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KO#11: EKO-KOREOGRAFIJA KRAJIN IN TELES
Petek, 16.10.2026, Španski borci
16:00-17:15, Španski borci, Veliki oder
In nato so se zaslišale ptice, film
Z Nežo Kokalj se bodo pogovarjali kuratorji Koreografskega obrata
17:30-19:30, Španski borci, Veliki oder
Claudia Bosse & dr. Dimitrij Vrhovnik Mlekuž: Od orakljev in žrtvenih obredij do eko-relacijskih koreografij in odnosov znotraj globokega časa
Sobota, 17.10.2026, Projektni prostor DUM, Kolodvorska ulica 6
17:00 - 18:10, Projektni prostor DUM
Anja Bornšek: Premik v neznan pavzo (70 min)
Nedelja, 18.10.2026, Projektni prostor DUM
17:00 - 18:10, Projektni prostor DUM
Anja Bornšek: Premik v neznano pavzo (70 min)
18:30 - 20:00, Projektni prostor DUM
Jaka Bombač: (Post-)Eko-koreografija: onkraj zelenega prehoda
Vsi dogodki so brezplačni.
V zadnjih letih je na področje sodobnega plesa in kulturne produkcije posegla vrsta pojmov, sintagem, terminov in opisnih poimenovanj, ki se nanašajo na razmerja med ekološkimi, kulturno-produkcijskimi in umetniškimi vprašanji: eko-koreografija, ples in ekologija, trajnostne oblike ustvarjalnosti in produkcije v sodobnem plesu, sodobni ples in zeleni prehod. Produkcijska in ustvarjalna okolja so se na plesnem področju soočila z imperativi, ki so jih meta-kulturni sistemi k nam odložili, kakor da bi bila razmerja med naravo, trajnostjo, ekologijo in plesom nekaj popolnoma novega.
Kulturnih sistemov, ki si na področju kulturne produkcije z različnimi kriteriji prizadevajo izmeriti stopnje trajnosti, ekološkosti in trošenja naravnih virov, dejstva, da sodobni ples že desetletja sistematično raziskuje trajnostne oblike telesnih praks, ki do človeškega telesa pristopajo skladno s sodobnimi somatskimi dognanji, ne zanima.
Sodobni ples je na prehodu iz devetnajstega v dvajseto stoletje vzniknil kot umetniška praksa, ki so jo plesalke in koreografinje vzpostavile kot obliko »naravnega gibanja«. Svoja telesa so želele uglasiti z načini gibanja, ki so ga razumele kot resnično, neizumetničeno in telesu prijazno, skladno z njihovimi čutnimi zaznavami sebe, anatomije, kinetike in odnosa do družbe. Kmalu zatem se je naturalizacija v plesu začela ukvarjati z vključevanjem modelov mikromaterialnosti v načine plesnega skladanja ter na ta način vključevala dognanja naravoslovnih znanosti v odrska dela. Hkrati so se s selitvami iz urbanih okolij na podeželje začenjale rojevati prve umetniške rezidence. Zbirka primerov je obsežna.
Koreografski obrat #11 z naslovom Eko-koreografija krajin in teles si prizadeva razmerja med plesom ter naravnim ali tehnološko spremenjenim okoljem premisliti z izbranimi umetnicami in znanstveniki, ki koreografijo premišljujejo prav s tovrstnimi pojmi. Claudia Bosse, dr. Dimitrij Mlekuž - Vrhovnik, Anja Bornšek, Neža Kokalj in Jaka Bombač bodo na seriji dogodkov Koreografskega obrata #11 s svojimi znanji osvetlili prav ta razmerja. Pripravili smo multimedijski program, ki koreografijo in telo spaja z lastnostmi krajin. Ledvice žrtvene živali, pravi Claudia Bosse, so v obredju saharskih ljudstev vsebovale kozmološke informacije. V njih se je zrcalila krajina, ki je bila neprimerno razsežnejša od lokacije, na kateri so ta ljudstva živela, in ta stik s prostorom, ki je bil razsežnejši od enega samega življenja, je bilo treba počastiti. Da eno življenje ne bi trošilo drugega.
