Les SlovaKs Dance Collective

»Opening night«

Choreography and dance  Les SlovaKs Dance Collective: Milan Herich, Anton Lachky, Milan Tomasik, Peter Jasko, Martin Kilvady

Music and live music  Simon Thierrée

Scenography Les SlovaKs Dance Collective

Light design  Hans Valcke, Joris De Bolle

Costumography  Mat Voorter, Pepa Martinez

Technical director  Joris De Bolle

Production  Phileas Productions   - ulti'mates / ULTIMA VEZ

Coproduction  Teatre Mercat de les Flors (Spain), Fondazione Musica per Roma (Italia)

Partner DCJ – Dans Centrum Jette (Belgium), BUDA Kunstencentrum (Belgium)

»Memory of the past and enjoyment of the present. This is what we present on the stage. We perform, listen, offer and above all dance together – through this we tell our stories. Individual-collective, emotions, our Slovakian sense and body humour. We share. We share all there is between us. We invite the people to share our way of expression, our way of living, our friendship and history. To be attentive to every detail, to every gesture. Little means a lot. This is about attention and feeling for one another. The inside – the outside. To create and to perform at the same time. We find inspiration in the music. Our space is fragile. We lay out our individual paths but never wander too far from home. We express our individuality and at the same time share the things we have in common. From the past into the present. We are enjoying ourselves and sharing it with others as well. Enjoy yourselves!«

The aim of the Les SlovaKs group is to be reunited again and their decision to work together has a rich history. The combination of their life and professional experience (joint participation in projects of different artists), global vision, social habits and close friendships speak about the emerging quality of a long-term vision.

The Les SlovaKs collective consists of five independent, vigorous dancers from Slovakia: Milan Herich, Peter Jasko, Anton Lachky, Milan Tomasik and Martin Kilvady. All five are temporarily living in Belgium. They make up a professional dance group that focuses on teaching, creating and performing.

Cie Pal Frenak

»The Instinct«

Choreography and scenography  Pál Frenák

Music  Oehring Helmuthm and Frederic Chopin

Video  Christoph Brecht

Performers  Baranyai Balázs, Grecsó Zoltán, Kostur Lisa, Reguera Nelson, Várnagy Kristóf

Musicians Hudacsek Lászsló, O'Donnell Heather, Gergely Attila

Setting and make-up  Majoros Gyula

Costumes  Szabó Gergely

Light Marton János

Sound  Hajas Attila

Setting  Ferenczi Lászsló, Molnár Péter

Coproduction  Trafo, Festival Sziget, Bipolar

In his “The Instinct”, Pal Frenak focuses more on the obstacles met with during its satisfaction than on the concept itself, paying attention also to the frustrations which the instincts are constantly causing. He presents the specifics of such situations under the assumption that in principle, the expression of our own instinct is in conflict with the instinct of our fellow humans, which in turn keeps us all in a kind of unavoidable dependence. 

The slope in front of us commands the stage, the main scenography is a symbol of a circular process pushing all beings of the world into the framework of their biological determination. The world is a giant womb, which gets fecundated over and over again, giving birth and pushing into life the creatures that must pass through several stations on their compulsory path of fight and differences all the way until their uncertain end. Under this vision, the mankind looks powerless both physically and psychically, and probably deeply inside we cannot be different. At the beginning, as they are hanging on the props, they still try to keep their position through their physical and gymnastic fight to keep on the surface, but later on the signs of tiredness and surrender creep in. The bodies are slipping, rolling and diving down the slope and then trying to crawl back again from the bottom of the slope. It seems as if they had no other choice. And indeed they do not.

The incomplete clothes combined with their nakeism establish their instinct desires. One of the five dancers is female, but her geographical significance is on the upper side of the stage because we can see her just there. She comes up and hides away again like some kind of sensual temptation, the phantom Eve, maternal lover, a lover-mother. A point of reference. The whole world originates in her and because of her it is the way it is. For the most part it is dark and full of guilt, incomprehensible or unbelievably clear. In any case it stands for something that needs to be puzzled out. And Frenak does just this. The whole work is full of demands for a synthetic view and willful distancing from the suspect, who is himself. A peaceful position, which is the position of a mature creator, the position after the existence of the creator. Where he can be sparse in words.

