Beno Novak - Professional Contemporary Dancer and Performer

Beno Novak’s work is a continual exploration of personal experience through strong physicality interwoven with sensitivity, fragility, power, and exhaustion. Collaboration lies at the core of his creative process, shaping both his individual works and collective projects.

He is deeply engaged in research exploring the collective corporal memories of his ancestors, investigating how ritual, repetition, and embodied practices can reveal ancestral knowledge. Through this work, he examines collective embodiment as a medium for connection, transformation, and shared experience within groups.

He completed his Master’s degree in Embodied Research at the University of Antwerp (2025), after graduating from the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (2016) and expanding his studies at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and The Place, London.

As a performer, he has worked with numerous companies and choreographers, including Gary Clarke Company, Jason Mabana Dance, James Wilton Dance, Deborah Hay, Matej Kejžar, Alix Eynaudi, Magdalena Raiter, Paul Blackman and Christine Gouzelis, and Etienne Guilloteau.

His choreographic practice unfolds across three main strands:

Solo works, including GROM and Echoes of the Body, explore the body as a vessel for ancestral memory, collective embodied knowledge, and the materialization of symbolic and experiential layers.

Group works, including Flux: The Study of Resonance, LOOM, and MATTER, explore how shared movement practices can access collective embodied memories and transform them into a living, contemporary language.

Collaborative projects, such as To Resurrect 2.0 with musicians Boštjan Simon and Elvis Homan, 400 Rabbits with Marina Abib, Owe by Junior Mufutau Jussuf, and Body Concert with Ana Romih, highlight his ongoing commitment to co-creation and interdisciplinary exploration.

In 2023, To Resurrect 2.0 received the International Jury Award at the Biennale of Slovenian Contemporary Dance, recognizing its artistic innovation and collaborative strength.

Beyond performance, Beno serves as the artistic and executive director of the Summer Intensive Festival in Portugal and as assistant director of the Performact Dance Course (Portugal).

He is the creator of the Zero Space Method, which he teaches internationally. Beno works regularly with the En-Knap Group in Ljubljana, is on the faculty of Performact (Portugal) and AME Dance Academy (Slovenia), and leads workshops across Europe.