *Agricole* will be in French, with Polish subtitles available.
The performance of *Shared Dreams* will be in Polish, with subtitles available in Polish and English

HOTELOKO Company

The group was founded in 2011 on the initiative of Agata Życzkowska. Currently, the artist co-leads the group with Mirek Woźniak, Karina Szutko, Bartłomiej Mamajek, and Maciej Łączyński, and collaborates with Kinga Łon. HOTELOKO Company creates artistic, educational, and social projects addressing topics such as ecology, women’s rights, empathy, acceptance, identity, emigration, travel, gender equality, community, mental well-being, education, and the city. Movement is the primary storytelling tool, although the collective also boldly weaves words, imagery, and music into its performances. The company received the “Coup de Coeur” jury prize for the originality of its performance “Absolutely Fabulous Dancers” at the Quartiers Danses Festival in Montreal (2019) and first prize—the Grand Theater Consequence Award—at the 4th Sopot Theater Consequences Festival for the performance “Axiom of Choice” (2020). Agata Życzkowska’s production “LUXA” was also selected for the Polish Dance Platform 2024.

AGATA ŻYCZKOWSKA

Choreographer, actress, producer, playwright. A graduate of the Acting Department
at the PWSTiF in Łódź and of the postgraduate program in Cultural Diplomacy at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. She received an award at the 19th Festival. Performer in the production “The SHOW MUST GO ON”—concept and choreography by Jérôme Bel. Founder of the HOTELOKO Company in Warsaw—she has staged over a dozen original productions.

She received an artistic scholarship from the City of Warsaw for the year 2023. Her solo “Blue Gold”
premiered at the Quartiers Danses festival in Montreal (2025).


La Cie Vialuni (Vialuni Company)

A group founded by French dancer and choreographer Michèle Ettori. The company has been active on the island of Corsica for over 20 years, organizing numerous events that engage diverse audiences. Its primary area of exploration is the relationship between humans, everyday life, and the environment, enriched by the legacy of choreographic culture, particularly postmodern dance. The company conducts artistic activities in venues such as “Son studio de bois” and “La Zone à danser,” and offers artist residencies. Vialuni Company is engaged in artistic and cultural practices across diverse environments and communities. They are interested in working with young children, seniors in nursing homes, and people with disabilities, as well as collaborating with schools—both in Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica, and in local rural communities.

MICHÈLE ETTORI

Dancer and choreographer. She received her dance training from artists such as Karin Waehner, Kilina Cremona, and Roger Méguin, as well as Trisha Brown, Simone Forti, and Mark Tompkins. Her artistic practice draws on the tradition of postmodern improvisation. She also studied under Hubert Godard, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, and Blandine Calais-Germain. Since 2000, she has lived in Corsica, where she founded “Zone à Danser” in Ajaccio—a space dedicated to dance that hosts artist residencies and dance programs. She is also the founder and director of the recurring event LesViesDanse.


AGNIESZKA GĄSIOREK

Director, anthropologist, and social activist. She graduated from the European Film College in Denmark with a degree in documentary and feature film directing. Her film “Grandma Dorota” won five awards and was screened at numerous international festivals. For her film “Thoughts of Love,” she received the Best Director Award at the Hollywood Film Awards. Co-director of the film “What Grows in the City” (with Anna Galas-Kosil). In 2023, she completed a five-year degree in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology in Wrocław. She led the social-ecological project “Permanent Neighborhood,” which, inspired by permaculture principles, brought people together to learn and work toward a sustainable city. In both her research and filmmaking, she is interested in the everyday practices of co-creating regenerative ways of life. In her work, she weaves together an anthropological perspective with the language of film. She views cinema as a tool for telling stories about possible futures. In 2025, she founded the documentary film studio Medusa Films. In her free time, she most enjoys spending time in the woods, dancing, or working in the garden.