Yuri Korec & Co. (Slovakia)
A4 – space for contemporary culture, Bratislava
Price: 8 – 12 €
THE STORY Five bodies in the main role of a dance sci-fi
Juraj Korec and his team were inspired by sci-fi poetics, where the human body often finds itself in unusual, even inhospitable conditions, facing surprising challenges. They created a specific playing situation for five bodies. In it, spatiotemporal coordinates do not apply, there is no horizon, seemingly neither past nor progress exists. Movement is possible, but only backward. Where can one go if one can only backtrack? Who are these five, why and how did they find themselves in this peculiar situation? At what moment will their story stop, and what will they face in the captivity of an inexorable algorithm?
The international co-production dance project THE STORY narrates with the body, employing a radical strategy in which the perspectives of performers and spectators never meet.
Practical Information
In this performance, in addition to the artistic experience, you can expect: loud music (earplugs will be provided).
Tickets: 12 € full price, 8 € students and seniors
Venue: Bratislava, A4 space for contemporary culture (practical info)
Duration:
Show:
More about the piece
Inspired by sci-fi poetics, in which the human body often finds itself in unusual, even
inhospitable conditions and faces surprising challenges, choreographer Juraj Korec and the
creative team create a specific playground for five dancing bodies. Space-time coordinates
do not apply in it, there is no horizon, so seemingly there is neither past nor progress.
Movement is possible, but only back. Where can you go if you can only backtrack? Who is
this five, why and how did they end up there? Where do they want to get if they keep
leaving acquaintances? Each separately and finally together. At what point did their story
stop and what do they actually face in the captivity of an inexorable algorithm?
The expressivity of the bodies is tamed, dense and relentless. Their story emerges in subtle
nuances, in fragments of movement and its cessation. Some parts of the story seem
important, others are fleeting and interchangeable with many others, just like the thousands
of micro-stories that are written into our bodies every day.
The international co-production dance project PRÍBEH brings reflection on the way to tell
stories with the body using a radical strategy that offers the audience the observation of
bodily identities in a truly voyeuristic space, in which the views of the performer and the
spectator never meet. In the moments of birth and re-disappearance of characters’
identities, the motivations of their actions are outlined. The project is part of Juraj Korec’s
broader and long-term interest in the performativity of the body within contemporary dance
and visual media and is a follow-up to the interdisciplinary research project Expose yourself
to a body. The stage work itself began its story with a residency as part of the Kiosk 2023
festival and culminated in a residency and premiere in the central space of the New
Synagogue in June 2024. The work is also followed by the movement installation Not a story
presented in a gallery environment.
Credits
Concept and choreography: Juraj Korec
Choreography and performed by: Alexandra Mireková, Eli Hooker / Lukáš Bobalik,
Eva Priečková, Jakob Jautz, Silvia Sviteková
Dramaturgy: Maja Hriešik
Scenography: Jakub Kopec
Sound design: Matúš Bolka
Graphic design: Kristína Šebejová
Production: Martin Krištof, Skrzprst
Co-production: CieLAROQUE / helene weinzierl
Premiered: June 21 st , 2024 in New synagogue Žilina
Artistic residencies: tanz_house Salzburg, Divadlo Štúdio tanca, Banská Bystrica, New
Synagogue in Žilina
Supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council.
Supported by European Union and Goethe Institute.
Partners: New synagogue in Žilina, tanz_house Salzburg , Plast – Platforma pre súčasný
tanec , Telocvičňa – Rezidenčné centrum pre tanec , Divadlo Štúdio tanca , CieLAROQUE /
helene weinzierl
JURAJ KOREC
Performer and choreographer Juraj Korec, operating under the artistic brand Yuri Korec &
Co., has created, presented, and reprised several successful full-length dance works in recent
years. Among others, these include the duet about bodily memory d-BODY-m (2017), the
performative lecture Solo not only for one body and its free continuation Nesolo (2018), and
the newly created multimedia solo Habibi 2196-18 (2018) dealing with the theme of human
rights. In the COVID year of 2020, he introduced a full-length performance for seven
performers*streams and one DJ, Sapiens Territory (2020), about the violence within us, at
the international festival Bratislava in Movement.
Juraj is also a co-author of internationally awarded dance films Day (2004), directed by
Jozef Vlk, Darkroom (2008), and voiceS (2010), directed by Peter Bebjak. In 2018, he
successfully defended his doctoral thesis on the topic of The Body in the Context of Dance
Performance. He currently serves as an assistant professor at the Department of Dance Creation
at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and also works as a therapist of the somatic method Rolfing®,
being the first Certified Rolfer® and Certified Advanced Rolfer® in Slovakia. He utilizes
the experience and knowledge from his own therapeutic and somatic practice in his choreographic work.
This year, he premiered, along with the creative team Yuri Korec & Co., a dance work in
international co-production titled THE STORY at the New Synagogue in Žilina and the
movement installation Non-story in collaboration with Michaela Hučko Pašteková at the
Považská Gallery of Arts. A series of performances of performative studies focused on the
dance body as an exhibition artefact presented in prestigious Slovak galleries preceded this
long-term creative process.
