Contemporary dance and circus festival - Periskop 2023

THE EMBRACES project is a choreographic research whose focus is one of the basic human needs: that of physical communication, empathy and tenderness expressed through the physical act of embracing, which is absent in a pandemic with a focus on social distance and inability to communicate.

If we define embrace as a form of expressing physical intimacy, closeness, sympathy or love between two or more people, the question arises as to how the prohibition of touching and embracing affects changes in day to day behaviour? Does our attitude towards understanding the anatomical landscape of our own body change without physical contact? Does the prohibition of physical intimacy affect the change of collective rituals of celebration and / or mourning.

During the embrace our body secretes the hormone oxytocin which plays a big role during childbirth and breastfeeding. Also known as the hormone of love, it plays a major role in creating relationships between individuals. It is important for bonding and the sense of closeness and connection that is created in love, friendship and family relationships. With this in mind, as well as the complexity of interpersonal physical communication, the choreographer through the theme of embraces creates unique portraits of people characterised by different types of intimacies, revealing the range of our needs for closeness, which is almost inexplicably taken away from us.

Author: Ksenija Zec
Co-authors and performers: Petra Hrašćanec, Ema Crnić, Livio Badurina, Krešimir Mikić
Dramaturgy: Saša Božić
Music: Nenad i Alen Sinkauz
Light design: Bojan Gagić
Costumes: Ana Fucijaš
Set design: Igor Ruf
Photography: Nina Đurđević
Graphic design: Oaza
Video: Matija Kralj
Production: Artistic organisation 21:21 and the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb
Premiere: HNK – Zagreb (HR), 2022

Ksenija Zec (1963, Brežice - Slovenia) – choreographer, director, co-founder of the 21:21 Art Organisation and associate professor at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, University of Zagreb. Her artistic activity is very diverse and covers areas from choreography, stage movement, theatre direction and the creation of dramatic texts in author's plays to the organisation, production and management of artistic organisations. She completed original projects with the Zagreb Dance Ensemble, Studio for Contemporary Dance, Museum of Contemporary Art, TALA Dance Center, Exit Theater, ITD Theater, and many others. festival productions and on film. In 2002, her long-term collaboration with the director, choreographer and playwright Saša Božić began, with whom she would work on numerous co-authored dance, drama and multimedia projects. Since 2012, together with Petra Hrašćanec, she founded and runs the 21:21 Art Organization.

Implemented with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia.

The City is the first stage outcome of the practice of continuous skipping (as in skipping down the street). Two performers enter the stage to begin a stream of infinite skipping, creating pathways and outlining geometric shapes, while repositioning themselves in the imaginary grid of a city.

Choreography: Andreas Hannes
Performance: Johhan Rosenberg & Andreas Hannes
Advice: Bruno Listopad
Lights: Paulina Prokop
Music: Siriusmo + Vibrations Rathero
Music: Mix Gary Shepherd
Physique Trainer: Stratis Hanis
Produced by: SNDO & Small House Productions

Thanks: Charlie Laban Trier, Laima Jaunzema, Michael Scerbo, Tiana Hemlock Yensen, Phoebe Osborne, Rachell Bo Clark, Sigrid Stigsdatter Mathiassen, Antonia Steffens, Andreas Haglund, Michele Rizzo, Keren Levi, Jan Martens, Sabine Cmelniski, Renée Copraij,  Ben Prior

Andreas Hannes is an eclectic maker that develops practices through the engagement with gravity and aerodynamic forces. He uses rhythm and vibration as a source for in-forming and revealing the body within environments. Andreas has a background in music and film and studied at SNDO - Choreography in Amsterdam.  Since 2017, he has developed the practice of continuous skipping (as in skipping down the street). His graduation work The City won the Moving Forward Trajectory 2018 and the Young Art Support Amsterdam 2019, and led to the skipping sequel Tremble. In 2020, he won the BNG DansPrijs and created “Warping Soul”, a commission by Conny Janssen Danst and was selected in Aerowaves22 as one of the most promising choreographers in Europe. Andreas was artist in residency at ICK Dans Amsterdam, where he created “Reverberated Emissions” (2021) with the ensemble of the company. At the moment he is co-produced by Julidans Amsterdam for Sway (2023) and Anthology (2024).

