Croatia, the most recent addition to the European Union family, has a long-standing history both in theatre as well as in ballet and contemporary dance. To understand its current state and to appreciate contemporary works, it is useful to recall its roots, which in ballet are linked to the Russian ballerina Margarita Froman, followed by a plethora of ballet dancers that emerged from her school. These included world acclaimed Mia Čorak-Slavenska (who, after a stint at the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, went on to become the prima ballerina of the New York Metropolitan Opera, and also taught at CalArts from 1970 until 1983); Ana Roje (a most remarkable Giselle, and a favorite pupil of her teacher Nikolai Legat whose legacy she nurtured until the late 1970s through her Summer School in Primosten, Croatia. Roje also taught in the U.S. for many years.); and Oskar Harmos (an important film star in addition to his ballet work). While there once were several ballet companies in Croatia, today only two remain: The National Ballet Ensembles—one based in Split and the other in Zagreb. Today the Croatian ballet scene—like many ballet companies in former Eastern Europe—struggles between the rise of interest in contemporary dance and the decreasing funding for the infrastructure required to maintain ballet as a living art form. With several state-supported schools of classical ballet across the country and the recently opened Department of Dance at the Academy for Drama and Film in Zagreb, there is no shortage of talented young dancers. The still vibrant ballet scene is exemplified today through works by Croatian choreographers such as the still very active Milko Sparemblek—who danced for Maurice Bejart, and was director of the Metropolitan Ballet in New York, the Gulbenkian Ballet in Portugal, and the Lyon Ballet in France—and Staša Zurovac, who represents a younger generation of Croatian choreographers making a mark internationally. Both of these extraordinary artists nurture the modern ballet idiom. With Leonard Jakovina at the helm of the Zagreb National Ballet, as one of the youngest Artistic Directors in Croatian history, and principal dancer with both Munich and Berlin Ballet Companies, it seems that the Croatian ballet world might soon see some more innovative practice.
An even more dynamic scene is that of contemporary dance, which has seen continuous development since the late 1920s with several pioneers returning to Zagreb after having danced or studied with Rudolf Laban, Mary Wigman, Isadora Duncan and the like. The School of Contemporary Dance’s Ana Maletić is considered the mother of much of Croatian contemporary dance, having produced several generations of contemporary dance makers. However, during the last war, the country saw many young dancers go abroad to study contemporary dance—mostly in the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Berlin. The war also destroyed the infrastructure in Croatia, however lacking it might have been at the time. More recently, an increasing number are studying at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD) in Austria. Today there has been a steady rise in state-sponsored contemporary dance schools across Croatia. Thus, the contemporary Croatian dance scene exists on the aesthetic crossroads of the Expressionistic Tanztheater, the somatic dance experiences rooted in Laban, and the eclectic influences of the Dutch, British, German, French, and Belgian dance. It is a thriving community, with inroads to internationalization of the scene that started some thirty years ago through the efforts of the Dance Week Festival, Croatia’s primary festival of contemporary dance. The festival has produced works of several generations of Croatian contemporary dance makers and has also supported dance artists in their respective regional communities to build up their dance scene by investing in visiting productions and touring, thus giving wind to the rise of dance festivals across Croatia. Croatia is a festival nation—and thanks in part to the networks seeded by the Dance Week Festival—today there are dance festivals in almost every major urban center in each of Croatia’s regions (Varaždin, Rijeka, Split, Zadar, Pula, Svetvinčenat, Požega, Zagreb, and Šibenik).
