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.
In his essay The Creative Act (1957), Marcel Duchamp wrote that the work of art is completed not by the artist alone, but through its encounter with the viewer. This idea served as a point of departure for Celebration, a performance conceived as a space of translation and exchange.
Words become movement, movement becomes sound, and sound returns to the body. Meanings shift as they pass between languages, performers and audiences, creating a chain of transformations that continually reshapes the work itself. Rather than presenting a fixed artistic statement, Celebration explores how meaning emerges through participation, interpretation and encounter.
Besides the performance premiere, Celebration marks the birth of En–Knap Group, Slovenia's first permanent contemporary dance ensemble. Created on the occasion of the company's founding in September 2007, it brings together choreographers, dancers and audiences in a shared act of gathering. It is both a performance and a celebration: of dance, of collaboration and of a new beginning.