BENO NOVAK

This contemporary dance piece is part of an ongoing research series exploring the body as an archive of collective experience.
 

In LOOM, created with twelve first-year students of the Performact dance course in Portugal, I investigated how repetitive gestures rooted in manual labor can generate shared states of perception and embodied collectivity. The process was inspired by the Slovenian ritual of Kurentovanje, where a group of practitioners, through jolting movements and the rhythmic ringing of bells, produces a presence greater than the sum of its parts.

This practice is not only a choreographic exploration but also an inquiry into how embodied collective memory emerges through repetition, exhaustion, and togetherness. The audience is invited to witness the gradual accumulation of energy, the weaving of gestures, and the transformation of labor into collective intensity.
 

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RESEARCH, CONCEPT, DIRECTION
Beno Novak
 

CO-CREATION & PERFORMANCE
Bharath Yadav, Caio Almeida, Clara Nogué, Claudia Coretti, Felicia Hedman, Garance Bergeonneau, India Kober, Lizi Manisa, Magdaléna Havlínová, Nathan Guidal, Vilma Kärkkäinen, Violette Houssin
 

PREMIERED
29 March 2024, Performact Dance Course, Portugal