Dance Week Festival’s Thirty-second edition, which took place in June of 2015, focused on the Croatian dance scene through its long-established Croatian Choreographic Platform (CCP) and on the international world of dance with workshops for both the public and professional development. CCP presented a snapshot of recent works by Croatian choreographers. The event attracted some forty dance professionals from Croatia, Germany, Italy, Portugal, France, Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia, Austria, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Latvia who engaged in a lively discussion on dance strategies. This encounter provided an overview of different national dance strategies that comprise today’s European dance world, and a platform for the exchange of ideas as well as the exploration of collaboration opportunities. Co-produced with the Croatian Association of Dance Artists, the event also created an occasion for an insightful reflection on the state of affairs in Croatian dance. The international programing focused on France—as 2015 was the Year of France in Croatia—through the presentation of works by authors who are either immigrants themselves (Nacera Belaza, Vincent Mantsoe, Su Feh Lee for example) and/or come from regional centers engaged in a discussion on the state of dance outside of what is traditionally seen as European dance hotbeds. The eclectic festival program featured cross-disciplinary works such as Hakanai by the French Compagnie Adrian M/Claire B, a dreamlike solo performance that unfolds through a series of moving images generated by on-stage animations that move in physical patterns according to the rhythm of the live sound. This piece was perhaps the highlight of the festival, as the performance culminated in the revelation of a digital installation to its audience. Another work, Aucun Lieu—equally dreamlike but with a darker twist—is a work situated somewhere between opera-video and concert-choreography that absorbs the audience into a sonic, visual and choreographic setting in which the stage itself appears as pulsating space stretching out and pulling in, its surface and depth expanding and contracting. Here the stage appears infinite and between the noise—drone and the minimalist music of Franck Vigroux (played live onstage)—with its micro variations further works to disorient us. It is a strange dialogue among the different elements, as the overall work finds inspiration in Dylan Thomas’s poem “I Dreamed My Genesis” and Heiner Müller’s retelling of Ulysses in his drama Philoktet. The work appears to happen in the precipice between dawn and the ending of the night. Within this rich sonic soundscape, the choreography of Myriam Gourfink emerges gradually and merges at an extremely slow pace with the videos of Kurt d’Haeseeler. The work references Thomas More’s Utopia, and indeed it does feel as we are in a land that does not exist, yet is not a dream. Technology also came into play in Italian choreographer Alessandro Sciarroni’s work Joseph as well as its children’s rendition: Joseph for Kids. These works presented how one concept, with minimal intervention, could work in two very different ways: Joseph, the version for adults, takes us into some of the darkest corners of the internet, raising questions about the humanity and borders of privacy; Joseph for Kids offers an enlightening and humorous view of how technology and the internet can fuel the imagination of children and adults alike.
The festival made frequent reference to history and particularly through two works: Boris Charmatz’s (Musée de la Danse) Flipbook, which was first presented as a site-specific work engaging non-dancers on the landing of the Museum for Contemporary Art, then followed by the stage version featuring a professional cast; and the award-winning Polish production of Nijinsky: Rite of Dreams, with acclaimed dancer Tomasz Wygoda, which presented a new staging of Igor Stravinsky’s groundbreaking The Rite of Spring as a journey into the depths of Vaslav Nijinsky’s unconscious and a reflection of the times in which a community established its identity through the simple act of ritual dance and the relation with God was as direct and natural as the one between human beings.
Sine Qua Non Art and by Collectif ÈS
A new generation of French dance makers was represented by Sine Qua Non Art and by Collectif ÈS, both from the south of France. Gender-related works, questioning how society perceives these issues included pieces by Italian choreographer Giorgia Nardini’s poetic All dressed up with nowhere to go and Simone Aughterlony’s risk-taking Supernatural. Women’s agency and issues of survival were brought forth by two very different works. The Dutch queen of mime Karina Holla’s piece Fremd-Körper, which told the true story of a woman who survived World War II posing as a man, and taking on a series of positions that included working as a crane operator to being a guard in a concentration camp, only to realize following liberation that she can no longer go back to being a woman lacking the means to support herself. She thus spent her whole life as a man yearning for love and wondering what her life would have been as a woman. A more poetic, but equally physically demanding performance was Revolt by Belgian choreographer Thierry Smits. This solo work was especially created for and with dancer Nicola Leahey, and resulted in a powerful and obsessive choreography about the necessity for revolt. First and foremost, Nicole Leahey delivered a true fight against herself, at the same time echoing the strength of so many women in history and active today, leaders of citizen protest movements, as well as the need to survive no matter what. The struggle is all we are given to watch on an empty stage with rudimentary lighting on a limited 15 square feet space; we focus on the performer’s “voltage,” as she delivers an obsessive solo on the theme of liberation and the necessity to rebel.
