In October 2009 EN-KNAP Productions will be in charge of running theCultural Centre "Španski borci" (Spanish fighters), a public infrastructure in Ljubljana, which hopefully realises the long awaited stabilization in the activity of EN-KNAP Productions. This Centrerepresents a unique opportunity to become the meeting point forlocal, regional and international dance. EnKnapGroup with this infrastructure gains its own stage-home and a long expected possibility for continuity in production, post-production context and more real possibilities open also for establishing an ensemble of younger dancers. Pilot model
The permanent dance company EnKnapGroup is the only professional ensemble for contemporary dance in Slovenia with a repertory program of established Slovene and foreign authors. With the founding of the group, we set up the model for a permanent professional dance group as a private initiative, but which we believe Slovenia needs also on a public and national level. EKG in the beginning amounts to only five dancers, but will in the future appropriately expand to its ideal number of twelve members. EKG is dedicated to collaborating with innovative, creative authors and production practices, and with all the newly gained knowledge builds its own stage specificity. In this way the final goal of activity is not one or more performances, but a synergy of the group’s own expression through the acceptance and articulation of the most outstanding European approaches to contemporary dance. Inside EKG, history dances with the future, our collective soul is moved by our individual bodies, and the old model of East/West Europe is turned inside out.
Activity of the group in first two years
The group, in the period of two years, creates 12 performances with 11 authors. Each author has an autonomous freedom to determine the duration of the show. He agrees to the amount of scheduled rehearsals, the cast of dancers, the space for rehearsals and complete organization of production. To intensify the growth and homogeneity of the group we find a logical solution - to offer a double bill model, which joins two authorial performances in one evening. The chosen authors, among themselves and in relation to production, decide about the presentation of their work, or rather about the structure and the presentation of the whole evening. Some work is shorter, some longer, some clearly separated and some united into one whole. The pilot model of the permanent professional group in its first years exposes all the advantages and disadvantages of its activity in a specific environment, which Slovenia represents in the field of contemporary dance.
First turning point
The different creative processes, in various genres, with averagely 6 authors per year, is an ambitious and demanding task, which brings the young group much needed experiences. The other side of the coin though, reveals the danger of overburdening the tempo of creation, which can resolve in physical overload and creative saturation. That is why we are going to: lesser the number of productions, increase the number of public showings and touring at home and abroad, and instead of overtiredness and the danger of stagnation, invest in quality.
Goals and directions
2009/2010 - stabilise the activity of the group with an emphasis on continuity of work and presence through creative processes using different artistic poetics; continue to gain experience and enable growth within the group with more reprises of the performances, and with that widening the audience base.
2010/2011- establish a distinctive vocabulary and nurture the repertory; introduce new social structures into the creative processes; further widen the audience base- approach contemporary dance also through educational programs; represent an important point of interaction between productions from more developed countries of Western Europe and the neighbouring East countries less favourable of contemporary art.
2011/2012- through the creative process of international workshops and co-production collaborations, thoughtfully build the identity, rise the quality of thinking and working in the field of contemporary dance and open outward; enable space for more experimental creations and creations from younger authors; enable space as well for the first creations from inside the group.
Our three-year goal is to decrease the amount of production and bring it to the suitable level of quality by extending the creation period and raising the production means and to increase touring of the performances in the local and international environment. The stability and continuity will meet the planning of several years, enable more international and regional connections, as well as increase the reach of contemporary dance, the animation of new adherents and the raising of cultural and artistic levels of perception also in the areas, where contemporary dance is not yet established thoroughly.
The ensemble of younger dancers
The ensemble of younger dancers should start with its activity as soon as financial and special conditions are fulfilled. At the beginning it will consist of 5 to 8 apprentices, aged eighteen to twenty. In the selections we will concentrate on the graduates in contemporary dance from the Artistic gymnasium in Ljubljana, which systematically has educated youngsters in the field of contemporary dance since 1999/2000. The school offers a qualitative program, but after graduation there is not much of a real prospective in Slovenia where these students could continuously work and grow in the field. With them we will systematically build the basis of alive thinking and qualitative engagement in dance. Beside daily training and study of the performances, we will organise dance workshops and lectures with Slovene and foreign experts, which is necessary for the development of trained, but yet unformed dancers. The ensemble will prepare yearly productions, where their individual qualities, as well as their group development will be manifested.
