Iztok Kovač & Janez Janša — Falcon!, Hillel Kogan — We Love Arabs | 4+4 DAYS IN MOTION 2014

Iztok Kovač & Janez Janša — Falcon! /Slovenia/
Concept and performers Iztok Kovač, Janez Janša
Length 60 minutes

The 1991 performance How I Caught a Falcon, a pioneering work by choreographer Iztok Kovač, laid the foundations for modern Slovenian dance. The cult poetic solo in which Kovač danced in an almost supernaturally beautiful manner, revealed the magical relationship between the body, movement, light, and space; the performance became a symbol for the new artistic style that took the European dance scene by storm just before the outbreak of the bloody Yugoslav wars.

More than 20 years later, Kovač can look at his groundbreaking performance with a sense of objectivity. The new performance, Falcon!, which he created in collaboration with director Janez Janša, asks different questions. No artist has to retire before age 50 – except for the dancer, whose body becomes cruelly unwanted much earlier. In his latest performance, Kovač appears onstage at age 51; Janša is 50. Together with their guest performers, they answer the question as to what draws them onto the stage at their mature age and what their dance might look like… In its review, The Independent called Kovač a “bolt of energy”, while another reviewer praises the humor that you won’t find so easily among young dancers…  

EN-KNAP is a dance ensemble and production company founded in 1993 by Iztok Kovač after the success of the solo piece How I Caught a Falcon. Since that time, he has continued develop his choreographic and dance vocabulary. After 14 years of working on his own projects, in 2007 he founded the international repertoire troupe EnKnapGroup, the first permanent modern dance ensemble in Slovenian history. Two years later, Kovač – who has won numerous Slovenian and foreign awards – was named artistic director of the Španski Borci cultural center. In his career, he has created 30 original projects and 5 dance films and has turned En-Knap into a well-known brand.
www.en-knap.com

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Hillel Kogan: WE LOVE ARABS / Israel/
Length: 40 minutes

An empty stage, two people. Eventually, one will have a Star of David scrawled on his shirt, the other will a red crescent moon on his forehead. One likes hummus, the other pita bread. Can they manage even though they are “only” on stage?

Hillel Kogan (who appears on-stage as the Israeli) breaks down the behavior of ordinary mortals with humor and a sense of objective. Working with intelligent and provocative texts, he forces audiences to see themselves in a mirror while also sending piercing arrows into sensitive places off-stage. Although this performance has a happy end, dance critic Ora Brafram of The Jerusalem Post considers We Love Arabs a “masterpiece”, Kogan’s best so far, adding that “I can’t think at the moment of a dance piece that is as witty, provocative, political and hilarious”, and that it is “the most brilliant choreographic adventure I have seen in years.”

We Love Arabs truly represents a culmination of Kogan’s previous work, which shows him as an independent and engaged dance-philosopher whose sense of humor and unique view of the world incites the audience to respond. Not for nothing, did one enthusiastic viewer at a performance of We Love Arabs this August in Italy write in the first sentence of his fan blog: “The police were at the theater today, which is an unusual thing for a dance festival, but not surprising if we consider the subject of the performance and the time at which it is being staged...”

Hillel Kogan (1974) studied at the Bat Dor school of dance in Tel Aviv and the Merce Cunningham Trust in New York. He is also a dancer and director at Israel’s famous Batsheva Ensemble of modern dance, and has collaborated with the Switzerland’s Nomades ensemble and Portugal’s Gulbenkian Ballet. Kogan is tirelessly engaged in establishing himself as a universal artist: a dancer, performer, actor, author and dramaturg, he collaborates with Israel’s most famous contemporary choreographers. The Jerusalem Post recently wrote that he is “is a bundle of talent oozing from each of his pores.”  
http://www.choreographers.org.il/410

19th International Festival of Contemporary Art  4+4 DAYS IN MOTION
10th – 18th October 2014
Festival venues:
Palác u Stýblů, Archa Theatre, Ponec, Studio Alta, ÚLUV, Studio Alta
www.ctyridny.cz