Assis Carreiro
Artist Management 
International Arts & 
Cultural Projects

The Press

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(Dance Theatre of Harlem) 'Robert Bondara’s Take Me With You, was a wonderful vehicle for Smith and Elias Re. This slick, athletic pas de deux was set to Radiohead’s Reckoner.It is very hard to pull off the pairing of popular music with ballet, but Bondara proved himself to be a member of the very small club of choreographers who can manage it, along with Kyle Abraham, Twyla Tharp (sometimes) and William Forsythe....  Bondara also designed the lighting and the chic costumes: unisex white button-down shirts with mini black shorts. Smith and Re showed off their great lines and danced with soul, echoing but not overselling Thom Yorke’s wistful vocals.'  

- Faye Arthurs, Fjord Magazine

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"For his new Bolero, Robert Bondara decided red was the colour – at least from the knees to the toes. We get a startling opening picture of a forest of upturned legs caught in a blaze of red light. Maurice Ravel’s Bolero is somehow too well known, too much used but Bondara has taken up the challenge. His ballet is not a Bolero about ego or flamenco flounces but rather an ensemble work using the whole company who barely leave the stage. Cleverly structured in a variety of patterns and forms, it holds attention. Bondara’s style of contemporary ballet particularly in duets is excitingly innovative and the repetitive rhythms give him plenty of scope." - Maggie Foyer, Danza International, Sept/October, 2024

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'(Take Me With You, Dance Theatre of Harlem) - 'As the choreography flickers between sharp and dreamy, the dancers — sleek yet still somehow vulnerable — are swept along by the music. Bondara, a Polish choreographer, makes room for give and take. Even as the dancers roll on the floor or grab each other’s limbs, you get the sense that this is a partnership.

When Smith bends over Re’s chest and taps her fingers on his torso to the beat of the music, he doesn’t flinch but arches backward. Take Me With You is both unstuffed and unsentimental: There may be darkness swirling around the world, but they have each other, strangely and endearingly like a modern-day Nick and Nora.' 

- Gia Kourlas, New York Times

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'Bondara’s, Take Me With You, finds a soulmate in Radiohead’s restless beat, so skilfully employed that the medley of numbers binds the work into a perfect wrap. The body language is searingly honest connecting social relationships and inner feelings. There is innovation every step of the way from the line of dancers, dressed in trim black shorts and crisp white shirts, sitting across the breadth of the stage,
cross-legged and arms in a chrysalis twist, to the final clap and blackout. His uninhibited use of pointes allows freedom to venture where toes have seldom dared. Rhythmic body percussion and clapping reverberates like a clandestine mating call, marking boundaries and designating partners.
The original duet remains central, danced with panache by Saeka Shirai and Mateusz Sierant. It is daring and dangerous, the timing precipitous but never losing the poetic undercurrent visible in brief shared glances. Duets, solos, the dynamic male skirmish where competitive virtuosity comes to the fore and the energetic closing ensemble, all demand this mix of audacity, skill and artistry structured with Bondara’s keen eye in a work of superb quality. '  -Maggie Foyer, Danza

 

'Bondara proves his skills in creating rich and emotional dance language which is both contemporary and very physical.'

- Maggie Foyer, Dance Europe

 

'Bondara exploited the interesting opportunities the situation offered , showing a distinctive talent for shape and movement.'

- Maggie Foyer, Dance Europe

 

'Persona, a quirky and disturbing trio, was created by dancer Robert Bondara, a name to watch out.'

- Maggie Foyer, Dance Europe

 

'It is one of the most brilliant ballet careers of the last decade in Poland'

- Rzeczpospolita, Jacek Marczyński

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'The Polish National Ballet's Persona was my favorite of the entire evening... Choreographer Robert Bondara, a "rising star" in the Polish National Ballet, has turned the push and pull of role reversals in relationships, and in ourselves, into a stunning piece of contemporary dance.'

- Abby Koenig, Houston Press

 

'The Polish National Ballet, making their Salad debut, offered four works, of which Robert Bondara's trio excerpt of his minimalist Persona, proved the strongest.'

- Nancy Wozny, Dancemagazine

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