Kretanja 13-14 engl KB.indd - HC ITI

KretanjaČASOPIS ZA PLESNU UMJETNOST Kretanja 13/14 _ 1

fromCroatianstages:09Iva nerina SibilaWhich ....?Jelena MihelčićHumman Error ...contentseditorial:04Katja Šimunić???dance/art:?Maja MarjančićAnka krizmanić ....?Maja ĐurinovićThe Exhibition...theory:?Katja ŠimunićThree...2 _ Kretanja 13/14

MilkoSparemblekIntroduction??Maja Đurinović????Vjeran ZuppaLudio doctus??Andreja JeličićPlesno kazalište MilkaŠparembleka u svjetlu teorijeumjetnosti kao ekspresije??Svjetlana Hribar2+2: Pokret je zbirsvega što jesmo77Bosiljka Perić KempfPlesati možete na glazbu,ali i na šum, ritam, tišinu...??Darko GašparovićO dramaturgijiMilka Šparembleka??Tuga TarleOda ljubavi pod čizmomideologijeKretanja 13/14 _ 3

editorial:In anticipation of the establishment of dance education at the university levelin Croatia, which will, according to the founders’ announcements, bringtogether practical (i. e. classical and contemporary dance techniques) andtheoretical dance studies in one institution, Kretanja (Movements), as the onlyCroatian journal exclusively dedicated to dance art, has from its very first issue(in 2002) published a corpus of texts that can be used as a kind of basis or introductioninto dance theory, and which should have an important place in theenvisaged institution and serve as a platform for institutional and non-institutionalresearchers of dance. Throughout issues dealing with special themes wheredance is positioned in relation to literature, photography, dramaturgy, film orvisual arts, along with translations of essays of the most important internationaldance theoreticians, we have introduced texts that present different examples ofknowledge about dance on the path to the much needed dynamically organiseddance studies, and we have also presented outstanding creations from the Croatiandance scene and promoted domestic authors.Kretanja / Croatian Dance Magazine is published twice a year by the CroatianCentre of the International Theatre Institute. After the first five issues we decidedto publish an English edition of Kretanja 06 (2006), with a selection of representativetexts by Croatian critics and theoreticians that were previously published inthe Croatian issues. We continue this practice in the English edition of Kretanja13/14 with a selection of texts published in the period from 2006 to 2010.4 _ Kretanja 13/14

editorial: In the first part of the journal, in the section From Croatian Stages we presenta text by Iva Nerina Sibila entitled Which Body, Which Gesture? in whichthe author confronts two different choreographic writings: one by Edward Clug,an international choreographer who staged the production of Reasons 4 withthe ballet of the national theatre from Zagreb and the other by Sonja Pregrad, ayoung dancer and choreographer and member of the independent Croatian dancescene, represented with the performance SOLO., to question the type of corporalityand gestures generated by these two different dance concepts. The textby Jelena Mihelčić in the same section reviews the performance Human Error, byCroatian choreographer of the younger generation, Marija Šćekić, which tacklesthe questions of the dualism of body and mind, assuming Antonio Damasio’sattitude of Descartes’ error of their fundamental separation.The Dance/Visual Arts section is represented by two texts dealing with theways in which Croatian visual artists represent dance art in their works. MajaMarjančić writes about the painting opus of Croatian woman painter Anka Krizmanić(1896-1987), who was inspired by performances by, for instance: AnaPavlova, Gertrud Leistikow, Grete Wiesenthal, Ana Roje and Oskar Harmoš.Maja Đurinović focuses in great part on the visitors and media that reportedabout one surprising aspect of the exhibition Avant-Garde Tendencies in CroatianArt (Klovićevi dvori Gallery, Zagreb, 2007) dedicated to Croatian dance art.The section Theory concludes the first part of the journal and presents KatjaŠimunić’s text Three Gestures in Which a Hand Touches the Forehead, whichon the example of Roxane’s text-induced gesture in Rostand’s drama Cyranode Bergerac, through the gesture of touching the forehead in Martha Graham’schoreography Letter to the World, to the interpretation of the same gesture inthe choreography Trio A by Yvonne Rainer challenges the question of the relationshipgesture – movement.The second part of the journal consists of a selection of texts from the symposiumdedicated to internationally known Croatian choreographer Milko Šparemblekheld in 2008, with the intention of giving an insight into the exceptionallyrich work of this artist to foreign critics, theoreticians and researchers.The English edition Kretanja 13/14 is published with the aim of intensifyingthe dialogue between dance practice and dance theory in order to intertwineheterogeneous dance works and challenging dance discourses. Would you like todance/write with us?Katja ŠimunićKretanja 13/14 _ 5