Implemented with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Dancing miniature, 'Peace and quiet', was premiered in Split as part of the TASK – night of dancing miniatures of young artists which is organized by art organization Naturščik under artistic direction of Karolina Šuša. Under mentorship of Kristina Lovrić, starting from the idea of Milana Broš's TASK and through her own graduation thesis (Ludio Doctus: Performer's body in synchronisation with oneself and the environment), inspired by Marina Abramović's Manifest, Larisa Štefančić is the author of the piece and she performs it herself.

At the start, by questioning the idea, experience, frames, freedom, audience and the Manifest, the asked questions were: 'Why artist?' and 'What is the assumption of the sound?'. Her own private involvement in the entire project, experience in the world of stage and the attitude of others towards the whole thing led to defiance that didn't set the boundaries, that didn't see 'head through the wall' like recklessness but like bravery. So the new question was: 'Why is female courage assumed to be folly?'.

'Peace and quiet' is giving the chance to present the artist as the universal concept. Questions the truth of the rules and the relationship between body and silence as the space which gives the possibility to the body to be on its own 'peace' and is presenting the body as self sufficient, naked and unencumbered by external influences. Represents the courage of the woman as an infinite possibility and as her own freedom, gives her the right to be and to do what she feels and presents her as a conclusion the idea 'The artist is universe' which gives her relief and confirmation of the truth of her essence.

Author and performer: Larisa Štefančić
Mentor: Kristina Lovrić

I would like to thank everyone who believes.

Larisa is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, member of a dance association Ri Dance from Rijeka and last year was her 30th year on the stage in a row. From the ballet studio to the Cultural studies, her experience stretches across performances, improvisations and contemporary dance, through production and organisation, choreographing small and big shows for kids and adults and mentoring kids and young people, inside of the association, through dance and stage movement. Her motto, led by Walter Hagen's quote: ' You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry, don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.'

Through the show, the artist establishes a very close relationship with her partner on stage-death, and thus tries to convey to the audience a very clear emotion in order to portray death as a necessity- an integral part of life, playing with grotesque, elements of horror, drama, comedy and parodies with her circus technique on a trapeze prop.

The desire to meet death, fear, passion and anger are just some of the emotions that intertwine in the play through circus and puppetry techniques, building a unique performance narrative without words. 

Mentor for puppet elements: Marijana Matkoković
Acrobatic movements mentor: Marina Cherry
Artistic mentor: Nikola Mijatović
Music: Penny Rimbaud, Berio: Sequence # 3 for solo voice Cathy Berberian
Puppet making: Puppet company Arketal
Distribution: Jadranka Žinić Mijatović, cirkorama@gmail.com
Production: CIRKORAMA 2021.

The creation of the play "My Death and I" through residencies was supported by: Circus Residential Network, ROOM 100, Circus Kolektiv, Cirkusfera, CirkoBalkana, Zagreb Center for Independent Culture and Youth-POGON

The project is co-financed by the City Office for Culture of the City of Zagreb, the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the Kultura nova Foundation

Petra Najman was born in Zagreb in 1999 and at the age of 12 she started doing circus in the association Cirkorama, where she was performing in numerous productions between 2014 and 2016. At the age of 18 she went to a French circus school in Turbul, to learn about circus pedagogy for children. After that she goes to a professional circus school Piste d’Azur, specialising in static trapeze. At the moment she is a student at the Italian circus school FLIC in Torino, enriching her artistic and technical skills in the same discipline.
She also participates in circus and interdisciplinary projects around Europe and works with French company L'Attraction on the new show. My Death and Me is her first solo project as an author and performer.

Inspired by Guy Debord's "Society of the Spectacle" (1967.), the artist is researching spectacle as enhancement of consumeristic capitalism/market, which has spread through all areas of human existence, and has indeed affected the way we perceive reality. The spectacle is nothing but an economy that develops for it's own sake and it's social role is production of alienation. The culture of spending and consuming is being shaped, and the meaning of leisure and free time is no longer a free choice of individual – it is in fact subordinated to the market and accumulation of profit. The spectacle produces estranged (in)activites, like watching TV, shopping, social networking and encourages isolation thus creating „a lonely crowd“. Although the subjects are participating voluntarily in this market, they are not aware of their own participation and of production of the spectacle itself. The rise of media and technological advancement shapes our reality more and more, manages social and individual activity and influences the organisation of social structures and subjects. Melodrama examines how an individual lives in such a society, how he helps to build it and how he manages the consequences of this spectacle production. Melodrama is an imitation and overemphasis of reality, trapped in staging her own self, captured in repetition and illusion of moving forward, in endless scrolling into infinite nothing.

