0

Gibanica, which translates as 'moving cake', is a play on words - giving a traditional name to a contemporary theme. The first 'serving' of this festival was presented to the Slovenian public in 2003. The lesson learnt from that festival was that there was far greater local demand for this type of festival than had been anticipated and that the popularity of this art form was steadily growing. The festival is being organised by the Exodos Institution, Cankarjev dom, Bunker, En-Knap, Plesni teater Ljubljana (the Ljubljana Dance Theatre), Fico balet and Drustvo za sodobni ples Slovenije (the Slovenian Society for Contemporary Dance). Nineteen different dance performances are being presented throughout the 5-day festival. This year's 3-person selection committee comprised: Martina Hochmuth (Tanzquartier, Vienna), Mateja Rebolj (former member of the Slovenian National Opera and Ballet and a dancer in numerous contemporary dance and theatre productions) and Rok Vevar (a freelance theatre director, art critic and writer). They chose 13 projects from the 60 applications received, all of which had been presented during the last two years, plus another four, which had either received awards or were highly acclaimed. All of which means that the four participating cities - Ljubljana, Maribor, Celje and Kranj will each get a healthy slice of Gibanica. Here comes Mozart Gibanica is also bringing to the stage two completely fresh performances, which will be presented to Slovenian audiences for the first time. The first to be seen one is Woferl osebno (Mozart - hype as I wanna be) produced by Iztok Kovac, who, along his international dance company, En-Knap, is one of the biggest and most renowned names of contemporary dance in Slovenia. In 1991, he made the international scene stand up and take notice with his solo performance - How I Caught a Falcon, and two years later, in 1993, he established the En-Knap group, with which he has toured the world. There are various constants presented in his work: his home town, Trbovlje, and its mine worker's tradition, a commitment to the collective, body discipline, body limits, and freedom; as well as variables: different musical paradigms, choreographic and improvisational strategies and core themes. Mozart is the most recent dance production of Iztok Kovac and the En-Knap Dance Company. In the performance, the choreographer creates a fragmented series of images whose creative initiative derives from the hypomanic episodes of the Austrian composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The characteristically unstable nature of these episodes - torn between rapture and depression - constantly challenges the balance of the performance and is reinstated as a background for the unravelling of events that occurred in the last fifteen years of Mozart's life. Inspired by 'Mozart in Person', a scientific research of his personality by Australian doctor, Peter J. Davies, the performance is interwoven into a quilt of six dancing bodies permeated with individual stories and collective movement patterns. The music was created by Tomaz Grom in collaboration with the choreographer and the dancers, and a kinetic construction by Hungarian visual artist Attila Cs"rg. ...and Marlene The second performance is Vsi smo mi Marlene Dietrich (We're all Marlene Dietrich), a Slovenian/Icelandic co-production by Emil Hrvatin and Erna Omarsdottir, which will be premiering during Gibanica. The works of theatre director and theorist, Emil Hrvatin, and that of dancer and choreographer, Erna Omarsdottir, have several undeniably common features, and one of them is certainly the Belgian artist, Jan Fabre: Hrvatin wrote a book about him in 1993, entitled Repetition, Madness, Discipline - The Gesamtkunstwerk Fabre, while Erna Omarsdottir performed in a number of Fabre's productions. Both of the creators of this project are internationally renowned and highly praised artists. In recent years, Hrvatin established himself as a creator of provocative productions and conceptually elaborate projects in the domain of contemporary performing arts (Drive In Camillo; Q & A - Very Private, Very Public!; Collect-if; Refugee Camp For The First World Citizens; etc.). Erna Omarsdottir has performed in productions by Jan Fabre and Larbi Cherkaoui, but she has also attracted attention with her personal projects (IBM). We Are All Marlene Dietrich deals with the relationship between art and war, the artist and the soldier. "The controversial and ideologically saturated destiny of Marlene Dietrich is the starting point of this production," claim the creators. "As to the genre, it can be defined as a cultural and artistic programme for soldiers at the front." The explorers of military bases, and - incredibly - local theatre festivals, have condensed their results and conclusions in this production. The performances of Gibanica are being held between 23rd and 27th February at various venues already familiar to those who regularly attend dance performances: Cankarjev dom, Plesni teater Ljubljana, Skuc gallery and Stara elektrarna. Further details can be found at:http://www.exodos-festival.si/