from Croatian stages:from Croatian stages:< Sonja Pregrad: SOLO. FOTO: Nives Sertić. >6 _ Kretanja 13/14

from Croatian stages: IVA NERINA SIBILAWHICH BODY, WHICH GESTURE?In this essay, I will review two performances which belongto the 2008/2009 season. Reasons 4 by choreographerEdward Clug, produced and performed by theCroatian National Theatre Ballet in Zagreb and SOLO. byindependent author and performer Sonja Pregrad. The questionwhich I would like to pose with this essay is whichbody is represented in these performances and why exactlysuch a body. In developing this question, I would like toexamine the relation between the Croatian institutional andnon-institutional dance scene. I would also like to try to disturb,at least in a theoretical, Utopian, and idealist way,some of these relations for which I claim dogmatically determinewhich body belongs to which theatre and productionframe.I. REASONS 4Edward Clug is a Slovene dancer and choreographer ofRomanian extraction. He became a soloist of the MariborBallet in 1991 and danced a classical and contemporaryballet repertoire. He began to choreograph in 1996 in theperformances by Tomaž Pandur and in 2003 he becamehead of the Maribor Ballet. The performance Reasons 4 isan extended version of a short work set for the PortugueseBallet. He also choreographed for the Dutch company“Station Zuid” and for the Stuttgart Ballet in 2009. He haswon a number of international awards for dance and choreography,including the most important Slovenian awardsfor his work in the field of culture, the Prešeren FoundationAward in 2005 and the Glazer Credential in 2008.Reasons 4 is a performance with a mystical atmospherein which, out of nowhere and seemingly without reason,ten dancers emerge from the semi-darkness through a spacedis-framed with black movable partitions, they danceand suddenly disappear.MusicThe starting point of the performance is music by Slovenepianist and composer Milko Lazar. His “Four Sonatasfor Piano and Violin” performed live (by the composer andJelena Ždrale) create an acoustic environment. Rhythmicallytense, flickering and sophisticated music creates an atmospherefilled with powerful dynamic oscillations and the furioustempo that persecutes the dancers alternates with airy,slow parts in which tones remain suspended in space, andthe dancers move around or between them.The structure of the performance follows the movementsof the sonatas so that the music also creates the basicdramaturgy of the performance. The performance startswith a male dancer coming out running, almost hitting intoa dance position and fast choreography. The introductionof other dancers and their penetration into space is accompaniedby the development of the score, from a solo, orunisonance, into a group, or “multisonance.” Respectingthe abstract, and not narrative, form of the choreograp-Kretanja 13/14 _ 7

from Croatian stages:< Edward Clug: Razloga 4/ Reasons 4.FOTO: Saša Novković i Ines Novković. >< FOTO: ??? >8 _ Kretanja 13/14