Choreography/performance: Ivana Kalc
Music: Josip Maršić
Light design: Ivan Bauk
Photography: Karlo Čargonja
Video: Damir Jevtić
Prop master: Dean Rožić
Graphic design: Andrea Žic / More Idea
Production: Kabinet
Coproduction: ICI-CCN de Montpellier-Occitanie
Financial support: City of Rijeka, Primorsko-goranska County

Project is co-produced by ICI-CCN de Montpellier-Occitanie as part of the Life Long Burning project supported by the European Commission.
Artistic organisation Kabinet is supported by Zaklada Kultura nova.

Ivana Kalc, born in Rijeka, Croatia, is a freelance dance artist. After her formal education in Rijeka (studies: German language and literature; History), she continues with contemporary dance studies in Austria (SEAD - Salzburg, Anton Bruckner Private University - Linz). After her Bachelor of Arts degree she receives the DanceWEB scholarship in Vienna (ImpulsTanz Festival 2008), and lives and works in Germany and Austria, as a dancer and dance teacher. In 2009 she founds artistic organisation Kabinet, through which she produces her own work ("Markacije", "Siblings Kalc/Where does it all lead?", "We're in this together", „Naša stvar“, „Dancing moms“). After 2010. she returns to Rijeka, Croatia and works with many croatian and international artists in the field of contemporary dance theatre, and performs on many festivals at home and abroad. She also works as a regular contemporary dance teacher in Prostor Plus Association and Kabinet, and 2014-2017. she teached Choreography/Movement for Actors on University of Rijeka (Acting and media studies founded by Rade Šerbedžija). In 2016. She is one of the founders of first contemporary dance festival in Rijeka – Periskop (Periscope) and is festivals artistic director.
She worked as a choreographer for various theatre/drama and opera performances (Antigona/TheatreUlysses-Brijuni; Michelangelo/Dubrovačke ljetne igre, Mizantrop, Nikola Šubić Zrinjski, Leica Format/HNK Ivana pl.Zajca). Since 2020/2021. she is enrolled in Master Studies Media Arts and Practices at University Nova Gorica, Slovenia.

“We juggle, we sing, we good …What more do you want?!!”

Juggling concert is a juggling show with our own original music and lyrics. It formally relates to the structure and performance of teenage singing groups or bands and transposes them into the framework of a circus or juggling show. However, this girl/boyband has missed their chance for fame.

“Juggling Concert” is a juggling performance with original music and lyrics. Formally, it refers to the structure and performance of teenage singing groups or bands and transposes them into the framework of a circus or juggling show.

The performers in the performance exceed 18 kilometres of the running meter of the ball. Juggling moves between the position of the front(wo)man and back-vocal or back-juggle through a deciphered membrane. The show touches on topics of success and failure of late capitalism, personal responsibility for the success and failure of late capitalism, subcultural identities, technological progress and possible technological dystopia, drug use and abuse, the relationship between the community and the individual, giving up youth, structural violence and violence against women.

OU Yeah, we winners

The show is chosen for the best street show by an international jury that gives an award Urbana LjubljANA at a traditional street festival Ana Desetnica in July 2022

The money goes for the circus tent we want.

Authorship and performance: Eva Zibler, Oton Korošec, Tjaž Juvan
Directorial help: Nina Ramšak
Consulting: Mojca Sovdat, Matija Solce, Ravil Sultanov
Original music: Tjaž Juvan
Text: Eva Zibler, Tjaž Juvan, Oton Korošec
Light design : Jasmin Pervanić
Production: Mismo Nismo
Co-production: Zavod Bufeto
Project is / was supported by: City of Ljubljana, Department for Culture, Slovenian ministry of culture
In cooperation with: Klub Gromka, Ex-Teater, Cirkosfera, Cirkobalkana, Emanat

Mismo Nismo [eng. WeAre WeAren’t) is an alt-art circus collective based in Slovenia. We are pessimists who want to embrace the uncertainty of the future through experiences of the (precarious) present / the precarious Now. Our aesthetic is raw, experimental and full of flaws. To us Form is an experiment and the Idea is everything. Mismo Nismo was officially formed in 2018, but has existed since 2014 as an informal group or collective with the goal to develop, expand and educate in the field of modern and more experimental forms of the circus. With the art project “NOise Circus”, they become the laureates of the circusnext, edition 2018/2019.

