Prosto w oczy – Jacek Łumiński i Śląski Teatr Tańca (1991-2011)

The last decade of the 20th century marked a turning-point in the development of Polish contemporary dance. In 1991, Jacek Luminski established the Silesian Dance Theatre in Bytom.The theatre is said to have been the avant-garde of all activities around contemporary dance in Poland. It was J. Luminski and his theatre that set new trends in contemporary dance of the early 1990s, at the same time having fulfilled educational purposes for the last twenty years. The aim of this article is to present the artistic and educational activity of the Silesian Dance Theatre of the last twenty years. It first presents a choreographic portrait of J. Luminski, founder and choreographer of the Silesian Dance Theatre, the creator of the Polish contemporary dance technique. Then, this paper analyses Luminski’s dance style and reviews the Silesian Dance Theatre’s choreographic achievements. The final part of the article discusses a wide spectrum of educational activities undertaken in the field of contemporary professional dance by the Silesian Dance Theatre, and the phenomenon of theatre on the Polish stage.