from Croatian stages: hy, the choreographer alternates duets and group scenes,and combines them with the sudden exiting and entering ofdancers, sometimes letting the music finish and leaving thedancers in silence.The only stage elements are black movable partitionswhich change the space like a film frame from time to timeas well as the musicians who are situated in the upper leftpart of the stage. Simple black costumes, trousers and nakedtorsos for men and trousers and corsets for women,make the appearance of this performance somewhat like a“work-in-progress”. With this, the author directs the gazeto what is most important to him, to the choreography.The choreography, in other words, the very fabric of theperformance, embodies and interprets music: dance mostlyfollows the rhythm, accentuation and atmosphere, and theauthorial originality and skill are obvious in the multi-layeredpenetration into music and in the plurality of metaphorsfrom which the scenes resulted and which they transfer. Althoughdirect with regards to the dance-music relation, aswell as simple in its “black on black” visual identity, Reasons4 offers a complex interpretative landscape.AestheticsMeticulous and tense, Clug’s choreography is one ofplasticity 1 and contrast. Plasticity in the sense of completeelaboration with which movement is transferred throughthe body, so that the tiniest movement of the hand oreye does not remain accidental, open or unfinished here.This quality is also achieved with special attention directedtowards the finishing of a movement which remains strained,thus opening the expectation of another movement.In the moments of tranquillity, or those of non-movement,tension is also felt like a breath kept for too long and thisprovides the performance with a vague feeling of danger.Bodies here do not yield to the protection of the force ofgravity, but are forced into movement by their own anxiousenergy to which the music is at the same time a startingpoint and refuge. The aesthetic of plasticity is also providedby the absence of connecting steps so that the transitionfrom one tension to another is unexpected, without preparationor a running start.The quality of contrast is placed in the non-movement,in the pauses between two movements into which and outof which the dancers constantly move. Also, the powerfuland dense accentuation of movement leaves an impressionof overemphasized dramatics and the unreal. (Like a dreamin which events follow one another without pause.)1 By definition, plastics is the art of making figures using somesoft matter or the skill of perfecting parts of the body in order toprovide them with beauty and markedness; it also refers to sculpture.The choreographic lexis which Clug uses is based onthe tradition of classical ballet, significantly expanded bycontemporary improvisational methods (analogy in literature,“free stream of consciousness”). Thus, movementstreams out of the body like a flood with its own logic,moving within the kinetic sphere of the Western academicdance canon.A specific feature of Clug’s “bodywriting” is also speedwhich, like the edge of a knife, cuts space. Furthermore, thedance performance reveals the somewhat decadent pleasurein this speed, in the power of perfect bodies to competewith the demands of the choreographic instinct and tokeep the purity of form and dynamics within the dense andhyperactive flow of movement.Insistence on the open position of the legs is also evident,bringing the social and aesthetic implications of theclassical ballet tradition into the choreography (in contrastto the parallel position used in contemporary dance whichis neutral, and gives the feeling of a zero state, belonging togravity and which follows the body anatomically).Strong, lightning-quick throws of hands and legs arealso important elements of the choreography, while the torsois mainly in a vertical position and remains subordinatedin relation to the extremities. In this way, the torso remainsa carrier of the dancer’s identity in Clug’s work, but it is notan equal participant in the choreography. Clug manages toturn this verticality, which in addition to the open position,is one of the unquestionable rudiments of the ballet techniqueand frequently a limitation in terms of choreographicimagination, “to his own advantage.” He does so with theunexpected articulation of body details such as, for example,the several times repeated movements of fingers of thehand which, like a spider, go over the body of the partneror the isolated play of the shoulder-blades. In this process,he achieves contrast with the large, expected movementsand brings into play a redirection of the spectators’ attentionfrom the macro to micro plan, providing a touch of the“surreal” to the entire performance.DuetsIn a further analysis, three male-female duets will bebrought to attention. In these segments of the performance(which, more so than the group scenes, leave an impressionof extraordinariness and multilayered quality of interpretativepossibilities), the choreographer indicates problems ofthe dance body’s “plasticity” and the relation of the performerto this quality in an interesting manner.In the first duet, the male and female dancers dancea classical pas-de-deux, but she, although perfectly, performsit like a mechanical puppet moving in dying twitches.Her relation to the performance is entirely indifferent, andKretanja 13/14 _ 9

from Croatian stages:< Sonja Pregrad: SOLO. FOTO: Nives Sertić. >layers of emotions or pleasure in virtuosity are completelyremoved. The body of the female dancer seems as if takenaway from her and trapped in the form which she performs.In the following duet, the same theme is treated evenmore intensely: a ballerina with naked legs wearing pointeshoes enters on stage, accompanied by her partner. Asthey begin the slow pas-de-deux, a black partition lowersfrom above and “frames” them in a way that we see onlytheir legs. The upper part of the ballerina’s body is cut bythis. Only the legs remain. After finishing the perfectly performedseries of steps, pirouettes and extensions, the maledancer lifts the ballerina and she remains suspended in theair with her legs in a graceful parallel position, with pointedfeet. Following that, she falls into the fourth position onthe floor beneath the partition, and we can see her entirelyagain. Her body is slightly bent forward. She stays like that,as if frozen. And there is no relaxedness in this “fall” either,no pause in the form.The third, closing duet is different from the former two.It is in its form a play of the male and female dancer onequal terms in which the floor is used, playing with the manipulationof touch and transfer of weight. Nevertheless,the relation between the partners remains reserved as ifthey are still separated by a filter pulled over the skin.ImpressionThe impression that Reasons 4 leaves on the spectator isone of admiration for the meticulously refined choreography,virtuous performance, excellent non-narrative play ofspace – time – body which still produces a powerful emotionality.On this emotional level, the “taste” that remainsafter we reminisce about the performance is that of greatloneliness and impossibility to realize real contact. Thedramaturgy of incessant running out onto stage and out ofit, abrupt halting of movements and changes of space makesthe dancers seem like passers-by who almost absentlyexist merely to, prompted by unclear motivation to us,explode into movement and go back to their (dis)quiet. Addingto this the already mentioned plastic virtuosity of theperformance, Reasons 4 in the end communicates directingto perfection, which leaves its protagonists in the traumaticsolitude of their own beauty.10 _ Kretanja 13/14