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Petek, 16.10.2026, Španski borci
16:00-17:15, Španski borci, Veliki oder
In nato so se zaslišale ptice, film
Z Nežo Kokalj se bodo pogovarjali kuratorji Koreografskega obrata
Plesni film In nato so se zaslišale ptice (And Then There Were the Sounds of Birds, 2026) je nastal v sodelovanju med plesalkama in koreografinjama Nežo Kokalj in Paulino Rewucko, glasbenikoma Mattom Choboterjem in Ying-Hsueh Chenom ter filmskim umetnikom Danielom Oxenhandlerjem. Avgusta 2024 so se umetniki srečali na danskem otoku Bornholm v Baltiku in tam z delom v različnih medijih okolje (opuščeni kamnolom, morska obala, jame in votline) uporabljali kot scenarij. Z rabami različnih medijev so si prizadevali osvežiti načine sodelovanj, v ustvarjalnem procesu ojačati družbene vezi in jih prenesti v lokalno okolje ter pojem lokacijske umetnosti (site specific) ojačati z različnimi vidiki, ki so bili krajinsko in družbeno tam na voljo. Plesalki sta na otok prispeli po smrti svojih očetov, izkušnja žalovanja je v novem okolju odzvanjala drugače kot v njunih izvornih okoljih. Film In nato so se zaslišale ptice je zanimiva oblika multidisciplinarnega in kolektivnega umetniškega odziva na okolje, izkušnja plesalk, glasbenikov in filmskega umetnika pri ustvarjanju na otoku Bornholm pa je specifična oblika odziva na krajino. V zgodovini umetniških praks so krajine nastopale v potopisih in slikarskih delih, kjer so imele v različnih obdobjih različne vizualne funkcije, ter v krajinski umetnosti (land art), ki je na prehodu iz šestdesetih v sedemdeseta leta ustvarjala s presežnimi volumni in proporci, kakršnih se v umetniško-tržnih sistemih ni dalo komodificirati in kakršnih umetniki v galerijskih prostorih zaradi velikost kratko malo niso mogli ustvariti. Po ogledu filma, ki v tej fazi po zagotovilih Neže Kokalj še nima končne verzije, se bomo pogovarjali s plesalko in koreografinjo, s katero bomo spoznali pristop k ustvarjanju tega dela.
Umetniki/ nastopajoči/ soustvarjalci:
Koreografija in gibanje: Paulina Rewucka, Neža Kokalj
Zvočna instalacija, kompozicija, tolkala: Matt Choboter
Tolkala: Ying-Hsueh Chen
Snemanje: Daniel Oxenhandler
17:30-19:30, Španski borci, Veliki oder
Claudia Bosse & dr. Dimitrij Vrhovnik Mlekuž: Od orakljev in žrtvenih obredij do eko-relacijskih koreografij in odnosov znotraj globokega časa
Pri Nomad Dance Academy Slovenija že nekaj let z zanimanjem spremljamo delo umetnice Claudie Bosse, ki se nam zdi idealno za eko-koreografski obrat.
Claudia Bosse je mednarodno uveljavljena koreografinja, umetnica in raziskovalka, ki s sodelavkami in sodelavci pod imenom teatercombinat ustvarja pretežno na Dunaju. Z interdisciplinarnim delom ustvarja urbane in krajinske koreografije, instalacije in prostorska performativna dela s specifičnimi kulturnimi, tehnološkimi, družbenimi, skupnostnimi in zgodovinskimi zgodbami ali implikacijami. Zanimajo jo njihovi ekološki vidiki ter načini, kako jih je mogoče premišljevati onstran človeške utilitarizacije. Njena dela so modularna, v zadnjem času pa jih ustvarja tudi v virtualnem prostoru. Z njimi generira začasne skupnosti, mejne in prehodne prostore, ki jih oblikuje med različnimi umetniškimi oblikami, žanri in formati. Od leta 2025 dela doktorat iz medijskih in performativnih praks na temo hibridnih krajin na Umetniški in humanistični univerzi v Stockholmu (Stockholm University of the Arts).
Na srečanju bo s komentarjem svojega mentorja na doktorskem študiju v Stockholmu, profesorjem arheologije na Filozofski fakulteti v Ljubljani, dr. Dimitrijem Vrhovnikom Mlekužem, predstavila izbrana poglavja iz svojega opusa.