The story goes its own way; the human beings with their destinies serve a higher purpose. There is little human interaction, several individual characters are glued together. The cold is terrible, devastation is vast, the pain is inhuman. However, this world on the stage is not falling apart and is not divided into separate phases. The need for plenitude and the intellectual structure are firmer and stronger. Instead of being a decomposition-process, this is a process of compulsory continuation. A juncture of uncertain future and archaic past. And it shows us affection, instincts, ideas and pleasures. The pictures of misery are fully and genuinely real. 

In 2008 the performance was  granted »Rudolf Lábán Award«. The award was established by the Trafó and the MU Theatre to recognize Hungary's best contemporary dance performances and performers.

Liquid Loft/ Chris Haring

»Posing Project B – The Art of Seduction«   

Artistic direction and choreography  Chris Haring
Music and sound Andreas Berger, Glim
Scenography and light  Thomas Jelinek

Setting  Aldo Giannotti

Dance and choreography  Luke Baio, Stephanie Cumming, Alexander Gottfarb, Katharina Meves, Anna Maria Nowak
Text Katherina Zakravsky
Film and photos  Michael Loitzenbauer
Art consulting  Rod Madl
Production and organisation  Jessica Wyschka

Posing Project B - The Art of Seduction is cyclical merging of dance and installation and their »seduction«, which emerges between the performers and the audience. A complex play of seduction must convince beyond any doubt that you have got exactly what the other person wants and has to conceal your personal interests. Or you just have to pretend, as the object of desire, that you are hard to get and unattainable. Seduction seeks to create a connection of mutual deception, which can happen only by the added intervention of a third factor – the »Amor’s arrow«.

The performance belongs to the second set of a two-year Posing Project, designed in three stages and researching the phenomena of modern obsessions with images. They include both the desired subjects and their potential recipients, while their common highlights explicitly formulate advertising stereotypes, equally saturated with charges of seduction. The Art of Seduction - Posing Project B, performed by the Liquid Loft dance company, was awarded the Golden Lion prize for best performance at the 5th International Festival of Contemporary dance at the Biennale in Venice, held on the theme of the “Body and Eros”.

The work was selected by an international jury among the numerous performances presented at the Festival. The jury was composed of Ms Betsy Gregory, Artistic Director of Dance Umbrella – London’s International Festival of Contemporary Dance; Ms Jin Xing, Artistic Director of Jin Xing Dance Theatre and founder of Shanghai Dance, the International Dance Festival of Shanghai; Ms Francesca Pedroni, dance critic for the daily newspaper »Il Manifesto« and the TV channel »Classica«; Mr Pier Giacomo Cirella, Deputy Director of Arteven; and Ms Andrée Valentin, Artistic Coordinator of ImPulsTanz -International Dance Festival (Vienna).

The Art of Seduction - Posing Project B had its world premiere in Venice on 19 June at the Teatro Tese delle Vergini.

In the prize motivation, the jury said that «Chris Haring in The Art of Seduction – Posing Project B has found bright, original and multi-faceted solutions to addressing the theme of the Biennale, the Body and Eros. Using irony, he has mirrored and transformed the public perception of eroticism into a piece which displays our ubiquitous contemporary taste for exhibiting bodies. It is an organic work combining sound, text, lighting, costume, setting and a dynamic rhythm of construction. The immediacy of the choreography and interpretation gets under the skin in a subtle and complex way. The Art of Seduction - Posing Project B expresses a fresh vision for the future of dance».

Histeria Nova

»Modulation Shape 2«

Multimedia dance performance

Author/choreography/direction  Marija Šćekić

Performers Irena Grgurić, Marija Mrđenović, Martina Tomić, Sanja Hrgetić, Tanja Skubic Pipinić, Marija Šćekić

Sampling, programming and audio production  Ranko Šajfar

5.1. sound  Ivo Lorencin

Light Livio Marečić, Saša Bogojević

Software/3D visualisation  Ivan Marušić, Marija Šćekić

Costumography  Nina Maričić Spajić

Modulation Shape 2 is an interdisciplinary dance project drawing its inspiration from life and communication of sea mammals. The choreography is carried out through the song form sang by the male humpback whale (Megaptera Novaeangliae), where the word »song« stands for a special pattern – a certain sequel of repeating sounds that remind us of folk singing. The songs presented in specific sequence contain not more than nine themes and emerge as doubled series – which in the performance Modulation Shape 2 defines the processes of a dancer’s internal movements and manipulation of repeating audio-visual motifs in the development of further intercommunication.

