Spending Time Dancing: the Movements of Aphrodite
In the Aphrodite Movement, Kejžar and the team dismantle dance both gallery-wise - what dance is all about - and mechanically, i.e. they break it down into pieces. ... The dance appears as an anatomical movement, as the body giving way to gravity.
Theatre into the ether, DANCE IS WHAT DANCERS DO,
Samo Oleami, Radio Študent
The latest in a series of Kejžar’s efforts to liberate dance from choreography resonates better in a time of hyperproduction.
Metod Zupan, SIGLEDAL
The research Spending Time Dancing, established in 2022, presents Matej Kejžar’s venture into dancing discharged from the drive for choreography, with The Movements of Aphrodite being the second instalment of the series. The institution constructs the individuals. Institution here is meant in the broadest sense - everything that has a rigid, hierarchical structure, which includes the boss, the manager, the working class, family etc. The institution interpellates individuals, to use Althusserian terminology, allowing them to internalise the ideological edifice. Choreography is not far off from this - the dancers are created through the imposition of rules via the choreographer. What happens when an individual goes off the map? What happens when a dancer moves without the rigidity? Can dance, in its pure expenditure, become an act of resistance—an embrace of temporality, accidents and freedom? To dance, in this sense, means to move within and with time, not in order to fulfill teleological means of choreography, but simply, to put it psychoanalytically, to act out.
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Dance direction: Matej Kejžar
Dance creators: Lana Hosni, Luka Švajda, Mark Lorimer, Mikael Marklund,Matej Kejžar
Set: Petra Veber, Matej Kejžar
Lights: Petra Veber
Costumes: Tina Pavlin, Matej Kejžar
Sound: Florence Bujard
Technical director: Igor Remeta
Producer: Žiga Predan
Produced by: Pekinpah & Matej Kejžar
Special thanks: Lies De Leat, David Potočnik
Supported by: Ministrstvo za kulturo RS, Mestna občina Ljubljana - Department of Culture
Duration: 95’
Premiere: 9 April 2023
Dance creators: Lana Hosni, Luka Švajda, Mark Lorimer, Mikael Marklund,Matej Kejžar
Set: Petra Veber, Matej Kejžar
Lights: Petra Veber
Costumes: Tina Pavlin, Matej Kejžar
Sound: Florence Bujard
Technical director: Igor Remeta
Producer: Žiga Predan
Produced by: Pekinpah & Matej Kejžar
Special thanks: Lies De Leat, David Potočnik
Supported by: Ministrstvo za kulturo RS, Mestna občina Ljubljana - Department of Culture
Duration: 95’
Premiere: 9 April 2023
Matej Kejžar (1974, Slovenia/Belgium) (1974, Belgium/Slovenia) has, as a dance maker, received the prestigious Croatian Theatre Award 2024 for the best overall performance in dance and the Ksenija Hribar Award 2023 for his dance opus as an 'outstanding dancer and powerful creator who inspires’ by the Slovenian Contemporary Dance Association. He participated in the French choreographer Boris Charmatz’s project 20 Dancers for the XX Century. He regularly teaches at SNDO.
Mikael Marklund (1986, Sweden) a dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker from Swedenbased in Berlin, embarked on his dance journey in Skellefteå, specialisingin breakdancing. He completed his training at the Ballet Academy inStockholm and P.A.R.T.S in Brussels, followed by a stint with the Rosas dancecompany. Later, Marklund delved into experimental dance, collaboratingwith artist Laurent Chetouane for six transformative years. His work pushesthe boundaries of dance, translating personal experiences and emotions intoperformances that transcend cultural divides.
Mark Lorimer (1969, UK/Belgium/France) graduated from the LondonSchool of Contemporary Dance in 1991 and has since worked as a dancer,choreographer, teacher and rehearsal director. Since 1994, he has workedintensively with Rosas and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, among others for theproductions Amor Constante Mas Alla De La Muerte, Kinok, Verklärte Nacht,Woud, Mikrokosmos, Un Moto Di Gioia - Mozart Concert Arias, In Real Time,Rain, Drumming, D’Un Soir Un Jour, Zeitung, The Song, En Atendant and VortexTemporum.
Lana Hosni (Croatia, 1989) is a Zagreb-based dance artist and vocalist. Shegraduated from SEAD Salzburg in 2013. Since 2010, she has collaborated withnumerous artists and performers, working within the fields of dance, music,new media, hybrid formats and undeclared practices - such as Matej Kejžar,Bruno Iskaović, Costas Kekis, Sidney Leoni, Yukiko Shinozaki, and others. Shereceived several awards, among them the Award for the most promising danceartist (Croatian Dancers Association, 2015) and Award for the best collectiveperformance (Variations on sensitive by Marjana Krajač, DOWL by Sonja Pregrad).
Luka Švajda (1995, Croatia/Belgium) started his dancing career at the Croatianstudio Ilijana Lončar, continued his dance education in Zagreb, Croatia, andstudied at the Salzburg Academy of Dance (SEAD). As a dancer, he worked forthe Belgian company Rosas from 2016 to 2020. As an author and performer, heparticipated in various dance projects, among them: Horizont (Petra Hrašćanecand Saša Božić), L2D (Femke Gyselinck), Edenx3 etc. He is currently studying at theInstitute of Philosophy in Leuven (Belgium).
Mikael Marklund (1986, Sweden) a dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker from Swedenbased in Berlin, embarked on his dance journey in Skellefteå, specialisingin breakdancing. He completed his training at the Ballet Academy inStockholm and P.A.R.T.S in Brussels, followed by a stint with the Rosas dancecompany. Later, Marklund delved into experimental dance, collaboratingwith artist Laurent Chetouane for six transformative years. His work pushesthe boundaries of dance, translating personal experiences and emotions intoperformances that transcend cultural divides.
Mark Lorimer (1969, UK/Belgium/France) graduated from the LondonSchool of Contemporary Dance in 1991 and has since worked as a dancer,choreographer, teacher and rehearsal director. Since 1994, he has workedintensively with Rosas and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, among others for theproductions Amor Constante Mas Alla De La Muerte, Kinok, Verklärte Nacht,Woud, Mikrokosmos, Un Moto Di Gioia - Mozart Concert Arias, In Real Time,Rain, Drumming, D’Un Soir Un Jour, Zeitung, The Song, En Atendant and VortexTemporum.
Lana Hosni (Croatia, 1989) is a Zagreb-based dance artist and vocalist. Shegraduated from SEAD Salzburg in 2013. Since 2010, she has collaborated withnumerous artists and performers, working within the fields of dance, music,new media, hybrid formats and undeclared practices - such as Matej Kejžar,Bruno Iskaović, Costas Kekis, Sidney Leoni, Yukiko Shinozaki, and others. Shereceived several awards, among them the Award for the most promising danceartist (Croatian Dancers Association, 2015) and Award for the best collectiveperformance (Variations on sensitive by Marjana Krajač, DOWL by Sonja Pregrad).
Luka Švajda (1995, Croatia/Belgium) started his dancing career at the Croatianstudio Ilijana Lončar, continued his dance education in Zagreb, Croatia, andstudied at the Salzburg Academy of Dance (SEAD). As a dancer, he worked forthe Belgian company Rosas from 2016 to 2020. As an author and performer, heparticipated in various dance projects, among them: Horizont (Petra Hrašćanecand Saša Božić), L2D (Femke Gyselinck), Edenx3 etc. He is currently studying at theInstitute of Philosophy in Leuven (Belgium).