Room 22: an experience of love through songs, glitter, feathers, and a lot of red light
I have known Monnush (Monika Prikkelova) for more than 18 years now. That is one whole adult life. That is the kind of timeline that lets you watch someone grow from a kid showing up to dance class next to you, performing on TV and music videos in matching outfits, all the way to someone who directs her own shows, runs her own business and builds whole rooms for other people to be themselves in. She has dedicated her career to this. And when you are a dancer, dedicating your career also means dedicating your life to building a community and spreading a culture that celebrates people in their truest form.
Her latest project is Room 22, a collaboration with Miroslav Figura. An artist new to me, but clearly not new to making something worth showing up for. I saw the logo first. Then the costumes on the flyers. Then the names. A few of them I knew and loved, the rest I trusted had been chosen for a reason. Of course I wanted to capture it. Even though, honestly, I had no idea what it was going to be.
Turns out, neither did anyone else. Because Room 22 is not really a show you describe. It is an experience.
For me, it was an experience of all the different shapes love can take. Through singing, dancing, movement, light, visuals, costume. It was funny. It was goosebumpy. It was sexy. It was cabaret, it was opera, it was techno. It was a lot of interesting things I had never seen under one roof. In one room. Room 22.
I got to be there for the whole day of the show. The rehearsals, the lights being set, the costumes being prepared and then of course, the show itself. What follows is the atmosphere of all of it through my eyes, both the work behind it and the night it became. And this is also why I am sharing it. Support your local artists. Show up when your friends are taking a risk. Back new projects even when you are not sure yet what they are. Especially then.
Featured artists:
Dancers: @doduela @darl.ene @martina_slamka @__kucharikova__ @nikiivkovic
Acrobatics: @nelli_novodomska
Singers: @michaelatrokanova @jurastejskal