»V predstavitvi sem bom osredotočila na zveze med etruščanskimi preroškimi in žrtvenimi obredji kot oblikami komunikacije s krajino in njenim kozmološkim razumevanjem ter svojimi občasnimi in sklenjenimi srečanji z različnimi ranjenimi krajinami. Moje delo vsebuje moje lastno telo, hkrati pa sodelujem s plesalci in drugimi predanimi posamezniki. Slednje povezujem z eko-koreografijo kot metodo odkrivanja, kako se je mogoče pokrajino povezati s telesi. Kakšni postopki subjektivacij prikličejo odnosi s krajinami? Kakšne časovnosti, ritmi, energije in nasilni posegi obstajajo v krajinah in kako jih je mogoče razumeti kot deljene, življenjske sisteme postajanja? Kako je mogoče manifestacije globokega časa in njegovega sosledja telesno zaznati? Česa se lahko telo spomni, ko izginejo krajine? Kakšna je zveza med uporom, poroznimi površinami in umazanimi rokami?« zapiše Claudia Bosse.
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Sobota, 17.10.2026, Projektni prostor DUM, Kolodvorska ulica 6
17:00 - 18:10, Projektni prostor DUM
Anja Bornšek: Premik v neznan pavzo (70 min)
Premik v neznano pavzo je voden proces vstopanja v spremenjen tempo telesnega in gibalnega delovanja, je odmik od vsakdanje delovne učinkovitosti s pripadajočo čutno redukcijo v jačanje telesne občutljivosti, čuječnosti, pozornosti, domišljije in zaupanja v čutne informacije v telesu in okolju. Premik v neznano pavzo individualno držo vsakdanjega delovanja uglasi z zaznavo mikro-sprememb v telesih in okolju, da bi telo zaznalo spremembe, da bi zaznalo čas in se uglasilo z drugimi telesi ter izostrilo zaznavo najmanjših telesnih sprememb. »Zaznava ni nikoli povsem individualna, ampak nastaja in se kalibrira v odnosu,« zapiše Anja Bornšek. Premik v neznano pavzo je kreiranje občutljivega skupinskega relacijskega telesa, ki lahko nastane zgolj tako, da se spremeni naša funkcionalna individualna in učinkovita drža, s katero se stare izkušnje reciklirajo, da nam ne bi bilo treba okolice in drugih teles zaznavati vedno znova. Premik v neznano pavzo je proces aktivacije našega čutnega aparata za uglasitev z rečmi, ki so nam lahko skupne in nastajajo med nami. Je praksa, ne proizvod. Delo z Anjo Bornšek, plesalko, koreografinjo in poznavalko različnih somatskih praks, bo potekalo v dveh srečanjih.
Koncept, avtorstvo, izvedba: Anja Bornšek
Zvok: Tomaž Tomljanovič
Zahvala za doprinos k raziskavi: Tina Valentan, Jadi Carboni, Barbara Kanc, Ema Križič in Tina Benko
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Nedelja, 18.10.2026, Projektni prostor DUM
17:00 - 18:10, Projektni prostor DUM
Anja Bornšek: Premik v neznano pavzo (70 min)
18:30 - 20:00, Projektni prostor DUM
Jaka Bombač: (Post-)Eko-koreografija: onkraj zelenega prehoda
Pred dobrim desetletjem je bil sprejet Pariški sporazum, ki je obljubljal prehod v bolj zeleno družbo. Sprejete so bile zaveze in strategije o zeleni prihodnosti, ki pa so bile v praksi izjemno težko izvedljive, poleg tega pa so ponavljale antropocentrični predsodek, pred katerim so nas poskusile zaščititi. Ko uradne institucionalne politike zaidejo v slepo ulico, smo primorani stvar zopet premisliti izven togih institucionalnih okvirjev, in v tem predavanju bomo ekologijo zopet premišljali v kontekstu pojma koreografije, ki po mojem mnenju nudi odličen vstop v ta ponovni premislek. Lahko pojem eko-koreografije sploh jasno definiramo? Je eko-koreografija preprosto ples v gozdu? Ali pa je lahko tudi ples ob osamljenem drevesu, ki stoji v mestnem jedru? Ob travni bilki? Kje je meja? Ali sploh zahteva prisotnost drugih živalskih ali rastlinskih organizmov? Pomeni čisto neposredno bivanje z drugimi? Je posredovana prek pogleda drugega telesa? Ali je eko-koreografija bolj ali manj koreografiran ples? Ali je sploh ples? Zahteva laična, od koreografskih navad neoblikovana plesna telesa, ali pa morda terja predvsem počasno in poglobljeno gibanje? So to vsakdanji, od družbenih navad neoblikovani gibi? Je eko-koreografija sploh možna? V poskusu odgovora na ta vprašanja se bom v svojem predavanju posvetil večnemu in univerzalnemu vprašanju, ki preči vsa zgodovinska obdobja: kje natanko poteka ločnica med naravnim in umetnim? Preden se posvetim neposredni povezavi med koreografijo in ekologijo, bom poskušal natančno in preko metode družinskih podobnosti opredeliti sam pojem narave. Ker pa je ta koncept tako širok, da bi se lahko enostavno nanašal na »vse, kar je« – filozofi zgodnje antike naravo namreč razumejo kot svet, drugi bolj sodobni pa kot vse, česar se zavedamo v svoji izkušnji –, bom začel pri ožjem pojmu naravnosti.
