Rumble is a personal initiation into a new era. It encompasses a series of resurrections necessary to peel away the ancient, established layers and materialise into something entirely new and unknown. The author’s transformations appear in the performance at times as gentle awakenings, and at other times as sudden and painful nightmares. Each experience represents an essential fusion of memory and nostalgia. In its starting point, the performance resembles personal ritual in which the audience is invited to enter, observe and become a part of it.
The main focus of Novak’s dance opus is in the very origin of dance, its physicality and its motif. Researching the origins of dance created a fascination with modern physicality and what the author perceives as the physical experience of his Slavic ancestors. The artist draws inspiration from old pre-Christian Slavic rituals imbued with the ideas of death, burial, resurrection and re-initiation. One of the main inspirations for the solo is the ritual of carnival figure – Kurent, as one of the fundamental Slovenian still existing rituals, which is based on physicality, corporeality, torture and transformation.
The ritual develops as a result of the relationships between the body, space and sound, which steadily develop during the performance. The dancer explores his dimensions and tries to find freedom within previously established structures and systems. Inspired by Mihelič’s Mrtvi Kurent, Novak uses the image of Kurent as a mediator between humanity and divinity. Kurent thus represents life as well as death, femininity and masculinity, pain and pleasure.
The performance includes elements of ritual mixed with the author’s personal experiences, thus questioning and erasing the boundaries between reality and illusion.
Authorship, Choreography and Performance: Beno Novak
Dramaturgy: Urša Adamič
Music: Elvis Homan
Light Design: Borut Bučinel
Costume Design: Tina Pavlin
Outside eye: Kristýna Peldová
Producer: Katja Somrak
Technical Assistance: Aljaž Zaletel
Production: Plesni Teater Ljubljana – Author’s Opus I
The programme of Plesni Teater Ljubljana is subsidized by the Ministry of Culture RS and Municipality of Ljubljana, Department for Culture.
Beno Novak graduated from the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in 2016 and was later invited to upgrade his knowledge at the Tisch Dance Department (New York University) and The Place Dance Academy (London). He is currently pursuing his master’s degree in choreography at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. He has danced for many different companies and with many renowned artists such as Gary Clarke Company, Jason Mabana Dance, James Wilton Dance Company, Deborah Hay, Etienne Guilloteau, Alix Eynaudi, Matej Kejžar, Paul Blackman & Christine Gouzelis, Zsuzsa Rozsavolgyi, Magdalena Reiter, etc. Many of his works are made in collaboration with other artists, such as the duet 400 Rabbits with Marina Abib, the solo Owe by Junior Mufutau Jussuf, ::Nature::Dialog:: by Dragana Alfirević, Body Concert with Ana Romih and others. In 2023 an international jury awarded him the first prize at the Biennial of Slovenian Contemporary Dance Gibanica for the collaboration project Rising 2.0 with musicians Boštjan Simon and Elvis Homan. He is the artistic and executive director of the Summer Intensive Portugal Festival and the Kaleidoscope Festival in Slovenia. One of his main commitments is to share/teach and develop his Zero Space Method. His work is a constant exploration of personal experiences expressed through strong physicality mixed with sensitivity, fragility, strength and exhaustion.