The sound landscape of the sea and the ocean is being increasingly changed by the man himself. Experiments with high and low frequencies (war sonars) and nuclear and chemical pollution of global waters are only some of the forms of the already existing intercommunication between the man and the nature; which, however, is not a proof of the human intelligence and his evolutionary growth, quite on the contrary: it clearly shows that human persistence in destroying the nature that created him in the first place is proper only to himself.

The choreography is based on the pattern of complex vocalization structure (the song) of the male humpback whale (Megaptera Novaeangliae), while the concept of »echolocation« in the performance is presented by the sound (shift of thought), which is a dancer’s capability to “see, transfer and express” the learned motion/movement to everybody else in the group. The concept of »bioluminiscence« is shown by means of a 3D visualization of dance score (choreographic network) with integrated software “transferring”, conveying and expressing the dance structure through the language of interactive media and their technologies.

In 2007, the European Commission and Umis-Smea from Zagreb conferred A SPECIAL AWARD to this performance for its innovative artistic expression in environmental protection.

Liberdance

»Koncert za Dangubu i Zgubidana« (Concert for a Danguba and a Loafer)

Authors and performers Mate Matišić and Rajko Pavlić

Cast Danguba (Brezdelnič) (Idler) and Zgubidan (Zgubidančič) (Loafer)

This performance was subsidized by the Mestni urad za kulturo mesta Zagreb (Municipal Office for the Culture of the City of Zagreb) and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia.

Accompanied by the music performed by Mate Matišić, Rajko Pavlić created an interactive puzzle of music and dance containing a critical note, but at the same time not lacking in satirical interventions. It is a kind of irony of the irony and a deviation from the dance as a branch of art that should be »aesthetically« performed and not intellectually reinforced. Although this stigmatization supposedly originates precisely in the tendencies of contemporary dance.

Tambura samica, danguba, kuterevka or cindra is a soloist instrument with three or four strings that was often played by shepherds to amuse themselves or was played in the idleness of solitude, and was also often used to accompany dancing or singing. By this performance, the author continues his visible affirmation of folklore, evaluating and explaining it through the contemporary dance trends.

The "Liberdance" contemporary dance group was founded in 1979 by Rajko Pavlić, who is also its artistic director. The group’s activities focus on two components, the dancing and educational component and the artistic and creative component. From the very beginning, they have been committed to professional and pedagogical orientation of their dancing and educational activities and have succeeded in forming well-known pedagogical staff who offer opportunities for achieving superior level in dance and professional reputation to many dancers.

Mate Matišić – Danguba (an Idler)

He was born on 17 January 1965 in the village of Ričice. In his early childhood he discovered a great love for different folks’ musical instruments, which was latter on reflected in his composition work. The nickname »Danguba od milja« (the Great Idler) was given to him by his uncle when he was seven years old because he was supposedly avoiding his work. He performed at the festival “Zlatne žice Slavonije” (“Golden Strings of Slavonia) and has been lately engaged in flamenco music and dance.

Rajko Pavlić – Zgubidan (a Loser) 

He was born on 26 June 1958 in Šestinski Kraljevac, which used to be a village but is now an elite residential quarter of Zagreb. Even as a child he was fond of bodily movement, then he played football in the NK Dinamo and was also a member of the dance group at the Primary School Šestine. Vacillating between football and dance he finally decided for the dance. He obtained his first dancing experience on his own, dancing by the music played on the radio or gramophone and later on dancing the popular dances. He was nicknamed Zgubidan (a Loafer), because he spent his days dancing and playing football.