Heroes is a new dance performance by Bruno Isaković and Mia Zalukar in which they enter a universe full of intimate questions about the meaning of everything we know and, especially, everything we don’t know, that awaits us in the future.

The title of the play is significant not only because it suggests it finds its initial point of reference in the character, work and mythology of David Bowie, but because it opens up the possibility of the existence of heroes in some other dimensions where the show takes us. Needing to escape the avalanche of information we face every day and the responsibility towards the threats that currently cast a shadow on our planet, we turn to the stars and escape into space. The recognizable verse “we could be heroes, just for one day” doesn’t just leave us in the domain of a pop song that stays with us, but grows into a message that comes to us from our own future.

The authors and creative team of this show explore the connection between what we see on stage and what we usually don’t see in ourselves. Inevitably, we come to the moral and ethical reasoning of today’s heroes, because we have to dig deeper and deeper into our generational stumbles in order to reconstruct the kind of image of the world that would make us really believe in those who passionately want to save it. This performance takes us on a path of questioning what kind of revolutions we have today and what kind of (anti)heroes they actually call for?

Authors: Bruno Isaković and Mia Zalukar
Performance: Mateja Miković and Gendis Putri Kartini
Sound Design: Hrvoje Nikšić
Light Design: Saša Fistrić
Text: Lidija Deduš
Costume Design: Ana Fucijaš
Video Design: Dragan Đokić
Assistant of the heroes: Lucija Barišić
Production: Malo sutra, Domino
Partner: Zagreb Dance Center

The program is implemented in a cooperation with organisations Malo sutra, Domino and Prostor plus within the project Network of Performing Arts 2023, which is supported by the Kultura nova Foundation.

Bruno Isaković (1981) is a dance artist with a degree in contemporary dance from Amsterdam School of the Arts in 2009. As a member of the Contemporary Dance Studio from 2012., he created five pieces (Large, Surprised Body, Pokretač, Zaziv, Denuded for 11 performers). As an author, he creates in the fields of dance, performance and activism, with some of his most important works being: Nečastive (Denuded), raSkrivanja, Disclosures, Fade into, Odjednom odsasvuda, O lijepa o draga o slatka slobodo!). His solo Denuded toured around the world and was performed in many countries around the world . The solo was also performed by Ana Vnučec and the Filipino performer Josh Serafin. This led him to creating an ensemble version of the work. An ensemble of 11 performers was made in collaboration with the Contemporary Dance Studio and the Perforacije Festival and has toured in Hungary, Italy and the USA. The performance Disclosures had its premiere at the Queer New York Festival when it gathered American performers, after which the Croatian version was performed under the name raSkrivanja, made in collaboration with Katarina Pejović. His performance Fade into lasts 5 hours and is being performed in museums, being produced and premiered in the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and toured in various other museums such as the MaMbo - Bologna Museum of Modern Art, the Contemporary Art Museum in Zagreb, the Glucksman Gallery in Ireland and the Zhou B Art Centre in Chicago.

The work Odjednom odasvuda (Suddenly Everywhere) was created in collaboration with Mia Zalukar, it premiered at the Perforacije Festival in Zagreb and toured around Croatia and the USA, while currently the Japanese version is being prepared in collaboration with Nanako Nakaji. Isaković leads dance and research workshops in Croatia and abroad. He is a guest teacher on workshops at the Bilgi University of Performing Arts – Istanbul, at the contemporary dance department of The Academy of Dramatic Art – Zagreb – ,the TSEKH Summer School – Moscow, the Instituto de Artes Mauricio Kagel - Buenos Aires, the Dance Centre Ireland in Dublin. Bruno Isaković is the Artistic director of Sounded Bodies Festival and a regular residential programme leader at the Perforacije Festival.