V knjigi Philosophy of Nature: Rethinking Naturalness norveški filozof Svein Anders Noer Lie raziskuje prav to vprašanje: kaj je tisto, kar dela neko stvar naravno? Pojem naravnosti opredeljuje skozi dvanajst ključnih kategorij oziroma smislov, ki zajemajo vse od »neokrnjenosti« ter »biološke opremljenosti« do nasprotovanja umetnemu, kulturno pogojenemu in namenskim »lepotnim« posegom v naravo ali človeško telo. Te taksonomske kategorije nam bodo služile kot temeljno reflektivno izhodišče za premislek razmerja med naravo in človeškim vedenjem ter delovanjem.
Da bi to izhodišče prenesel v polje uprizoritvene umetnosti, bom Whiteheadove ter Merleau-Pontyjeve premisleke o naravi kot neposrednem izkustvu povezal s filozofijo simbolnih form Susanne K. Langer. Preko njenega pojmovanja geste, jezika in simbolnih dispozicij organizma bom osvetlil, kako ples ne deluje kot verbalni jezik, ampak kot predrefleksivna oblika komunikacije in nediskurzivni simbolni sistem, ki neposredno artikulira naše organsko bivanje, a vselej na ozadju zgodovinskega ter fenomenološkega konteksta. Gesta v okviru eko-koreografije tako postane nosilka rojevajočega se smisla, ki briše mejo med telesom in okoljem ter nam omogoča, da ekološko pripadnost namesto kot moralno dolžnost izkusimo kot neposredno estetsko in etično dejstvo.
Na podlagi vseh teh razmislekov bom nazadnje poskusil tudi prečiti zagonetni dualizem med telesom in duhom, ki pogosto pronica v razumevanje plesa. Plesa ne bom razumel niti empiristično kot minimalno formatiranega neposrednega izkustva, niti idealistično kot čistega geometričnega izraza narave, temveč kot vmesno pot med formo in transformacijo, časom in prostorom, telesom in duhom, ki deluje obenem kot estetska forma in kot prostor za razmislek o človeški situiranosti v svetu mnogih živih in neživih organskih form.
Organizacija: NDA Slovenija
Kuratorji: Dragana Alfirević, Jana Jevtović, Rok Vevar
Grafično oblikovanje: Doro
Partnerji: DUM, En-knap, Španski Borci
Podpora: Ministrstvo za kulturo R Slovenije; Mestna občina Ljubljana
CHOREOGRAPHIC TURN #11: ECO-CHOREOGRAPHY OF LANDSCAPES AND BODIES
In recent years, a range of concepts, terms, phrases, and descriptive designations have entered the field of contemporary dance and cultural production, addressing the relationships between the ecological, cultural-production, and artistic questions: eco-choreography, dance, and ecology, sustainable forms of creation and production in contemporary dance, contemporary dance and the green transition. In the field of dance, production and creative environments have been confronted with imperatives imposed on us by meta-cultural systems, as though the relationships between nature, sustainability, ecology, and dance were something entirely new.
