Homage to Ksenija Hribar

Karpo Godina, Slovenia (Yugoslavia), 1969, Betacam (recorded on 16mm), black&white, 27′

The film camera gently records a dance on the hills of the Cres island. “In the late 1960’s Ksenija Hribar, the ballet dancer who has worked for years as a member of London Contemporary Dance Company, came for a short visit from London. Inspired by Gustav Mahler she wanted to record a dance to his composition Das Lied vonder Erde as magnificently interpreted by Fischer-Dieskau.  The crew took off to Cres and we recorded something beautiful.” Karpo Godina

Godina encountered Hribar once again as director of photography on Xenia on Tour.

Filip Robar Dorin, Slovenia (Yugoslavia), 1974, 35mm, colour, 12′

A picturesque metaphor of the relationship between everyday life and art embodied by ballet dancer Ksenija and the inhabitants of a tiny island called Susak. The tour of a cosmopolitan artist becomes a metaphor for the dancer’s entrapment in the rock solid laws of reality when she feels that her faith in art and the beauty of expression is persistently undermined by the harbingers of crisis; she wonders whether her art is nothing but a huge illusion.

“What is often discussed nowadays, the thin line between fiction and documentary, was taken for granted 40 years ago… ” Rada Šešić

Recorded by: Simon Stojko Falk & Tone Stojko, Slovenia, 1998, DVD, 61′

Concept, direction & music selection: Ksenija Hribar
Choreography: dancers & Ksenija Hribar
Costume design: Bjanka Adžić Ursulov
Lighting design: Andrej Hajdinjak
Makeup:Bilka Baloh
Music: Bratsch&Guests, Les Yeux Noirs, Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, Lado Jakša
Production: Dance Theatre Ljubljana 1998
Performers: Drago Grabnar, Lado Jakša, Marko Mlačnik, Petra Pikalo, Mateja Rebolj, Tanja Skok, Igor Sviderski, Brina Vidmar

This almost cabaret-style performance is a combination of dance, singing and acting. The short dance ‘sketches’ are a retrospective of general history delivered as personal experience.

“The dance-theatre project Sentimentalne / Reminiscence explores the emotional, hidden, and intimate remains of experiences that linger long in our consciousness. These are the residue of our close contacts, relations and relationships with the former Yugoslav nations with whom we share a cultural history – whether we like it or not. The project took shape through a close collaboration with the dancers over a long period of time. After many years of experience I finally had the time to explore the material – in terms of choreography and direction – without the additional stress caused by tight deadlines. The emotional conditions of the dancers and actors, the movement material, style and directing always need to be challenged and modified. Questions need to be asked, although the answers might not be found for a long time.”  Ksenija Hribar