OTTETTO (8 Swings for His Highness)

Dance turns into mathematics, music turns into dance, visual elements turn into music, choreography turns into parts, dancers turn into notes, instruments turn into set elements… In the network of these musical, choreographic and visual principles, which lean towards analogy, towards a mathematical equation and structure rather than contrast (the latter would be a simpler and therefore more tempting path), the relationships among all elements of the performance are established. The musicians’ relationship to the work they play (avoiding interpretation), the dancers’ relationship to the visual elements, and the conductor’s relationship to the musicians, parts and dancers.

Mirta Zajc, The Staging of Octet: Time, Alienation and Relationships

The musical foundation of the evening stems from Stravinsky’s Octet, which appears in its original form only at the very end of the performance, as a kind of finale, the crown of historical memory… The musical dimension of OTTETTO thus speaks in a new, almost neoclassical language, demonstrating that it is possible to approach Stravinsky with a sober, objective and cool mind, while preserving historically established methods and rendering them strange through the language of the present.

Gregor Pompe, Stravinsky’s Neoclassicism: Forward with a Gaze Kept on the Past

In his analysis, both acute and playful, of Stravinsky’s Octet, Iztok Kovač does not only celebrate the composer’s heritage but the impact the composition has had on the development of music, employing dance and the freedom of dance movements as the leading medium. The choreographer’s return from his exploration of the depths of the previous century is a marvel.

Arnd Wesemann, Tanz

OTTETTO would be appreciated by Stravinsky himself! Everything in the performance is masterly interwoven; Kovač’s vision is complex and original, just as can be witnessed in his dance films, in particular the cult classic Dom Svobode. The magic of the choreography manages to win over both critics and audiences alike, which is a rare occurrence in contemporary dance … What reveals Kovač as a master of choreography are group parts. In one of the segments, the musicians assume the role of the instruments, but the final icing on the cake is the grand finale: the musicians aligned along the sides of the stage, five dancers moving in the centre, and in the middle five light bulbs swinging in all directions – an absolute chaos, out of which, by all logic, no one should come out intact, but everyone does so with a smile. A piece of absolute ease. Everything is in place with Iztok Kovač and En–Knap.

Katarína Zagorski, SME Newspaper

This is a captivating and complex collaboration of artists from various periods and cultural milieus. A fruitful, masterly work interplaying dance, music and visual elements with an astonishing aesthetic and stage effect. The creators have succeeded in freeing themselves of all constraints resulting in a lively, witty and multilayered performance.

Petra Tanko, Radio Slovenia 1

With respect to Kovač’s reflection on music and its relation to movement, this is his most thorough and complex performance to date.... In the performance, Octet functions as a sonoric body that dynamically oscillates between the forte and the piano, opening, closing and decomposing itself in the solos, and intertwining with other elements forging duets and various group combinations. OTTETTO itself thus oscillates between the auditory and the visual, between absence and presence, between the music and the dancers. Just as Stravinsky might have addressed his predecessors, just as the presence can communicate with the past, in the same way Kovač may be addressing not only the Russian composer and music in general, but actually himself from the point of the tension at which the oeuvre he created to date has liberated itself, and folded itself into a performing novelty with traces of the past.

Mojca Kumerdej, Delo 

As we are used to with the dance pieces created by the choreographer Iztok Kovač, his approach to Stravinsky’s Octet is studious, complex and using multimedia; he is not satisfied with a mere cohabitation of dance and music and does not build only on the counterpoints of the composition. He employs Stravinsky’s Octet as an equal element, and materializes it in contemporary dance and visual practices. In his choreography, the music parts thus become palpable, they are seen and heard in the literal sense, and constitute a part of a multilayered artistic whole … The ensemble … along with all creators of the performance have undoubtedly earned the resonating applause of the packed performance hall.

Daliborka Podboj, Paradaplesa

The composition Octet that introduced neoclassicism and structural approach into music has been shown as still unreservedly relevant today. The 16-minute composition was analysed, reconstructed and visualized by Iztok Kovač in collaboration with the conductor Živa Ploj Peršuh and musical theorist Gregor Pompe, who is the author of compositional additions. The performance is challenging, especially so for musicians and dancers, who are forced to keep a close eye not only on the precision of movement but also to the challenges of mutual relationships of all artists involved on the stage. However, considering that this is a dance project, En–Knap Group deserve a special mention in the overall commendable execution of the performance.

Tina Šrot, Pogledi