from Croatian stages: In this context, we also read the imprints of the constantdogma of the “court ballet body” which Edward Clug,with his choreographic method, fuses with the urban, compulsivelyultra-designed body in overdrive of the 21 st century.The conclusion of this fusion is at the same time admirableand dreadful.II. SOLO.Sonja Pregrad is a young author and dancer from Zagreb.After finishing the Ana Maletić School of ContemporaryDance, she pursued further studies at the Dance Academyin Rotterdam and New Dance Academy in Arnheim andAmsterdam. She danced in the Katie Duck Magpie DanceCompany troupe, known for their improvisational methods.In Croatia, she participated in the performances by DanceCentre Tala Out of Service, Irma Omerzo Dance-Sessionand Visit, Marina Petković Liker Let the World and To Work,to Work and in her own performances Oh my body, if onlyyou were here with me, SOLO., and Dishevelled. With ZrinkaŠimičić and Iva Hladnik, she is the founder of the improvisationalcollective and festival “Improspection”.From the opening sequence of SOLO., the performerdestroys and dissolves the usual image of the body. Thedancing body, as well as the everyday pedestrian one. Hermovement is formed with postmodern dance techniques,such as release, floor work and improvisational methods,and the performance is (I deliberately remove the notionof choreography here because the author moves betweenimprovisation, performance and dance) led by a dialogueof gravitation and body mass. The sequence of movementconstantly changes plans in terms of equal usage of the floorand transfer of weight from the legs to the hands, withwhich the vertical is annulled the entire time. This is a movementof extreme extensions, on the verge of acrobatics,movement at the same time organically fluid and risky.Playing with spiral movement, this most mystical elementof movement which penetrates to the very essence, is alsofrequent and the dancer achieves this with a winding of thespine, which pulls along the entire body and the very space.AestheticsThe aesthetics of SOLO. is dominated, in opposition toReasons 4, by an unfinished quality of movement and onlyoccasional accentuation. An unfinished quality of movementin the sense that the centre of action is in the torsoand hips, and movements of the extremities are consequencesof this action. As the entire performance is based onthe question “how to be in the body,” and the dialogue “I– my body,” so the accentuation of movement comes fromthis inner dialogue and not from the need to emphasizecertain choreographic moments.The author sets objects on the scene (chairs, a plant,shoes, cutlery) which she uses during the performance, andeach of them is a body – a requisite, an object, but alsoa metaphor of the body itself. As the performance develops,she goes through different themes of relation to herown experience of her body, such as questions of femalepain and sexuality, indifference and exhaustion, subjectnessand objectness by using, apart from movement, costumes,requisites, quotations from pop music, as well as her ownverses.At the end of the performance, completely naked, shereaches for tenderness toward herself only for a moment;nevertheless, soon she unpredictably destroys the createdimage by turning into a grotesque, a demon or Alice’s rabbit,disappearing as if she is abandoning her own performance,her own room into which she let us during the performance.Which body?SOLO. by Sonja Pregrad, understandably, also shows anentirely different body from the one in Reasons 4. Just asClug’s body is designed and plastic, so is Sonja Pregrad’sbody surprising. It is surprising with its atypical non-classicalquality. The dancer brings to stage an authentic combinationof poetic fragility and remarkable physical strength;tall and strong, with curved lines of the body, strong legsand delicate upper part, she enters the stage in everydayclothes, jeans and a T-shirt, frequently with her hair uncombed,and almost no makeup.The body, performance and experience which Pregradaffirms in her work belong to the basic and emblematicform of contemporary dance: a female solo performed bythe author. In such a form the pretext, scenic material andperformance are related to the reliving of the entire creativeprocess. This tradition therefore carries within itself the other,a personal, non-codified body, a body that is not interestedin the passing of a rigorous selection by the ImperialBallet Academy, oriented towards aesthetically satisfying asocial elite, but is rather interested in self-defining; the incessantredefining of the body through the process and performanceof one’s own corporeality.III. WHY?We can establish with certainty that these two performanceswhich, conditionally speaking, are connected bythe anxiety of being in the body (one through playing withthe boundaries of the classical form, the other through theestablishing of its own order), embody, summarize and commenttwo dance groups (or, in theatre jargon – two scenes)out of which they emerged, the institutional and noninstitutionalone.Kretanja 13/14 _ 11

