Inside the Outside, a collaboration between the artists of Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia and the acclaimed American dancer and choreographer Deborah Hay, whose oeuvre made her one of the central names of American postmodern dance today, is no ordinary dance performance.
This open work aims to affirm a segment of contemporary dance that, in line with the work of Deborah Hay who introduced this concept into the field of dance art, deals with a longer lasting and sustainable notion: dance practice (what we do through dance). Dance practice is not the production of forms, but rather of determinants and principles by which a particular dance act or body changes and develops over time, and in this way expands the dimensions of dance time beyond the temporal limitation that usually corresponds to a dance performance/presentation. Within the framework of the set tasks and determinants (the specific score of Inside the Outside), the artists, by building configurations of kinetic relations, are engaged with the ways in which their individual dance practices can enter into reciprocal relations, their principles are tested in more intense kinetic rhetorical territories (theatricalised and choreographed passages), and despite all this, compositions of temporality are confronted with one another in the course of the performance, pointing to kinetic landscapes beyond the present moment (of the past, of potentiality and of future actuality).
Deborah Hay stated: »I have little interest in ‘dance movement’ or telling a dancer what to do. What makes a difference to me is how a dancer performs. I choreograph structure to guide a performer’s attention through a given dance. I give the dancers very little to lean on combined with an aesthetic preference to pull the rug out from under them… when I can. The same set of tools, which I provide, are used by each dancer to navigate coherence in performance.«
Performers stated: »For us as dancers, the work with Deborah Hay is a gift, a learning experience, an affirmation of dance as a daily practice and a research of forms, formats and the fluidity of perception. In this process, dance is paralleled with learning, individual and collective. Choreography comes as a structure, which supports and challenges the dancers. Its possible readings are infinite – firm and fluid at the same time.«
Choreography: Deborah Hay
Performed by: Dragana Alfirević, DISCOllective, Jana Jevtović, Beno Novak, Jan Rozman, Dejan Srhoj
Costume design: Dajana Ljubičić
Lighting design: Špela Škulj
Production: Jasmina Založnik and Dragana Alfirević
Photos: Sunčan Stone
Produced by: Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia, 2023
Co-produced by: Bunker, Kino Šiška, DUM – Društvo umetnikov
The project was supported by: Ljubljana municipality – Cultural Department, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, DANCE ON PASS ON DREAM ON within Creative Europe
Organised by: Kino Šiška and NDA Slovenia
16.00 in 20.00 / Katedrala
Duration: 50 min