En Knap Group

»NEKJE VMES (med Nebom in Zemljo)«

“SOMEWHERE IN-BETWEEN” (the Sky and the Earth)

Concept and choreography  Lenka Flory (and the Earth),  Simone Sandroni (Between the Sky)

Creators and performers  Gyula Cserepes, Luke Dunne, Katja Legin, Ana Štefanec, Ilkem Ulugün

Member of original cast: Tomáš Nepšinsky

Music Luigi Ceccarelli, Gaetan van den Berg

Sound  Raffaele Petrucci

Light design   Simone Sandroni, Anže Kreč

Space design   Simone Sandroni, Lenka Flory

Costume design Lavinia Cascone

Technical management  Zoran Grabarac

Sound Matej Ocepek

Production Zavod EN-KNAP

Artistic Direktor Iztok Kovač

Coproduction   Deja Donne

The programme of the En-Knap Institution is financially supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the City Municipality of Ljubljana (Mestna občina Ljubljana).

EARTH (choreography by Lenka Flory)
A small and narrow space. Because people want to gain their place and status on the Earth, they are suspicious, rebellious, envious and eager to fight. They look up towards the sky and yearn for happiness.

“One day we will discover that this is not us but some other person instead of the one that should be there. One day we will dare to reveal ourselves and look with irony at the figure that we once called “myself” – we will laugh at his/her power, trust and truth, his/her genuine naivety.

The Earth is a battle which includes corruptness, egoism and personal aggression. It is like a medieval farce – battles, sexuality and no mercy. No positive characters. In such situations the bizarre narcissoide figures that we observe gain power by lust and desire for attention. In an unspoken bitter hope, the moral paradox of our bodies is revealed – our bodies are the proverbial ships of sin, but they are nevertheless images of innocence in their nakedness and vulnerability.”

THE SKY (choreography by Simone Sandroni)
A wide and boundless space. People search for one another to get rid of their loneliness. When they find one another, they are suspicious, rebellious, envious and eager to fight. They look back to the Earth and yearn for the happiness lost.

“Instead of flying, we dig into the cold earth. We continue to fall and we believe that our impact on the Earth will help us penetrate and understand it.

In an instinctive search for justice we have found the culprits and seen how they crushed the mirror of our consciousness, small, inexperienced and frightened /…/ We started to attack ourselves with the power of fear and panic and the blades of indifference. We were already there but we looked elsewhere. «

DEJA DONNE
The DEJA DONNE group was founded in 1997 by Lenka Flory and Simone Sandroni, former members of the Ultima Vez group. Lenka Flory comes from Prague and does not dance anymore and Simone Sandroni is an Italian and is still dancing. As partners they created, jointly with their colleagues, extremely vigorous entertaining dance and narrating productions that were enjoyed by audiences all over Europe and also outside Europe.

Flory and Sandroni deal with difficult topics through a deeply moving, often ironic and light approach. They take their work seriously – but not themselves. In the recent time, they have been linking their aesthetic philosophy with the actual social events. Every DEJA DONNE production is marked by a fully sincere purpose, regardless of its dimension. »We want to create performances that move the people and are independent from fashionable forms or topics«, says Sandroni.

Improvisation attack/ Dance Communication Lab is dedicated to getting to know the creators of dance performances through dance and to the insight of the public into the hidden events of dance creation. The spectators are able to witness in live the brewing of ideas and intertwining of dance. The happening on the stage is not a performance, it is not a refined and selected dance “material”, but a live communication process which includes dance as the language – instrument of communication. On the stage, we can observe intercultural dialogue in its noblest form. 

At this year’s Front Festival, the Improvisation attack/ Dance Communication Lab brings together dancers from different countries and a recognized composer and musician Milko Lazar.

Milko Lazar was born in 1965 in Maribor, where he also completed the secondary music school at the department of piano and saxophone. He then continued to study both instruments at the High School for Music in Graz at the department for jazz and classical music and later on continued the study of harpsichord and baroque music at the Royal Conservatory in Haague. He has been cooperating with the Big Band of RTV Slovenia as a soloist playing the first alt-saxophone, as a conductor and composer. He has co-founded the two groups Quatebriga and Štefbet Rifi and has been an interpreter of baroque music on harpsichord. In the recent times, he has been largely working as a composer, composing regularly for different chamber orchestras. He says that he is involved with music “because its universal language unites ever so different cultures and guides us through spaces and times where there is no light, no sound and no silence. Through the incessant search for pure music, I try to paint this time and space in balance with here and now.”