Part of the festival was also dedicated to the issue of migration. The festival presented the European project Migrant Bodies, a research/creation-based collaborative partnership with scores of artists and experts from Canada, Italy, France, and Croatia. Working in different fields (video, dance, writing, philosophy, anthropology, etc.) over a period of two years, together the artists researched the phenomenon of migration, conceptualizing the body as territory and container of memory and culture. The short performances resulting from the project, along with an exhibition of drawings by primary school children who were asked to respond to the question of what home means to them, was a solemn preview of what was about to unfold only a few weeks later as a flood of several hundred thousand migrants passed through Croatia and made concrete the challenge that Europe faces today but which is, in fact, the story of humankind.
Staying Alive by Jasna Layes Vinovrški at the Zagreb Dance Centre. Photo courtesy of Migrant Bodies EU project.
Over the three-week festival period, audiences were able to engage in a variety of participatory experiences. There were also workshops for dance professionals conducted by visiting artists. It is thanks to the festival that Croatia dance audiences are quite sophisticated; they have been brought up on some of the best works by the leading figures of twentieth-century dance. The audiences for this festival have been nurtured over three decades with initial approaches to youth in high schools. Today, it is not unusual to see three generations of one family at a single performance!
Thanks to the dispersed, state-funded dance education system and also to the fact that those studying abroad, for the most part, return to their homeland, Croatia has a very vibrant dance community with a myriad of dance styles and aesthetics represented. Because Croatia’s capital Zagreb is the traditional bedrock of contemporary dance and has the most developed infrastructure, including funding support from the City of Zagreb as well as the independent sector, this is where most of the dance happens. Although, for example, one of the most exciting dance/theatre makers, Matija Ferlin, is based in Pula, due to lack of infrastructure in the regional centers, many Croatian artists, including Ferlin, work abroad. Ferlin often works in Canada, with Ame Henderson, or in Zagreb. In his solo work Sad Sam/Almost 6 (supported in part by Vienna’s Tanzquartier), Ferlin investigates the mind of a child that is not conditioned by anything, not even by his own existence. In a playful manner, he explores the change that happens as his fictitious childhood friends suddenly turn on each other.
Rijeka, the coastal city on the northern tip of the Adriatic coast, is Croatia’s next largest performing arts community, in which contemporary dance practice merges with mime and theatre. Here is the home of the transitive-fiction theatre Trafik, a collective whose productions merge physical theatre, mime, visual arts, site-specific work and contemporary dance. One of its founding members, Žak Valenta, also a prolific creator, had to recently relocate to Zagreb in order to sustain his career. Rijeka is a small community in which—on the contemporary dance front—productions are created mostly by the collective Prostor Plus, and among the most noteworthy local talents is the choreographer Ivana Kalc.
Croatian artists who have decided to make Europe their home today include: Paris-based Ivana Müller, Amsterdam-based Andrea Božić, Berlin-based Jasna Vinovrški Layes (Aerowaves, Europe’s largest dance touring network, recently selected her work Staying Alive, as one of the sixteen productions to tour Europe in 2016), Sonja Pregrad (who works between Berlin and Croatia), and Aleksandra Janeva Imfeld. Originally from Macedonia, Janeva Imfeld studied dance in Zagreb and continued in Belgium where she now resides.
Alongside individual works, the Dance Week Festival also presented Croatia’s three major contemporary dance companies (all based in Zagreb), each with a very distinct style: from the long standing Studio for Contemporary Dance, to Zagreb Dance Company, and the most adventurous of them all, BADco. While the first two have settled into a repertory built upon a combination of nurturing inside talent with a sprinkling of choreographies by visiting choreographers, BADco. represents a unique approach that fuses theatre, theory, performance, and dance. This collaborative performance collective consists of three choreographers-dancers, two dramaturgs, and one philosopher. Since its inception in 2000, the company systematically focuses on the research of protocols of performing, presenting, and observing by structuring its projects around diverse formal and perceptual relations and contexts. Some of the most exciting dance artists working in Croatia today are associated with the company, among them Nikolina Pristaš and Zrinka Užbinec both of whom were recently acknowledged for their achievements by the National Association of Dance Artists.
The Drawer by BADco. Photo credit: Krunoslav Marinac.
