Tina Habun is a contemporary dancer who likes interlacing movement with other forms of expression, from words to sound. She first encountered dance through modern and jazz techniques, but her passion for creation ushered her into the world of contemporary dance, which she studied at the Academy of Dance in Ljubljana. She has collaborated with renowned Slovenian choreographers and artists, and has actively co-authored projects on the independent dance scene. In 2022, she joined the En–Knap Group. She is convinced that art can fill the voids in souls and minds – when it is genuine, full of life, raw, bizarre, and rich, it brings inspiration and freshness that we need today more than ever before.
Shell plays with illusion, conceptually and visually, to explore how social norms and expectations shape our perception of what we are, identity, what it means to belong and where is the line between authenticity and perfection or beauty. Social norms and expectations create shells of what we are, what we are, are shells, making us, then breaking us, making us by breaking us, allowing for both conformity and transgression, captivity and emancipation. At times, we emerge as creatures, weird, unfitting, wild or unfit, breaking us, then making us, breaking us by making us, yet still instilled with perfection or beauty? Where are the boundaries of what is different from perfection or beauty, when is different “different”? Collaging situations or sequences, from mundane to affected, from refined to quirky, through the faceted, nuanced choreography of a dance trio, simple costume changes and precise, ambiguous use of props, the piece examines the illusion in authenticity, and the authenticity in authenticity, be it in what we are, identity, perfection or beauty, overturning social rules and roles by interweaving subtle, casual satire and earnestness, and blurring the line between the one and the other.