there where they meet

“Still life” starts from the idea of the habitus of contemporary dance. It’s an attempt to extend this notion from the field of ecology to the field of choreography. 

Different exchange processes happen simultaneously in every live organism in nature. Different processes remain inscribed in dancers’ bodies. The habitus of dance is the living space of dance – a pool of creation of different styles and methods. Dancers are mapping the history of their experience as dancers, consisting of choreographic situations. In these situations, dancers learn how to negotiate various individual parameters with other bodies, seeking joy and pleasure through improvisation. Just as biological processes co-occur in every organism within the ecosystem, personal dance histories are also created in different dance habitats, remaining inscribed in the dancer’s body.

Dancers Lana Hosni, Marta Krešić, and Lana Šprajcer map the history of their own dance bodies and experiences, constructing a taxonomy of their different habitats and organic phenomena. This establishes choreographic situations in which the parameters of one dancer’s material (rhythm, intensity, movement segment…) negotiate with another body, interpreting it and transitioning from one body to another in encounter. 

“U toj nemilosrdnoj ekologiji, sve je prepuno ljudskog traga, znojnih otisaka, osmjeha i duhovitih tjelesnih dosjetki. Primjerice, u složenom zapletu udova, kada se čini da nema izlaza, one pokret pronalaze barem u zavodljivom njihanju zglobova, titrajima prstiju ili očnim kapcima, odnosno namigivanjem. Dok se u početku samo usamljeno kotrljaju svaka svojom putanjom, pitanje je vremena kada će se susresti s nekim ili nečim što će neminovno utjecati na daljnji tijek njihovog pokreta.”  Jelena Mihelčić