As part of Dublin Theatre Festival’s participation in the EU funded Be SpectACTive project, we will be hosting dance artist Jerca Rožnik Novak in Dublin from 9-19 December. While they are here Jerca will be inviting people to join them as co-creators of a new work, 2GETHER/AL(L)ONE.

Participants can drop into one or all of 3 sessions that will take place from 11-13 December at Dance House, Foley Street, Dublin from 2pm-6pm daily. All those who are interested in performance and are comfortable moving are welcome to participate. If you would like to attend, please e-mail derval@dublintheatrefestival.ie with date or dates that you would like to attend.

Co-creation in this context and for the development of the performance 2GETHER/AL(L)ONE embraces the totality of the individual as well as the totality of a group. Throughout the workshop we will develop a platform for participation that offers an experience of co-creation of the performance as it happens. The concept for the performance is simple – one of the dancers is injured and the spectators are asked to replace her so that the performance can take place. The performance then becomes a duet with the spectators. Without the spectators becoming co-creators and co-performers of the piece, the performance cannot happen. For the process of development of 2GETHER/AL(L)ONE in the upcoming residency in Dublin, the co-creators will represent themselves as spectators in their specific context, as well as the possible spectators all around the world. We are searching for different approaches and possibilities of co-creation, engagement of the audience and participation. The co-creators represent the source of information. We invite people of all ages and professions to join us. Together we will create as many different ways and methods for the co-creators to collaborate with us, experience and become a part of the performance. Our wish is to create a performance with no spectators.

Each workshop session will start with individual interviews with the co-creators about the understanding of co-creation, breaking the “fourth wall” and participation in the performance. In this way, we will be able to set the structure of the workshop according to the needs and wishes of the co-creators. Throughout the workshop we will focus on different movement tasks, spatial tasks and group tasks, connected to the topic that the performance is dealing with – being left alone, missing the absent person, the wish to keep things, situations and people the way they were before they unexpectedly changed, searching for quick solutions in a disastrous situation. We will share the movement material of the performance and co-create new actions and situations together with the participants of the workshop.

Jerca Rožnik Novak Jerca studied at the High School for contemporary dance in Ljubljana where she graduated in 2011. She continued studying contemporary dance and dance pedagogy at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz, Austria, where she received her bachelor’s degree in 2016. In 2019 she finished master studies in pedagogy at the same university. She has worked as a freelance dancer with choreographers such as Willi Dorner, Rose Breuss, Gisela Elisa Herdia, Anna Gulyás, Maria Koliopouplou, Matjaž Farič, Johannes Wieland, Vita Osojnik, and Damian Cortes Alberti. She has been collaborating with Editta Braun Company since 2014 and is a part of a recent piece called “TRAiLS”. She has been working with SILK Fluegge since 2014 and is involved in their new creation “Si(e)Si- 5 millimetres above the floor”.
In 2011, she participated in the project “The Daddy Project” produced by Plesni Teater Ljubljana. She created a piece “Hweōl… in the whirlwind of time” together with Leon Marič, produced by Plesni Teater Ljubljana in 2016. She danced in the piece “BLUE INK” by Enya Belak Gupta, produced by ZAVOD FLOTA and co-produced by Plesni Teater Ljubljana in 2018.
She was teaching at Súkromné tanečné konzervatórium/ Liptovský Hrádok in Slovakia and at Musisches Gymnasium Salzburg in Austria. In the summer 2019 she led contemporary and modern dance workshops at the TanzenAmSee dance camp in Austria. She occasionally gives classes to B-Girl Circle trainings for young girls in Linz, Austria. Jerca shares her contemporary dance classes at Praktikum and Bitnamuun group in Ljubljana.

If you would like to attend this free workshop, please e-mail derval@dublintheatrefestival.ie with your preferred date(s).