The Politics of Dancing
Choreographer: Matjaž Farič
Dancers: Katja Legin, Barbara Kanc, Darren Anderson and others
Narrator: Nada Vodušek
Music: Donna Summer, Henry Purcell, Carl Maria von Weber/ Hector Berlioz, The Reflex, Flota
Costumes: Sanja Grcić
Light design: Danilo Pečar
Production: Institute Flota, Murska Sobota
Co-production: Flota Ljubljana, Dance Theatre Ljubljana
Head of production: Urška Pleše
The performance is supported by the Ministry of Culture of Slovenia and the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Ljubljana.
About the show:
How are dance and politics related? Dance is everlasting, it overcomes all rules, elites, their dictates and prohibitions. Sooner or later the entertainment of contemptible masses enters through the big doors of the saloons and balconies from where the privileged look down onto the “rabble”.
The performance features moving sculptures originating in both the utopian world of disco and in the waltz wherein
Central European elites glided over the shimmering parquets for over two hundred years. Like disco dancing in the 1970s, the waltz used to be considered a dance of wild revelry and debauchery. The age of disco came to an end with a public blow up of a pile of disco records at a baseball stadium in Chicago. The dance has survived, becoming part of the dominant media culture, while the waltz has long ago turned from an obscene dance of “German vulgarity” into a tool of cultural and political hegemony.
About the author:
A dancer, choreographer and director, Matjaž Farič is one of the key players in the formation of the Slovene contemporary dance scene. He trained at the Ballet School in Maribor, and later at the Palucca School in Dresden. In 2010 he graduated from the Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana were he studied directing. Over the span of a twentyfive year career he has created over thirtyfive dance and theatre works.
As a choreographer he has created dance, opera and theatre works in Ljubljana, Maribor, Cardiff, Stockholm, Trieste, Villach, Zagreb, Beograd, Antwerpen, Amsterdam among others. He has received numerous prestigious awards in acknowledgement of his artistry: Zlata Ptica, Župančičeva Nagrada, Nagrada Prešernovega sklada, Nagrada na Borštnikovom srečanju, Zlatni Lovor Vijenac Messu, Prix Marulić etc. He has also received the Recontres chorographiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, Prix d’auteur 1998.
He is the Artistic Direcotr of Flota and the Festival of contemporary dance Front@
With the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication (communication) reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Photos from the performance at the 30th DWF / Zagreb Dance Centre
Photo: Ksenija Španec