from Croatian stages:The institutional scene, which in Croatia is mainly representedby the Ballets of the Croatian National Theatres,apart from its defined aesthetics, also carefully maintains astructured order of its troupe, as well as its repertoire, audienceand financing. Such troupes, among which the Balletsof the Parisian and London Operas are the most powerfulones, make a kind of corridor for the work and developmentof ambitious and talented choreographers like Edward Clugby fostering classical and contemporary repertoires. Thiscorridor should also include troupes that have abandonedclassical repertoires for the benefit of contemporary ones(one of the most known representatives is NDT), but stillkeep the structure of a classical troupe. The driving forceand market which this corridor establishes has continuouslybeen building and maintaining the values of European mainstreamdance, and it has been doing that from the verybeginnings of the professionalization of dance art.The non-institutional scene is placed outside (orbeyond) this market/corridor and relies on the creation ofits own alternative “networks”. More inclusive and open, itis in constant fluctuation between activism and art. As it isdramatically under-financed and lacking the necessary infrastructure,survival on this scene, the life of a performanceand further development of an authorial career mainlyremain at the initiative and skilfulness of the author himself/herself.In conclusion, we can establish that Reasons 4 andSOLO., as well as the bodies that emerge from within themare in all their complexities representatives of two differentartistic scenes, two social/artistic/political systems which donot overlap and which are most frequently in opposition toeach other. Why then write about them in the same text?Why then compare them at all, repeating the well-knowntheses about ideological and market-related differencesbetween the classical and contemporary dance scene?Reasons 4, perhaps moreThe first reason, I believe, is the fact that in spite ofeverything, these two performances (as well as some otherswhich came into being on both sides of the large gapbetween the institution and off-scene) should be represented,contextualized and fostered as part of the same, if notscene, then at least part of the same artistic contemporarinesswhich they comment with their bodies (and gestureswhich emerge from them), and also actively structure. Furthermore,they should also share the same audience because,let’s be honest, Reasons 4 is a rather demanding performancefor the audience of the Croatian National TheatreBallet, raised on fairytale-like spectacles; and performancessuch as SOLO. deserve a much broader reception than theauthor herself can ensure.I see the second reason being in the total imbalanceof the non-institutional scene and institutional one regardingthe ratio of dancers and authors. The institutionalscene, although rich in terms of repertoire, is completelyindifferent to the question of development of a domesticchoreographic force. The last generation of dancers whomanaged to succeed among ballet dancers turned choreographersare Staša Zurovac and Mark Boldin, now alreadymature choreographers. After them, not one new choreographicinitiative appeared on the scene. And so, the repertoireis being constructed through incessant investmentinto productions by foreign choreographers, without motivatingCroatian potentials. This means that there are dancersand an enormous infrastructure in the institutionalizedsystem of the Croatian scene and almost no Croatianauthors.On the other hand, the non-institutional scene marksten years of expansion of authorial works without an infrastructureand with very few dancers in relation to the numberof dancers who are authors at the same time.And what would be more logical than to somehowopen these two poles one toward the other? What wouldbe more logical than to at least as a small experiment invitea choreographer from the contemporary scene to set aminiature performance/workshop for a few willing dancersfrom one of the Croatian National Theatres? Whether thiswould bring along any success among the subscribers of seasontickets I really do not know, but it is not important either.What is important is the fact that this would certainlyset in motion who knows what kind of new ideas, initiatives,systems and some new, even more contemporary andmore innovative bodies which would create a fusion of thebest from both scenes.Because, and here is the third reason, was it not thechoreographic atelier of Carolyn Carlson, dancer and choreographerof the contemporary procedure, that had themost significant influence on the development of the Frenchcontemporary dance of the 80s precisely in the ParisianOpera, the same one on whose stage Giselle came intobeing?And, was it not the star of the British contemporaryscene Wayne McGregor, installed as the house choreographerof the London Royal Ballet, the one who is, thanks toNinette de Valois, meritorious for elevating Marius Petipaand Jules Perrot into the classics?Therefore, if the Parisian and London scenes took thatdirection already a long time ago, is it also not perhaps timefor us to do so?Since, the fourth reason, both sides would gain. English translation: Lidija Zoldoš12 _ Kretanja 13/14

