BENO NOVAK

This work is part of an ongoing research series exploring the body as a vessel for transformation and ancestral memory.

In GROM / RUMBLE, I investigate personal initiation into a new era, navigating awakenings that peel away old layers to materialize into something unknown. Transformations unfold as gentle awakenings or sudden, intense experiences, fusing memory, nostalgia, and lived sensation.

Drawing inspiration from ancient pre-Christian Slovenian rituals, the work incorporates themes of death, burial, resurrection, and re-initiation. Influenced by Mihelič's dead Kurent, the Kurent becomes a mediator between human and divine, life and death, pain and pleasure. Ritual elements are interwoven with personal experience to question the boundary between reality and illusion, creating a new bodily reality.

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AUTHORSHIP, CHOREOGRAPHY & PERFORMANCE
Beno Novak
 

CO-AUTHORS
Music: Elvis Homan
Light Design: Borut Bučinel
Dramaturgy: Urša Adamič
Outside Eye: Kristýna Peldová
Costume Design: Tina Pavlin
Producer: Katja Somrak
Technical Assistance: Aljaž Zaletel

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PRODUCTION
Plesni Teater Ljubljana – Author’s Opus I

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PREMIERED
11 April 2024, Plesni Teater Ljubljana