Mia Zalukar is a performer and choreographer who lives and works in Zagreb. After finishing “Ana Maletić” dance high school she continued her professional education at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance. She required a bachelor’s degree in culture management in Croatia. She continues to cooperate with a number of Croatian choreographers such as Marjana Krajač, Irma Omerzo, Bruno Isaković, Roberta Milevoj, and Martina Granić. In 2015 she received a professional award for the best-performing ensemble for the performance of “Varijacije o osjetnom” choreographed by Marjana Krajač; a year later she was nominated by the Croatian association of drama artists for the performances “Nečastive” and “Raskrivanje”, choreographed by Bruno Isaković. She continued her artistic cooperation with Bruno Isaković as a coauthor of the project “Odjednom odasvuda” and participated in guest performances in Croatia and abroad. In 2017. the two artists formed an artistic organization “Malo sutra” and produced shows “Shake it off”, “Kill B.”, Bill is dead” and “Bestjelesno”. In 2020. she was awarded with the best female role in the performance “Kill B.”

She teaches rhythmics, contemporary dance and performing practices at The Art School Franjo Lučić.

“The emerging performance” is created through a series of residencies that take place within different local communities and in horizontal co-authorship of dancers and choreographers from various generations and backgrounds that generate the foundation of Nomad Dance Academy Croatia.

The temporary collective that consists of choreographers and performers/dancers who in their daily live and practise enact as a vehicle of dance communities in their local contexts around Croatia, came together with an aim to join their creative forces in production of performance, marked and influenced by their artistic differences as the strength of such togetherness. The notion of emergence, even though multi-faceted and controversial in its essence, is vividly present and in many ways guides artistic processes, which was a reason for spontaneously becoming also the fuel, topic, method and procedure in this performance.

Following one of the most innovative thinkers John H. Holland, the author of the book Emergence. From Chaos to Order, emergence is “much coming from little; where the whole is much more complex than the behaviour of the parts.” Following this logic, an emergent system, which is in this case performance, is expected to result in something greater than the sum of the parts. Parts as either individual performers or/and particular actions are influenced by others and weaved together into a proactive response in which internal building blocks, the unique alignment of resources and relationships, self-defined imperatives, and simple rules defined by the arts entity itself result in complex patterns of response and action. The result is the performance, which in accordance with the emergence phenomenon stands in sharp contrast to adaptive behaviour that simply absorbs or accommodates external demands as well as disturbances, but rather surprises and challenges the performers as well as its audience while offering an experience of collectivity in action.

Choreography and performing: Koraljka Begović, Aleksandra Janeva Imfeld, Mia Kevo, Larisa Lipovac Navojec, Nives Soldičić, Melita Spahić Bezjak, Irma Unušić
Dramaturgy: Jasmina Založnik
Music: Marin Živković I Hrvoje Jelinčić
Light design: Saša Fistrić
Costumes: NDA CRO and Irma Unušić
Associate assistant: Tamara Curić
Set design: Hrvoje Jelinčić
Photography: Fanni Tutek - Hajnal
Production: Nomad Dance Academy Croatia
Artistic leader: Aleksandra Janeva Imfeld

Partners of the project: UO SHOOMA (Bjelovar), Prostor Plus (Rijeka), Free Dance (Karlovac), Plesni centar TALA (Zagreb), HKD (Rijeka)

With the support of the Republic of Croatia Ministry of Culture and Media, Zagreb City Office for Culture, EU - Creative Europe as part of the project “Life Long Burning” with partnership of Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia, Kik Melone and non-formal network Nomad Dance Academy.

NDA CRO brings together dance organisations and independent artists working in the field of contemporary dance and performing arts in Croatia. We are a network that aims to decentralise and strengthen the artistic, performative and educational potential of contemporary art in a wider national social context.We act as an open platform that, through a series of meetings-workshops, artistic projects, continuously considers the specific needs of the dance scene at the local level as well as at the national.We are not a firmly structured program, but a development project that focuses it's human and financial resources on strengthening those segments of the performing scene that at specific moment have the greatest potential for the wider community. Thus, we are an educational, artistic, structural and lobbying project. Key activities are developed around the idea of co creations so we developed a series of residencies where artists work on a horizontal level co-creating a performing piece, educational programs or small events and workshop formats. We say it is a temporary fluid collective.