Marjana Krajač
A highlight among the Croatian works featured at the festival, and also on an upward move these last couple of years, is the work of Marjana Krajač, who creates dances through a minutely designed and thoughtful process and construction, building up to a very unique aesthetic and vocabulary. Her approach, which shifts between the elaborate and the quiet, the singular and the complex, continuously expands and reframes itself, offering us a unique, choreographically rich landscape elaborate in its simplicity yet still baroque enough to dazzle. She is one of the rare dance-makers who also considers the theory behind her practice and within a more global context as well. Some of her texts have been published in New York’s Movement Research Performance Journal as well as the Croatian performing arts magazine Frakcija and Croatian journal for dance art Kretanja. Her path has been on an upward spiral since she returned to Croatia from Berlin where she completed her dance studies.
Krajač was one of the danceWeb scholarship recipients in 2002, returning to the event in 2008 when her work was selected for the danceWeb Enhanced Contemporary Dance Co-Production Program. In 2010, she was one of the nominees for the prestigious T-HT Award by the Museum of Contemporary Arts, and in 2008 her work was selected for Enhanced danceWEB Europe Contemporary. In 2014, her work was acknowledged with two awards: the Croatian Theatre Award for outstanding choreographic achievement and the Annual Award of the Croatian Dance Artists Association for the choreographic achievement of the year. And, again this year, her company of dancers—which Krajač nurtured through her past couple of works—received a Special Award from the National Dance Association for their recent work Variations of Sensitive developed through Krajač’s choreographic laboratory. The festival also featured her Choreographic Fantasy No.1.
Aleksandra Mišić is another young author who has risen from the ranks of dancers, and whose powerful presence, unique build, velocity, and the ability to transform grasps the attention of audiences and has already won her several national and international awards (her recent work YOU, a physical interpretation of a popular poem, won the Grand Prix at the International Dance Competition in Algiers in 2014). Another newcomer to the scene is Martina Nevistić, whose strangely playful and vulnerably sincere works offer hope for new signature pieces in Croatia’s contemporary dance landscape. Bruno Isaković is another accomplished dancer, who increasingly endeavors to merge a successful dance career with adventures into performance art and choreography.
Performance: YOU. Choreographed and performed by Aleksandra Mišić and Ognjen Vučinić. At the Zagreb Dance Centre. Photo credit: Krunoslav Marinac.
A more recent development, supported through the Zagreb Dance Centre and the Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance, is the unique Integrated Movement Research Collective (IMRC), a collective of professional dancers, which brings together fully abled and disabled dance artists. IMRC, whose Artistic Director is Iva Nerina Sibila, invites to creative practice all—regardless of any physical challenges or other disabilities—to join in the yearlong workshop inclusive of all sorts of bodies. Their first professional production Magnolija (ili Prkos/ Defiance) was unfortunately cancelled at the last minute due to an injury sustained by a dancer. However, when it premiered to critical acclaim earlier in the year, it prompted the beginning of a new phase in Croatia’s dance culture.
One should also mention here the work of Rajko Pavlić, a more senior choreographer, as one of the very few who still references the rich Croatian folklore tradition, transposing it cleverly into a well-crafted contemporary dance idiom, often with self-ironic references. Maša Kolar belongs to the mid-career generation of dance artists, whose choreographies flow seamlessly to the delight of audiences. Kolar successfully bridges the world of modern ballet and that of modern dance and is increasingly invited to set works for ballet companies. Saša Božić, represents a not-so-unusual case of an artist who come to dance from theatre practice. However, he is one who—through his company de facto—successfully merges these two worlds. Nearly all of his work has been presented by the Dance Week Festival and one of the most popular works, Love Will Tear Us Apart, tours extensively both nationally and internationally. It is the first part of a trilogy dedicated to exploring the relationship between contemporary dance and a specific genre of pop music; it is a solo piece created for performer Petra Hrašćanec. Like other works in the trilogy, this one fuses several genres and is something of a hybrid between a rock concert, confession, and abstract, physical dance. While initially Božić’s work tended to be more abstract, focusing strictly on the body and the politics of observation, it later expanded gradually to encompass broader issues of the arts within a social context. The love in the title refers to the love for dance, the act of dance itself, while the work debates the difference between dance and its realization as a social event through the constitution and definition of the performer herself. Performer Petra Hrašćanec executes dance numbers and selected love songs. During short intervals the audience learns seemingly ephemeral details about the origins of this production, weaving a fine net of relationships between the powers that define the act of performance. The audience is invited to actively participate in ordering the dance sequence; they are asked questions and their answers are used to determine the order and hierarchy of the subsequent acts.