Cultural systems that aim, through various criteria, to measure the degrees of sustainability, ecological responsibility, and the consumption of natural resources in the field of cultural production are disinterested in the fact that contemporary dance has anyway, for decades, systematically explored sustainable forms of bodily practice that approach the human body in accordance with contemporary somatic knowledge.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, contemporary dance emerged as an artistic practice established by dancers and choreographers as a form of “natural movement.” They sought to attune their bodies to ways of moving that they understood as authentic, uncontrived, and pleasant for the body, in accordance with their sensory perceptions of themselves, their anatomy, kinetics, and relationship to society. Soon afterwards, the naturalisation of dance began to engage with models of micromateriality in choreographic composition, thereby incorporating insights from the natural sciences into their stage works. At the same time, as artists began moving from urban environments to the countryside, the first artistic residencies began to appear. The range of examples is extensive.
Choreographic Turn #11, entitled Eco-Choreography of Landscapes and Bodies, seeks to reconsider the relationships between dance and natural or technologically transformed environments together with selected artists and scholars who approach choreography precisely through such concepts. Claudia Bosse, Dr. Dimitrij Mlekuž Vrhovnik, Anja Bornšek, Neža Kokalj and Jaka Bombač will share their knowledge and perspectives on these relationships throughout the series of events comprising Choreographic Turn #11.
We have prepared a multimedia programme that brings choreography and the body into dialogue with the qualities of landscapes, while also inhabiting and investigating landscapes through bodies. The kidneys of a sacrificed animal, Claudia Bosse tells us, contained cosmological information in the rituals of Saharan peoples. They reflected a landscape that was incomparably more expansive than the location in which these peoples lived; this connection with a space extending beyond the scope of a single life had to be honoured. So that one life would not consume another.
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Friday, 16 October 2026 - Španski borci
16:00–17:15, Španski borci, Main Stage
And Then There Were the Sounds of Birds, film
A conversation between Neža Kokalj and the curators of Choreographic Turn
The dance film And Then There Were the Sounds of Birds was created in collaboration between dancers and choreographers Neža Kokalj and Paulina Rewucka, musicians Matt Choboter and Ying-Hsueh Chen, and filmmaker Daniel Oxenhandler. In August 2024, the artists met during an artistic residency on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. There, using different media, they created in response to their surroundings: in an abandoned quarry, by the sea, and in local caves and cavities. Using different media, they sought to refresh their modes of collaboration, strengthen social bonds within the creative process and carry them into the local environment, while expanding the concept of site-specific art through the various landscape and social dimensions available to them in that place. The two dancers arrived on the island following the deaths of their fathers; the experience of mourning resonated differently in this new environment than it had in their respective places of origin. The film And Then There Were the Sounds of Birds (2026) is an intriguing form of multidisciplinary and collective artistic response to an environment, while the experience of the dancers, musicians, and filmmaker creating on Bornholm constitutes a particular form of responding to landscape. Throughout the history of artistic practice, landscapes have appeared in travel writing and painting, where they have served different visual functions in different periods, as well as in land art. At the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, land art worked with volumes and proportions that could not be commodified within artistic systems and markets, and to which artists did not have access within gallery spaces. Following the screening of the film, which, according to Neža Kokalj, is at this stage not yet in its final form, we will speak with the dancer and choreographer about the procedural approach through which the work was created.
Artists / Performers / Facilitators:
Choreography and movement: Paulina Rewucka, Neža Kokalj
Sound installation, composition, percussion: Matt Choboter
Percussion: Ying-Hsueh Chen
Film: Daniel Oxenhandler
17:20–19:30, Španski borci, Main Stage
Claudia Bosse & Dr Dimitrij Vrhovnik Mlekuž: From Oracles and Sacrifices to Eco-Relational Choreographies and Deep-Time Relations
At Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia, we have been following the work of artist Claudia Bosse with interest for several years, and it seems particularly suited to Choreographic Turn #11.
