Community of Ljubljana

Who’s in

An intergenerational group (17-50 years old): some have already participated in other City of Women projects and some were new people. The community was gathered through an open call: no prior knowledge required but diverse experience related to specific issues (gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, sexuality) or interest in learning dance.

Activities

The community of Ljubljana together with local dancemakers Teja Reba and Vita Osojnik carried out a 6-month research among the community dance practices. The residency phase of the project then began: the first dancemaker in residence at City of women was travelling artist TC Howard. A 4-day dance theatre experiment culminated in an informal sharing resulting from our enquiries into ideas of gender, identity and self-hood and what it means to us.  

“The piece was be a one-off happening, a co-authored event, a playful collision between the spontaneous and the practised, an unknown quantity, and a window into a creative process that can only happen because we have chosen to be together.” 

The production

Nobody whistles anymore was created by City of Women Festival’s newly formed Company. The Company, aged 27-74, were all new to dance and theatre and join us from Ljubljana, Slovenia to share their new work, devised through workshops led by theatre director Brina Klampfer and choreographer Vita Osojnik.

Exploring the role of gender in modern society, Nobody Whistles Anymore examines power relations, archetypes and stereotypes that often spontaneously find their way into artistic processes as well as everyday life.

The performance is a collage of different scenes, or rather performative movement images, created mainly on the basis of the workshops with some newly directed parts. Before they set out to create the show, the group also did research on transgender rights, the current conditions for transgender people and the LGBTQ+ community in Slovenia, even though it is not an immediately obvious part of the final product. The final piece did, however, consistently turn the relationships between classic societal roles on its head, questioning tradition and rituals, reaching to transcend them.

Touring

• 22nd may 2023- Ljubljana (City of women)
• 8th july 2023 – Leeds, Encounters Festival (Yorkshire Dance)
• 9th august 2023 – ‘s Hertogenbosch, Theaterfestival Boulevard
• 11st october 2023 – Ljubljana, International Festival of Contemporary Arts (City of Women)
• 21st october 2023 – Umea, Norrlandsoperan

Credits

Concept: Brina Klampfer Merčnik and Vita Osojnik;
directed by: Brina Klampfer Merčnik;
choreography: Vita Osojnik;
coauthors: Teja Bitenc, Alenka Dereani, Josip Drabik Jug, Romana Humar, Alja Lacković, Majda Lekše, Tina Poglajen, Ankica Radivojević, Vesna Škreblin, Manca Trampuš;
light design: Jaka Šimenc;
original music and performance: Manca Trampuš in Teja Bitenc,
concept: Teja Reba; the performance is also based on workshops with Teja Reba, TC Howard, Sindri Runudde and Maia Means