The Croatian contemporary dance scene is quite eclectic, I would say, with efforts ranging from modern, contemporary to conceptual dance. It aims to be political, often questioning the role and value of dance and the arts in society, the concept of ownership, copyright, and other socio-economic as well as philosophical issues. Often there is little difference between performance art and contemporary dance and several younger Croatian artists maintain that, in fact, there is no difference between the two. This notion has so far been contested by very few, though art historians would likely have much to say if there was such a discussion in this otherwise discourse-fueled dance community. Conceptual dance seems to be steadily fueled by those entering the field as they return either from studying or working abroad. Unfortunately, hardly any of those returning are in the least familiar with Croatia’s dance history (having left the country to study at a young age, they were not exposed to the history of Croatian dance, nor that of the region) and its once distinct choreographic lineage that was rooted in the generations practicing between 1945 and 1990 when four distinct strands prevailed. As a result. it is quite a challenge to follow this lineage and maintain a sense of legacy. Today’s generations are finding their individual paths, and it is also not unusual for choreographers to enter the world of dance from the field of design, as is the case with emerging artist Martina Granić, whose works bridge Bauhaus with the Laban tradition and task-based work; or, from dramaturgy, often trying to fit theory into practice or vice versa, with mixed results (with the exception of BADco., who successfully molds the territory between theory and practice, questioning both and reinventing themselves with each new work).
Tasks and scores are usually the starting point of many of the emerging choreographers’ works and this approach is supported by a local festival, Platforma.hr, organized by TALA Centre for Dance, which invites emerging artists to engage with task-based explorations. Croatian contemporary dance is still primarily based on structured improvisation (however, few among today’s generation know, let alone remember the pioneering work of Milana Broš who, in the early 1970s, pioneered this approach in Central Europe, and whose internationally acclaimed Ensemble KASP was the first contemporary dance company to perform at the Espace Cardin in Paris (even before Alwin Nikolais and Merce Cunningham). Festival Improspekcije in Zagreb, today generates a new found enthusiasm for works rooted in improvisational techniques and builds international connections through workshops and performances by visiting artists.
Zagreb boasts the first home for dance, Zagreb Dance Centre, located on the site of an old cinema in the heart of Croatia’s capital. This is where the majority of dance makers research, create, and produce. This is also where a significant portion of the Dance Week Festival 2015 program took place. The venue was initiated and is operated by the Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance, a unique not-for-profit, non-governmental association founded in 1992 to support the development of independent contemporary dance artists. This is one of the most dynamic dance organizations in the region. The Institute has produced works of several generations of dance makers who now have their own established practice. It has pioneered collaborative projects with European and international partners, and also promoted Croatian dance makers abroad. This small, but vibrant organization has also seeded interest for legacy and heritage, having produced a number of important publications documenting the development of contemporary dance in Croatia among which most notable are: Kaspomanija (Croatia’s first DVD capturing the history and essence of one of Croatia’s dance pioneers Milana Broš through the history of contemporary music, the history of her company KASP, and through interviews with cultural dignitaries of the time); the Biography of Ana Maletic (who, in 1945 based on the principles of Rudolf Laban, founded Croatia’s primary School for Contemporary Dance—a school that today bears her name). A recent project, migrantbodies.eu, in which the Institute was involved demonstrates how the work it undertakes is often political and engages in global issues—if not yet recognized as such locally; in this case the theme was migration. Another project, Beyond Front@, fostered collaboration among European countries (Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, and the UK)—presenting the case that art transcends all borders (that of artistic practice, physical, geographical, mental, and cultural). It was recently named by the European High Commission as an example of the best practice in cultural collaboration. The Institute manages to support over half of its operations through its own activities, with the balance generated from the public sector, thereby creating a healthy revenue mix consisting of donations, international funding, box office, workshops and educational activity. As such, the Institute is one of the few private initiatives that—while still reliant on public sector funding—is trying hard to find ways towards self-sustainability. In doing so, it also accomplishes its ambitious vision of providing a holistic support to the development of contemporary dance in Croatia within a more global, international context (through residencies, assisted presentation, professional development, audience development, international cultural collaboration and exchange). Thanks to its achievements, the Institute was recently accepted into the membership of the prestigious and unique European Dance House Network. The Institute also supports work with disabled dance artists through a unique initiative IMRC, and participating in a recent EU project Unlimited Access.