Claudia Bosse is an internationally active choreographer, artist, researcher and the artistic director of the performance formation theatercombinat in Vienna and holds a theater directing diploma of the Ernst Busch University, Berlin. Claudia creates urban and landscape choreographies, installations, and space responsive immersive performance works, with a focus on ecological thinking together with the more_than_human for museums, architecture, festivals, theatres, landscapes, wastelands, and urban spaces within and outside Europe, and most recently also in virtual spaces. She creates temporary communities, liminal spaces and transitions between installation, choreography, theatre, (social) rituals and site-specific forms of assembly and works with relational embodiment. Bosse teaches at various academies and universities as a guest professor or lecturer or is part of research projects. In 2025 she started a Phd for media-based and performative practice on „hybrid landscapes“ at Stockholm University of the Arts.
At the event, together with commentary from her doctoral supervisor in Stockholm, Professor of Archaeology at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Dr Dimitrij Vrhovnik Mlekuž, she will present selected chapters from her body of work.
“In this presentation, I will explore the connection between Etruscan oracle and sacrifice practices as a form of communication with the landscape within a cosmological understanding, and my short- and long-term encounters with different wounded landscapes. My work involves my own body, as well as collaboration with dancers and other dedicated individuals. I relate this to eco-choreography as a method of discovering how to connect with an environment through the body. What processes of subjectivation are provoked by relating to a landscape through the body? What temporalities, rhythms, energies and violences exist in landscapes that are understood as shared, vital systems of becoming? What deep-time appearances and deep-time futurities can the body detect? What does the body remember when landscapes disappear? What is the relationship between resistance, porous surfaces, and dirty hands?” writes Claudia Bosse.
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Saturday, 17 October 2026 - DUM Project Space, Kolodvorska ulica 6
17:00–18:10, DUM Project Space
Anja Bornšek: Shift into an Unknown Pause (70 min)
Shift into an Unknown Pause is a guided process of entering into an altered tempo of bodily and movement activity. It is a departure from everyday work-oriented efficiency and its associated sensory reduction, towards an intensification of bodily sensitivity, awareness, attention, imagination, and trust in sensory information within the body and its environment. Shift into an Unknown Pause attunes the individual posture of everyday activity to the perception of micro-changes in bodies and environments: so that the body can perceive change, perceive time, attune itself to other bodies, and sharpen its awareness of the smallest bodily shifts. “Perception is never entirely individual, but emerges and is calibrated through relationship,” writes Anja Bornšek. Shift into an Unknown Pause creates a sensitive relational group body, which can emerge only through a transformation of our functional, individual and efficiency-oriented stance — the stance through which old experiences are recycled so that we do not have to perceive our surroundings and other bodies anew each time. Shift into an Unknown Pause is a process of activating our sensory apparatus in order to attune ourselves to things that may be shared between us and that emerge among us. It is a practice, not a product. The work with Anja Bornšek, a dancer, choreographer, and practitioner of various somatic practices, will take place over two sessions.
Concept and Artistic Direction: Anja Bornšek
Sound: Tomaž Tomljanović
Lighting: Toni Soprano Meneglejte
With thanks to the participating performers for their contribution to the research: Tina Valentan, Jadi Carboni, Barbara Kanc, Ema Križič, Tina Benko
Production: NAGIB (represented by Petra Hazabent)
Project Partners: MKC Maribor, Plesna Izba Maribor and Tanz Graz
Financial Support: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Maribor
Anja Bornšek completed her studies in contemporary dance at SEAD in Salzburg and holds a Master’s degree in Contemporary Dance Pedagogy (MA CoDE) from HfMDK Frankfurt. She is a registered Body-Mind Centering® Somatic Movement Educator with ISMETA (International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association) and is currently studying body-oriented psychotherapy at CIR INTP. In her work, she explores the intersections of somatic and performance practices, where the individual and the collective are transformed through perception in relation to body, space and time. She creates situations in which attention shifts from representation towards direct experience, opening space for subtle, not-yet-articulated processes. Her practice also includes formats that question established roles of spectator and performer, opening the artistic process as a space for shared exploration and experience. For more than ten years, she has been developing and facilitating the audience formats Physical Introduction and Physical Traces internationally. Her works include Oči, ki letijo, Pronicanja, Drug prostor and Premik v neznano pavzo. In 2021, she received the Ksenija Hribar Award for Promising Choreographer.
