Betontanc
Slomškova 11, SI-1000 Ljubljana
Phone386 (0) 1 231 4492, 386 (0) 5 971 0001-2, 386 (0) 51 269 906
Managed byBunker Institute
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Founded in 1990 by the director Matjaž Pograjc, Betontanc (Concrete Dance) is a versatile group which creates dance theatre performances, focusing on the physicality of the human body and meticulous dramaturgy. Already in 1991, Betontanc was awarded at the Borštnik Theatre Festival as the most perspective Slovene theatre group, while in 1997, Matjaž Pograjc received the Prešeren Foundation Award for his directions in Betontanc. Since 1999, Betontanc's performances has been produced by the Ljubljana-based Bunker Institute.
Overview of Betontanc's production
Prior to 1999, Betontanc, comprising musicians, dancers, actors, and costume and stage designers, regularly collaborated with the Glej Theatre, which co-produced the group's first 6 performances. The group's unique sensibility for and approach to the performing body, often evoking infantile, ridiculous, brutal, and violent traits of human nature, became soon recognised at home and abroad. The group's third production, Every Word a Gold Coin’s Worth [Za vsako besedo cekin] (1992), co-produced by Glej Theatre won the Grand Prix de Bagnolet of 1992.
Dance or Die (2007), co-produced by Mladinsko Theatre posed the question whether dance might be the greatest revenge for human laziness and mass stupidity evoking the images from well know fairy tales and the story by E. A. Poe.
The performance Track of the World (2014) revolved around the theme of cycling by highlighting the strength, extremism and dynamics involved in adrenaline sports, it was produced by the Bunker Institute as part of the network Imagine 2020 – Art and Climate Change.
In its productions, Betontanc often collaborates with the music group Silence.
International coproductions
Betontanc's more recent performances include the politically engaged Everybody for Berlusconi (2004), which premièred in the Netherlands and was co-produced by Jonghollandia. Show Your Face (2006) was created by Betontanc and the Latvian artistic collective Umka.LV and co-produced by New Theatre Institute of Latvia and Bunker Institute. It was performed in Bremen, Palmela and Groningen in 2007/08 and in 4 major US cities – New York (Under the Radar Festival), Chicago, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles in January 2011.
Run for Love (2008) was premièred at the Festival d’Aurillac, France. A theatre performance and installation (artist Matej Andraž Vogrinčič and the French band Ez3kiel) took as its starting point the reinterpretation of the famous scene on the Odessa steps from Sergei Eisenstein's film Battleship Potemkin but focused not on the scene of panic itself but on the space of transition between the past and the future, the moment when life is concentrated on one moment, the moment of extreme urgency, of danger and hope for survival, a run toward life and love. The performance was co-produced by Festival Excentrique, Liexpublics, and In Situ, the European platform for the production of street arts, supported by the European Culture Programme.
Betontanc's latest production Maybe We are Mickey Mouse [Možda smo mi Miki Maus] (2009), based on the play by the Serbian playwright Maja Pelević and produced by National Theatre in Belgrade, Serbia, Bunker Institute, and Sterijino pozorje Novi Sad, Serbia, innovatively contemplates an individual in the world of today, who stands perplexed in the face of absence of morality, love, tolerance, and any standard of value.
Audition for Life (2012) was co-produced with The Original Tempo Japanese Theatre Audition for Life was directed by Masahiro Kinoshita and Matjaž Pograjc and it brought together the Betontanc actors and performers Katarina Stegnar and Ivan Peternelj, the choreographer and dancer Branko Potočan and the actors and physical performers Yuka Hyodo and Shuichi Sakaguchi, the visual artist and master of installations Kiyotaka Yoshimitsu and guitar player Katsunori Takayama, cooperating with the renowned Slovene duet Silence and the accordion player Marko Brdnik. The performance that came into being in art residencies in Japan and Slovenia revolves around a story entitled Spider’s Thread by Rjúnosuke Akutagawa.
International touring
Since its inception, Betontanc has travelled extensively, to 4 continents and over 70 cities, among them appeared at the Festival Small Is Beautiful in Marseilles, at Sterijino Pozorje, Serbia, Dublin Dance Festival, at Bremen's Schwankhalleas, in Schauspielhaus in Vienna, Festival Noorderzon in Groningen, well as appeared at home theatre and performing arts festivals, such as Mladi levi Festival, Borštnik Theatre Festival, and Rdeči revirji! - Red Beats! Festival. Betontanc's productions are regularly presented at the Stara Elektrarna - Old Power Station.
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