Forest project is the third and last part of the personal trilogy entitled Niti PraGozd (eng. it is a play of words: Threads/Neither Threshold/Primeval - Forest). The trilogy was developed by the author’s first performance Threads, in 2019, continued with the performance Threshold, in 2021, and will be concluded with performance Forest which is a two-year project 2022-23. The trilogy is based on the personal experience of the author. In the first part of the trilogy, the author focuses on a traditional, rural, rural environment and its impact on herself and the social position of women and the issue of traditionalisation. The second part, entitled Threshold, deals with the liminal states, states of crisis, transformative states and she uses her own situations/positions to create a general picture. It shows groundbreaking personal situations and, in groundbreaking social situations, that are the engine of personal change. In the last part of the trilogy, in the project entitled Forest, the author will deal with the "engine" of social change i.e. non violent radicalization, and the position of individual within society, focusing on the position of women, which is different from the position of hegemonic men (as we live in patriarchal system). She will question the relationship between individualization and collectivization of society, deal with the dynamics between social and personal crises and look for parallels between the individual and society.

Is it possible to transfer the micro level to the macro level to some extent? Is the individual's tendency towards self-destruction parallel to society's tendency towards self-destruction? Can an ecological catastrophe radically change the way we look at individual consumption? Can we make proposals for changing the functioning of society on the basis of research on the functioning of the forest?

Namely, the production unit is set up as a group show. If the production units are Niti and Prag are solo performances, the last production unit will be Gozd (Forest), a group performance. In addition to the author, 3 singers and 4 dancers will be part of the project. The title of the project “Forest” seeks symbolic parallels with the importance of preserving trees and forests. According to some data, this is even more important than reducing fossil fuels. Forests are key to storing carbon, preventing erosion, preventing climate change - they provide shade, keep strong winds, keep the soil healthy, covered with leaves and fertilised. They offer a home to millions of animal and plant species. In recent decades, we have reduced the area of forests by as much as 80%. This, in turn, leads to desertification (dehydration) of the land. In different parts of the world (mostly but not only) women recognize this problem and plant trees.

In the project, a “selfie” culture focused on narcissism will be questioned, and performance will take one of the eco-feminist aspects, mainly from one's own position and placement in the social context. The Forest will deal with one's own position in a majority still patriarchal, neo-capitalist consumer society. The purpose and goal will be to show today's social functioning, i.e. a systemic capitalist system doomed to self-destruction. And the absurdity of this situation, in which the major part of society is aware of it, nevertheless does not require radical change (movie Don’t look up is a good synonym for this situation).

Author was developing a group part of performance in 2022 în Timișoara (Romania) where she worked with local women and is developing group work in Slovenia. In the residency in Rijeka Danijela will focus on solo parts of the performance and will research how waste materials could be used combined in aerial acrobatics.

Concept, choreography, movement: Danijela Zajc
Assistant director: Jaka Andrej Vojevec
Music: Maja Pahor, Pia Skušek
Production: Danijela Zajc
Project is co-financed by Ministry of Culture, Slovenia

Danijela Zajc (1985) is a performer (circus artist), pedagogue and a producer. She accumulates knowledge of contemporary circus and aerial acrobatics for 11 years and she engaged in many performing, acrobatic and dance workshops at home and abroad (also with: Steve Boyd, Emililano Ron, Alexa Schonenberger, Gabriel Tramulais, Anna Weber, Unna Bennet, Alex Allan, ...). She consistently performs with many groups and is author of many short performances and 5 contemporary circus performances. At the moment she is finishing personal trilogy Niti PraGozd, with last performance Gozd. This year she premiered the 2nd part of the 2nd trilogy called PrePLetanje - the performance Perspective’s Gravity. In 2022 she formed a new cycle called Infinitologies with the show An attempt at a room.

Implemented with the support of Circus Residence Network, co-funded by Republic of Croatia Ministry of Culture and Media and Foundation Kultura nova.

Skipping – as in skipping down the street

Since 2017, Andreas started the practice of continuous skipping. The action of skipping is a historical, cross-cultural motion for the human body. It relates to a bodily experience that everyone knows. Our force and urge to move, to cover distance, that has originated in our childhood, in the backyards and streets of the city and has moved through folk, street and club dances, is used in this practice to excite the imagining of landscapes and relations. Skipping is an expression of vitality and aliveness of our bodies and the space.

