Iztok Kovač is a choreographer and founder of En–Knap. Following the international success of his solo How I Caught a Falcon (1991), he became one of the key figures in the development of Slovenian contemporary dance. He founded En–Knap Group, Slovenia's first permanent contemporary dance ensemble, and serves as artistic director of both En–Knap and the Španski borci Cultural Centre. His works have toured internationally for more than three decades. Additionally, his artistic practice includes six dance films, international pedagogical work, guest choreography and the direction of major national events in Slovenia. During the Covid period, he initiated Stage360, developing dance works in virtual reality.
Solitaire explores loneliness and the limits of individual understanding in contemporary society. The performance draws inspiration from an ancient Indian parable about five blind men encountering an elephant. Each touches a different part of the animal—a leg, a trunk, a tail, an ear—and each arrives at a different conclusion about what an elephant is. None, however, is able to perceive the whole.
Taking this story as its point of departure, Solitaire examines how our experiences, beliefs and perspectives shape the ways we understand the world and one another. The performance reflects on the difficulty of seeing beyond our own position, and on the forms of isolation that emerge when individual realities fail to connect. Between proximity and distance, certainty and uncertainty, it asks whether a shared understanding is ever truly possible.