Zagreb Dance Centre Photo credit: Miljenko Hegedić.
Today, the Croatian dance scene, while consisting of numerous different agents, is still fragmented and highly volatile, desperately in need of a support network and infrastructure including that of a previously well-established regional touring network (the recent war in the region saw many venues, cultural centers, ballet, and dance companies destroyed, which broke down avenues for regional collaboration as a result). The current economic climate, along with lack of political will, coupled with the diminishing role of culture in society reflected in the decreasing number of art education classes in the school system (which nurtured audiences from the early age) all contribute to a currently erratic, straddling development. These challenges are further highlighted by a continuous lack of funding from the private sector due to lack of sponsorship. And yet despite these major handicaps the contemporary Croatian dance scene remains impressively vibrant and innovative, as I hope this brief survey has indicated.
‘s career in dance spans over 25 years. Originally from Zagreb, Croatia, she was an active member of the Croatian dance scene for over two decades during which time she contributed substantially to its developments. First a dancer then artistic director for the Zagreb Dance Company, in 1981 she founded Dance Week Festival (Tjedan Suvremenog Plesa) which is today one of Europe’s leading international dance festivals. In 1998, Mirna joined The Dance Centre in Vancouver as Executive Director.
European Stages, vol. 6, no. 1 (Spring 2016)
Editorial Board:
Marvin Carlson, Senior Editor, Founder
Krystyna Illakowicz, Co-Editor
Dominika Laster, Co-Editor
Kalina Stefanova, Co-Editor
Editorial Staff:
Elyse Singer, Managing Editor
Clio Unger, Editorial Assistant
Advisory Board:
Joshua Abrams
Christopher Balme
Maria Delgado
Allen Kuharsky
Bryce Lease
Jennifer Parker-Starbuck
Magda Romańska
Laurence Senelick
Daniele Vianello
Phyllis Zatlin
Table of Contents:
- Hamlet in a Curious Nutshell by Maria Helena Serôdio
- Alvis Hermanis Productions in Latvia and German-Speaking Countries by Edīte Tisheizere
- The Unknown, the Unexpected, and the Uncanny: A New Lorca, Three New Catalan Productions, and a Few Extras by Maria M. Delgado
- 2015 Dance Week Festival and Contemporary Croatian Dance by Mirna Zagar
- Archives, Classics, and Auras: The 2016 Oslo International Festival by Andrew Friedman
- The Stakes for City Theatres: Linus Tunström’s Farewell to the Uppsala Stadsteater by Bryce Lease
- Life is Beautiful? or Optimistically About Bulgarian Theatre? by Kalina Stefanova
- The Multiple Dimensions of the Bulgarian ACT Independent Theatre Festival 2015 by Angelina Georieva
- Theatre in Berlin, Winter 2015 by Steve Earnest
- Musical Theatre in Berlin, Winter 2015 by Steve Earnest
- Gob Squad’s My Square Lady at the Komische Oper by Clio Unger
- New Productions in Berlin by Yvonne Shafer
- Manifest for Dialogue: Antisocial by Ion M. Tomuș
- A Fall in France by Heather Jeanne Denyer
- The Iliad as an Oratory: A Warning to a Civilization by Ivan Medenica
- Escaped Alone by Caryl Churchill at the Royal Court Theatre by Rosemary Malague
- Bakkhai at the Almeida Theatre reviewed by Neil Forsyth
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center:
Frank Hentschker, Executive Director
Marvin Carlson, Director of Publications
Rebecca Sheahan, Managing Director
©2016 by Martin E. Segal Theatre Center
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