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Sunday, 18 October 2026 — DUM Project Space
17:00–18:10, DUM Project Space
Anja Bornšek: Shift into an Unknown Pause (70 min)
18:30–20:00, DUM Project Space
Jaka Bombač: (Post-)Eco-Choreography: Beyond the Green Transition
A little over a decade ago, the Paris Agreement was adopted, promising a transition towards a greener society. Commitments and strategies for a green future were established, yet in practice they have proved extremely difficult to implement. At the same time, they reproduced the anthropocentric bias that they had ostensibly sought to protect us from. When official institutional policies reach an impasse, we are compelled to rethink things once again outside rigid institutional frameworks. In this lecture, I will reconsider ecology through the concept of choreography, which, in my view, offers an excellent point of entry into this renewed inquiry. Can we define the concept of eco-choreography at all with any clarity? Is eco-choreography simply dance in a forest? Or can it also be dance beside a solitary tree standing in the middle of a city? Beside a blade of grass? Where is the boundary? Does it require the presence of other animal or plant organisms at all? Does it mean a direct dwelling-with others? Is it mediated through the gaze of another body? Is eco-choreography more or less choreographed dance? Is it dance at all? Does it require everyday bodies unshaped by choreographic conventions, or perhaps does it demand above all slow and profound movement? Is it composed of everyday movements, unshaped by social conventions? Is eco-choreography even possible? In attempting to answer these questions, my lecture will turn to an eternal and universal question that runs through all historical periods: where exactly does the boundary between the natural and the artificial lie? Before addressing the direct relationship between choreography and ecology, I will attempt to define the concept of nature precisely, using the method of family resemblances. However, because this concept is so broad that it could easily refer to “everything that exists” — philosophers of early antiquity understood nature as the world, while more contemporary thinkers have understood it as everything of which we are conscious in our experience — I will begin with the narrower concept of naturalness.
In his book Philosophy of Nature: Rethinking Naturalness, Norwegian philosopher Svein Anders Noer Lie explores precisely this question: what makes something natural? He defines naturalness through twelve key categories or senses, encompassing everything from “unspoiledness” and “biological endowment” to opposition to the artificial, the culturally conditioned, and intentional “beautifying” interventions in nature or the human body. These taxonomic categories will serve as a fundamental reflective starting point for reconsidering the relationship between nature and human behaviour and action.
To bring this starting point into the field of performance, I will connect Whitehead’s and Merleau-Ponty’s reflections on nature as immediate experience with Susanne K. Langer’s philosophy of symbolic forms. Through her understanding of gesture, language, and the symbolic dispositions of the organism, I will explore how dance does not function as a verbal language, but rather as a pre-reflective form of communication and a non-discursive symbolic system that directly articulates our organic existence, always against a historical and phenomenological context. Within the framework of eco-choreography, gesture thus becomes a carrier of an emerging meaning that erases the boundary between body and environment, enabling us to experience ecological belonging not as a moral obligation, but as an immediate aesthetic and ethical fact.
On the basis of all these reflections, I will finally attempt to move beyond the enigmatic dualism between body and spirit that often permeates understandings of dance. I will understand dance neither empirically, as minimally formatted immediate experience, nor idealistically, as a pure geometric expression of nature, but as an intermediate path between form and transformation, time and space, body and spirit — one that functions simultaneously as an aesthetic form and as a space for reflecting on the human condition within a world of many living and non-living organic forms.
Jaka Bombač is a philosopher, linguist and critic working in the field of performing arts, primarily in dance. He has been writing as a critic since 2021, with a particular interest in embodied theory, philosophy of language and semiotics. In 2024, he completed his Master’s degree, writing theses on embodied philosophical psychology, for which he received the Dean’s Award, and on theories of the origins of human language. He believes that theory and practice should work together, mutually limiting, informing and expanding one another. In recent years, he has worked as a performer in projects by Dragana Alfirević and Snježana Premuš. In 2025, together with sound artist Oko, he co-created the immersive sound walk Telesa vode (Bodies of Water). Since 2026, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of Maska magazine.
Organization: NDA Slovenija
Curators: Dragana Alfirević, Jana Jevtović, Rok Vevar
Graphic design: Doro
Partners: DUM, En-knap, Španski Borci
Support: Ministrstvo za kulturo R Slovenije; Mestna občina Ljubljana
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DUM - Association of Artists, Kolodvorska 6,Ljubljana, Slovenia
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