Improspections2018

international improvisation festival, 12th edition

9th – 13th July 2018
15th – 22nd October 2018
23rd– 28th November 2018

Kamenjak Open-air Theatre
University of Zagreb Student Centre
Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb

For the 12th year in a row, the International Improvisation Festival – Improspections answers the question, “What is the present-day place of improvisation in performance?” This year, through experiences of artists – pioneers of the form with several decades of practising improvisation behind them. The topic we open is duration in improvisation, both within the performance and through maintaining practices that become works of life.

The guests of this year’s festival are: in the summertime part of the programme, Kirstie Simson and Martin Piliponsky; in the autumn part of the programme, Jeanine Durning, Eva Karczag, Chris Crickmay, Sylvia Hallett and, through the programme Improspections in the Region, the young Slovene author Kaja Lorenci with associates. Kirstie Simson, Jeanine Durning and Eva Karczag are among the most influential artists of the improvisation dance scene today, who in their work further the heritage of the great names of contemporary dance, such as Steve Paxton, Trisha Brown and Deborah Hay.

Summer festival program: 

13th July
9.00 p.m., Kamenjak Open-Air Theatre, Kamenjak Significant Landscape, Premantura, Istria

Kirstie Simson (UK) and Martin Piliponsky (ARG): Sutil / Exhalacion / Aire, solos & duets
performance
Kirstie Simson (UK) and Martin Piliponsky (Argentina) are sharing their passion for the exploration of freedom through solos and duets they present in this evening of dance improvisations.
Through the use of humor, eye contact, dialogue and proximity, the performers invite the audience to join them on a journey as they negotiate their way through present moment decision-making that is inherent in improvised performances.
With light-hearted spontaneity these master performers affirm the fundamental positivity of life as they dance their way through the hour-long work, celebrating the depth of human connection and potentiality.
Realized in collaboration with Liberdance – Kamenjak Open-Air Theatre

Autumn festival program:

15th October
8.00 p.m., Teatar &TD, Semicircular Hall

Improspections in the Region
Kaja Lorenci (SLO): Just in Appearance Sometimes as Everyone Else
performance / artist talk
In her performance Just in Appearance Sometimes as Everyone Else, Kaja Lorenci multiplies the form of the duet with different dance tasks and configurations, delimiting it by two choreographic contrasts: the solo as the dancer’s monologue, which is a kind of a precondition for establishing communication with the other, and the group choreographic configuration, in which the duets enter their indistinguishable multiplicity. The duets can be read along the lines of the dynamic of individual self-awareness, as a site of encounter, trust, insecurity, as well as (self)loss or burden.
created by: Kaja Lorenci; co-created and performed by: Žigan Krajnčan, Kaja Lorenci, Ivan Mijačević, Dejan Srhoj, Nataša Živković; music: sz3 (Ivan Mijačević, Aleš Zorec), dramaturgy: Rok Vevar; light design: Urška Vohar; photo: Nada Žgank; translations: Katja Kosi; production: Emanat; executive producer: Sabina Potočki; co-production: Bunker/ SMEEL, partner: Association City of Women / City of Women Festival 2016

Kritički parkour
artist talk moderated by Iva Nerina Sibila

22nd October

8.00 p.m., Teatar &TD, Semicircular Hall
Jeanine Durning (SAD): No Time to Fly
practice of the adaptation of Deborah Hay’s solo performance No Time to Fly
What I mean by my choreography includes the transmission from me to the dancer, of the same set of questions I ask myself when I am performing a particular movement sequence that ministers shape to a dance. I will not talk about my movement choices here, except to say that as an aspect of my choreography they fall almost exclusively into three categories: 1) impossible to realize, 2) embarrassing to “do”, or, idiotic to contemplate, 3) maddeningly simple. These movement directions are not unlike my questions that are 1) unanswerable, 2) impossible to truly comprehend, and, at the same time, 3) poignantly immediate.
How do I recognize my choreography?
Deborah Hay, 2007
This project is realized in collaboration with Station/Service for Contemporary Dance and Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia and supported by the GPS/Global Practice Sharing program of Movement Research with funding from the Trust for Mutual Understanding.

Kritički parkour
artist talk moderated by Iva Nerina Sibila

25th November

3.00 – 10.00 p.m., SC Gallery
Eva Karczag (NL), Chris Crickmay (UK), Sylvia Hallett (UK): Promenade 7: Theatre of Memory
durational performance / installation
This new work, specially created for Zagreb, brings together practitioners working in visual art (Chris Crickmay), sound (Sylvia Hallett) and dance/movement (Eva Karczag). The programme, comprising seven hours of presentations in the Gallerija SC, is part of an ongoing series devised by the same group of artists, which we have collectively called ‘Promenade’. This programme also incorporates documentation of previous works in the series. All our Promenade pieces are place-specific works, improvised throughout. They include interaction with objects and images, improvised soundscapes and an audience that comes and goes at will.  In creating these works, we aim for a certain feeling of ‘spaciousness’ – it’s a matter of leaving plenty of room for things to develop as and when they will, and especially room for the audience to drift and dream, as we think the word ‘promenade’ suggests – a relaxed and leisurely stroll. (The ideas behind individual previous works shown on video are included in detailed notes on display in the Gallery).
Visitors are welcome to come and go at any time between 2.00 and 9.00 p.m.
One-hour live performance/installation will alternate with a video installation showing documentation of previous Promenade works (nos. 1-6).
Live performance/installation
2.00 – 3.00 p.m. | 4.00 – 5.00 p.m. | 6.00 – 7.00 p.m. | 8.00 – 9.00 p.m.
Video installation
3.00 – 4.00 p.m. | 5.00 – 6.00 p.m. | 7.00 – 8.00 p.m.

Workshops:

7th-13th July
Moving Bodies | Empty Spaces
workshop with Kirstie Simson and Martin Piliponsky

20th-21st October
What we do when we do the thing we do before we know what we are doing: Approaches to Practice and Performance
workshop with Jeanine Durning

26th-28th November
Movement and Inter-arts Collaboration
a short series of evening workshops with Chris Crickmay (visual art), Sylvia Hallett (sound) and Eva Karczag (movement)

***

artistic directors: Sonja Pregrad and Zrinka Šimičić Mihanović

graphic design: Dora Đurkesac

technical support: Tomislav Maglečić

production: Multimedijalna koliba, 2018

partners: Liberdance – Open-air theater Kamenjak, University of Zagreb Student Centre, Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, Station/Service for Contemporary Dance and Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia

Supported by: City of Zagreb, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, GPS/Global Practice Sharing program of Movement Research with funding from the Trust for Mutual Understanding

The work of Multimedia Hut is supported by Kultura nova Foundation.

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