confi dance press | ficobalet

Confi-dance team & press

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choreographed and performed by: Goran Bogdanovski & Dejan Srhoj

dramaturgic advice: Sebastjan Horvat

music: Peter Penko, Lara Baruca, John Williams, Bily Idoll

light, sound: Igor Remeta (Borut Cajnko)

space: Irena Pivka

costume design: Alan Hranitelj

instalation - confi-footwear: Primož Pugelj

photo:Peter Uhan

graphic design: Martin Bricelj - Codesign

producers: Ira Cecič, Mojca Jug

production: Fičo Balet

Poject is made possible by: Tiskarna Ljubljana d.d., Ministry of Culture Slovenija, MOL - Ljubljana City Municipality - Departure for culture, KUD France Prešeren

Special thanks to: Guido Reimitz , Marjan Ciperman, Franc Gazvoda, Tanja Radež, Formatisk, Pan Wolfgang, Jure Srhoij, Bunker

Premiere 1st and 2nd September 2004 in Tiskarna Ljubljana

Confi-dance PRESS

“Goran Bogdanovski and Dejan Srhoj of Fičo Balet may look as if they belong in the rhythm section of a Slovenian metal band but any such fears are soon put to rest by a performance of enormous variety, imagination and irreverence.”
Tom Lee - Aerowawes on line - London, Sat 29 January 5th, 2005

“Goran Bogdanovski and Dejan Srhoj transfer the dance from the non-problematic physical deftness into the register of the essential matters: way of living and way of thinking. Food for though for the bored Slovenian, contemporary dance folklore.”
“...The performance of Goran D. Bogdanovski and Dejan Srhoj stretches between pleasing the audience on the one hand (Ficobalet has gradually created a specific horizon of expectation) and manifestations of their own imperfection on the other. At the same time, they are fully aware of the dangerous limits of their ego system, therefore they can manage the density of the idea.”
Rok Vevar, DELOSKOP LJUBLJANA,September 9th 2004

“Last Friday and Saturday, in the intimacy of Studio 303, Goran Bogdanovski and Dejan Srhoj enchanted their audiences by sharing the high voltage magic of Confi-dance, a rolling thunder of stylistic exercises running their course over an amazing 50-minute performance.”
“...The range of skills of these two incredibly polyvalent dancers is simply extraordinary. Confi-dance is a very skillful portrayal of the mix of genres typifying contemporary dance today. But the true statement of this performance is about creating an incredible space framed in complicity and freedom. Bogdanovski and Srhoj reach deep within while amusing themselves, combining classical, hip hop, contact and modern dance with a touch of derision and light-footed aggression typical of comic twosomes.”
Stéphanie Brody, LA PRESSE MONTREAL, December 7th, 2004

“Among the grave, conceptually burdened dance community, Fico Balet is one of the few groups that dare venture onto terrain as slippery as humor and this time they struck bull’s-eye. Bogdanovski and Srhoj put together a performance that does not drag jokes out, it rides like a slide, it jests and drags you along, whether it’s the interplay and mirror games of the nimble gazelle-like duo, the autonomous dance of feet, the unsurpassable travesty of heroic ballet to the score of Star Wars or the outro declarations, so outside current trends. Light, invigorating and consistently not serious.”
Jaša Kramaršic Kacin, MLADINA, September 9th 2004

“The dancers are straight and sincere, and their movements are filled with witty ideas, innovations and incarnations of feelings; they fly across the stage in all directions, but also concentrically circle around it, overcoming gravity. They complement, make contact and intertwine with each other, and they reflect masculin behavioural optics while seeking incentives, leveling their energies, but also offering shelter to each other. In this process they are entirely immune to the attitude of "dead seriousness" and "profoundness": they never fall short of positive stimuli and hearty humour.”
Daliborka Podboj, VECER, September 9th 2004

“As suggests the title of the performance Confi-dance, the choreographers and performers, Goran D. Bogdanovski and Dejan Srhoj, tackled the essence of creativity connected with the relationship between doubts and confidence into their own and co-creator’s creativity and demands of the audience and the producers.”
Mojca Kumerdej, DELO, September 9th 2004

“Among other ideas in the last “existentialist” monologue, there has appeared a statement that the character’s father managed to achieve with a gun that performance in June to be repeated ten times. I assume they will call upon some terrorist organization for Confi-dance.”
Katja Praznik, DNEVNIK, September 3th 2004

“...The last work by Fico Balet, titled Confi-dance, is a performance which means for Slovenian contemporary dance a deviation from the steady commemorations of the movement. The situation is complex, but in short I could describe it like this: the Slovenian contemporary dance has started to revolve in a completely disoriented and non-creative dead end afterwards the choreography as a classical method of the movement (usually a virtuosic one) lost its monopoly in this art (since the sheer virtuosity got suddenly caught in the loop of emptied dance technicism). Such quandaries cannot be solved either by research of style or their authenticity, or by parody, or stillness, or by “back to nature”, or combination of the techniques. All of the above can be, after all, perfectly legitimate if the creators perform in front of the audience (or better say: display) their existential quandary, or break free from their own entanglement. And exactly that has been done by Bogdanovski and Srhoj.”
Rok Vevar, DELOSKOP, September 9th 2004