MATJAŽ
FARIČ
Having completed
the Maribor Ballet School and the Palucca Schule in
Dresden, as well as established of a few dance groups,
the career of Matjaž Farič, ranging from dance to
choreography, began in the eighties. With his first
company, the Eastern Dance Project, Farič performed a
string of his early works: Sixth of April and Breakdown
(1988), Red Alarm (1989), Emotional (1990), Icht
(1991). In 1988, he danced in Ballet Observatory ZENIT
within the scope of the Red Pilot group. Farič in
Slovensko mladinsko gledališče in 1991 staged Wind,
Dust and Stars and was awarded the Borštnik Prize for
an original project. In 1993 he presented the
»roam'o'dance« DERR, and Solo later that year. This was
followed by re-interpretations of ballet classics The
Swan Lake (1994), Romeo and Juliet (1995), Le Sacre du
printemps (1996), Trilogy, Last Chapter (1997). In the
season of 1997/98, Farič created Clone in the Dance
Theatre Ljubljana, followed by its shorter version RAM;
next year Island was staged. In the autumn of 1999
Flota was established with which Farič first staged
Terminal (picked as the Slovene performance of 1999 in
Mladina) as the resident choreographer of Cankarjev
dom. In 2000 there followed 10 degrees below O, and in
2001 Temptation. In 2002 he created 3.oLo and Talk Me
Your Body, while in 2003 A circle in the body – A
square in the head, and in 2004 Bari.
Abroad Farič has asserted himself as a dancer with the
Amsterdam group Testworks (season 1988/89), as a
choreographer with Studio za suvremeni ples Zagreb (he
staged Stravinski i ja/Stravinsky and Me, 1995, and
Posvećenje proljeća/The Rite of Spring, 2004) and with
Diversions Dance Company Cardiff (From the Desert
Through the Forest, 1997). In 2004 he staged BETA for
the French Compagnie Coline. As a choreographer he
contributed to theatre and opera performances in
Ljubljana, Nova Gorica, Celje, Maribor, Celovec,
Zagreb, Reka and Antwerpen – most often in
collaboration with the directors such as Vito Taufer
(Odysseus and Son, Kraljevo, Timon of Athens, Tartuffe,
Snow White and Seven Dwarfs), Eduard Miler (Magic and
Loss, Susn, Miss Julie) and Matjaž Zupančič (The
Threepenny Opera, The Corridor).
He has won many awards at home and abroad, especially
worth mentioning are the prize at the New Dance
Competition in Budapest (1986), prize at the 10th
ballet championship in DDR (1987), Zlata ptica (The
Golden Bird Award) (1988), prize awarded at Borštnikovo
srečanje (1991), Zlati lovorjev venec (The Golden
Laurel Wreath) for choreography at MESS (1991), the
Župančič Award (1994), the Prešeren Fund Prize 1998
(for the series of re-interpretations of ballet
classics, and for Clone). In 1998 he won the
prestigious accolade at the biennial world championship
of choreographers in Seine-Saint-Denis, France, for his
choreography RAM. In 2003 there followed the Zlata
paličica (the Golden Baton Award) and the award for
outstanding achievements in culture of the town of
Murska Sobota. Matjaž Farič is the artistic coordinator
of Flota.