from Croatian stages: < Marija Šćekić: Human Error. Foto: Sandra Vitaljić >JELENA MIHELČIĆMARIJA ŠĆEKIĆ‘SHUMAN ERRORDance, being an art of the body, is very close tohuman experience. The beginnings of gesture asa means of communication and of dance as an integralpart of human life, reach back to the dawn of civilizationas we know it. Bodily expression and gesture are innateand, in a way, fundamental to humans; they are unique toolsthat have been utilised as a superstructure by subsequentlycreated complex language systems. As a means of communication,movement is, with rare exceptions, unique tothe whole of humankind. When we trace the dance historyof ancient civilizations, we discover everywhere a close relationshipbetween movement and dance on one hand, andreligious and magical rituals on the other; in other words,we discover a close relationship between the corporal andthe religious or spiritual life of humans. 1 However, with thebeginning and development of philosophical thought, anever more pronounced dichotomy between the body (matter)and spirit (soul, mind) came into prominence, and becameone of the fundamental philosophical questions tackledby numerous thinkers and scientists who attempted tocomprehend the incomprehensive – human nature.Can the human body, as a material, [spatially] extendedfact, be understood only as a shell which functions separatelyfrom the personality or so-called spirit, and is spiritreally independent from that mortal, tangible, corporal destiny?Is the human mind, or intellect, equally functionalwithout the senses, emotions and feelings which are explicitlycorporal phenomena? We may, perhaps, attempt toanswer these questions by the very process of returning tothe body, by entering the body. In a way, the solution ofthe stated problem may be seen as a regular task for thosewho practise the bodily language on a daily basis, andtest it by shaping it into an artistic bodily (dance) expression.Also, to every enthusiast of the art of dance, the repeatedreturn to dance theatre represents perhaps an unconsciousquestioning of a certain strong and deep relationshipbetween the corporal and the spiritual, or a connectionbetween the body, emotions and mind. Entering a dancetheatre (or club) is for the modern human the closest s/hemay come to the religious and spiritual experiences practisedthrough dance by the ancient civilizations. 21 Maletić, Ana, Povijest plesa starih civilizacija I. i II., Maticahrvatska, Zagreb, 2002.2 Thomas, Helen, “Dancing the Night Away: Rave/Club Culture”,in Thomas, Helen, The Body, Dance and Cultural Theory.Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, p. 178.Kretanja 13/14 _ 13