Andreas Hannes is an eclectic maker that develops practices through the engagement with gravity and aerodynamic forces. He uses rhythm and vibration as a source for in-forming and revealing the body within environments. Andreas has a background in music and film and studied at SNDO - Choreography in Amsterdam. Since 2017, he has developed the practice of continuous skipping (as in skipping down the street). His graduation work The City won the Moving Forward Trajectory 2018 and the Young Art Support Amsterdam 2019, and led to the skipping sequel Tremble. In 2020, he won the BNG DansPrijs and created “Warping Soul”, a commission by Conny Janssen Danst and was selected in Aerowaves22 as one of the most promising choreographers in Europe. Andreas was artist in residency at ICK Dans Amsterdam, where he created “Reverberated Emissions” (2021) with the ensemble of the company. At the moment he is co-produced by Julidans Amsterdam for Sway (2023) and Anthology (2024).

The static trapeze workshop is intended for beginners, as well as for those who are already familiar with the trapeze technique. In the three hour workshop, we will go through an adequate warm-up for the trapeze on the floor as well as on the trapeze, then we will learn the figure on the trapeze as well as pre-exercises for specific figures. We will also work on the basics of the swings on the trapeze, which are necessary to develop the technique on the trapeze and achieve more advanced figures. At the end of the workshop, we will take time for adequate stretching.

Petra Najman was born in Zagreb in 1999 and at the age of 12 she started doing circus in the association Cirkorama, where she was performing in numerous productions between 2014 and 2016. At the age of 18 she went to a French circus school in Turbul, to learn about circus pedagogy for children. After that she goes to a professional circus school Piste d’Azur, specialising in static trapeze. At the moment she is a student at the Italian circus school FLIC in Torino, enriching her artistic and technical skills in the same discipline.
She also participates in circus and interdisciplinary projects around Europe and works with French company L'Attraction on the new show. My Death and Me is her first solo project as an author and performer.

Do you already work on aerials or do you want to try this attractive and at the same time very hard circus discipline? If you have a lot of experience in the air or you are a total beginner, there will be space and possible ways of movement for you. Warm up will consist of body awareness, strength exercises connected to floor work, dance and intensive stretching. On the aerial silks and rope we will mix different preparation exercises, ways of climbing and learning new tricks, specially dynamic tricks, like drops, swings and passing through one position to another. We will work on an individual's interests and capacity.

Danijela Zajc (1985) is a performer (circus artist), pedagogue and a producer. She accumulates knowledge of contemporary circus and aerial acrobatics for 11 years and she engaged in many performing, acrobatic and dance workshops at home and abroad (also with: Steve Boyd, Emililano Ron, Alexa Schonenberger, Gabriel Tramulais, Anna Weber, Unna Bennet, Alex Allan, ...). She consistently performs with many groups and is author of many short performances and 5 contemporary circus performances. At the moment she is finishing personal trilogy Niti PraGozd, with last performance Gozd. This year she premiered the 2nd part of the 2nd trilogy called PrePLetanje - the performance Perspective’s Gravity. In 2022 she formed a new cycle called Infinitologies with the show An attempt at a room.

The workshop is intended for anyone who has the desire to expand or deepen their performative vocabulary. Although the workshop is largely based on juggling and object manipulation they are intended for both juggling experts and beginners. They are focused on artists who are interested in contemporary performative practices and wish to expand their knowledge, as well as those who are still thinking of taking their first steps into this wonderful world.

The basic ideas are the exploration of movement through the object and the exploration of the circus manipulation of the objects themselves. Part of the workshop is focused on exploring movement with one or more juggling balls. The ball, as a neutral object for manipulation, due to its simple shape allows deepening of the relationship between the body and the object. In the other part we will work on the technical aspect of juggling; learn new tricks andvarious technical exercises that will help deepen your understanding of movement and juggling principles.

There is also a possibility to work with non-circus related objects that are brought by the participants themselves and with which they would like to develop their own work / production. This kind of work is based on the use of the participant’s already existing knowledge and the connection of this knowledge with the methods of Mismo Nismo members developed for working with ordinary objects.

Mismo Nismo (eng. WeAre WeAren’t) is an alt-art circus collective based in Slovenia. We are pessimists who want to embrace the uncertainty of the future through experiences of the (precarious) present / the precarious Now. Our aesthetic is raw, experimental and full of flaws. To us Form is an experiment and the Idea is everything. Mismo Nismo was officially formed in 2018, but has existed since 2014 as an informal group or collective with the goal to develop, expand and educate in the field of modern and more experimental forms of the circus. With the art project “NOise Circus”, they become the laureates of the circusnext, edition 2018/2019.