from Croatian stages:Contemporary neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, whosescientific work is based on the crucial role of the bodyin cognitive processes, used an interesting metaphor in thebeginning of one of his books:I have always been intrigued by the specific momentwhen, as we sit waiting in the audience, the door to thestage opens and a performer steps into the light; or, to takethe other perspective, the moment when a performer whowaits in semidarkness sees the same door open, revealingthe lights, the stage, and the audience. (…) the moving qualityof this moment … comes from its embodiment of aninstance of birth, of passage through a threshold that separatesa protected but limiting shelter from the possibilityand risk of a world beyond and ahead. (…) I sense that steppinginto the light is also a powerful metaphor for consciousness,for the birth of the knowing mind… 3Thus he unwittingly drew a parallel between performingart (dance) and philosophy, or, more specifically, cognitivetheory.Damasio’s work, as well as the stated philosophical,Cartesian questions, was the source of inspiration for Croatianchoreographer Marija Šćekić in the performance HumanError which premiered in Zagreb in May 2009 at theTrešnjevka Cultural Centre. It is significant to note how thebody-based, and therefore, considering the achievementsof modern humanity, somewhat primitive manner of expressionand understanding – dance, managed to successfullyexplain the important and lasting philosophical polemics inthis performance.The philosophical theory of Descartes is considered asthe central reference on human dualism, which postulatesthe division between the physical and the reflective. This isbecause Descartes is considered the father of modern philosophicalthought (cogito ergo sum), although similar ideasabout the separation of the soul from the body were alreadyintroduced by Plato and have developed mostly thanksto Christian philosophy. 4 The Cartesian system representstwo parallel and independent worlds, the world of the mindand the world of things, each of which can be examinedwith no reference to the other, despite the fact that theyare in a state of mutual interrelationship. According to hisconception of matter, Descartes favours the rational pathto cognition to anything arriving from senses or feelings.Although his theory of supremacy of the rational over theemotional has been frequently rejected because of its cla-rity and persuasiveness, Descartes has remained one of thecentral references of modern philosophy.Contemporary scientists and philosophers keep comingback to the body in an attempt to prove its direct connectionto the process of cognition, to knowledge and intellect.Maurice Merleau-Ponty states that the body is able toperceive the world by itself and operate thus as an independentbearer of cognitive processes 5 . Max Scheler condemnsDescartes and “blames” him for many serious misconceptionsabout human nature. He claims that the sphereof spiritual experiences [experiences of the mind; transl.note] refers to the whole body and not only to the brain,and maintains that today it has become impossible to talkabout some external (divine) linkage of the mental and bodilysubstances. According to Scheler, the spiritual alwaysconsists of physiological and psychological aspects, and thepsycho-physical life is one and unified 6 . On the other hand,Damasio, when describing neurological processes, tries toprove that the “apparatus of rationality” has evolved as anextension of the automatic emotional system, with emotionsplaying various roles in the process of reasoning. Theneural spots in the body responsible for rational thinkingare the same ones responsible for emotions and feelings,as well as for body functions and survival of the organism.Thus, Damasio puts the body (emotions) into a direct relationshipwith a chain of operations which ensure the “highestreaches of reasoning, decision making, and, by extension,social behaviour and creativity” 7 .In this context, it is now possible to move to the performanceitself in order to describe the ways in which MarijaŠćekić, having used the virtuosic dancing body as a meansfor philosophical investigation, has approached this problem.What is human error?In the performance Human Error Marija Šćekić placesher own dancing body on stage connected via wireless sensorsto visual and aural computing systems which, by interpretingher neural activities at the time of physical motion,generate a visual and aural scenery; a virtual entity whichprovides the audience with insight into the body, into itsinner self. The spectator witnesses the physical appearanceof the dancer and, at the same time, the computer’s audiovisualinterpretation of the ‘inner choreography’, invisible tothe naked eye. Following Damasio’s theory, the dancer hasthe opportunity, in this symbolic way, to get to know herselfthrough the film (audio-visual construct of her interior)3 Damasio, Antonio, The Feeling of What Happens; Body andEmotion in the Making of Consciousness. Harcourt Brace, 1999, p. 5.4 Russell, Bertrand, History of Western Philosophy, Routledge,2005. p. 511, p. 519.5 Merleau-Ponty, Marcel, Phenomenology of Perception, Routledge& Kegan Paul, 2005.6 Scheler, Max, The Human Place in the Cosmos, NorthwesternUniversity Press, 2009.7 Damasio, Antonio, Descartes’ Error, Penguin Books, 1994, p. XVII14 _ Kretanja 13/14

from Croatian stages: Kretanja 13/14 _ 15

from Croatian stages:while the spectator witnesses and doubles that understanding.How?Damasio divides the process of cognition via the bodyinto five steps, by which he attempts to scientifically provethe path from emotion to the creation of a conscious feeling[of that emotion]. In short, this is about a process whichcomprises a relationship between an organism’s awarenessof itself as a stable system which keeps us alive, and theawareness of changes continuously entering that system viathe organism’s encounters with its surroundings.The starting point is that the organism, affected in theencounter with its surroundings in such a way that emotionsare induced, creates mental patterns. Damasio refers tothese patterns, for lack of a better term, as “images of anobject” which convey different aspects of the physical characteristicsof the object. He says:...this first problem of consciousness is the problem ofhow we get a “movie-in-the-brain”, provided we realizethat in this rough metaphor the movie has as many sensorytracks as our nervous system has sensory portals – sight,sound, taste, and olfaction, touch, inner senses, and so on.(...) solving this first problem consists in discovering howthe brain makes neural patterns in its nerve-cell circuitsand manages to turn those neural patterns into the explicitmental patterns which constitute the highest level of biologicalphenomenon, which I like to call images. 8Besides the images, there is another presence [in themind] which signifies an individual as an observer, as a potentialactor in relation to this, as an individual in a particularrelationship with some object. The human mind isnot only able to create mental patterns of objects (images)but also mental patterns conveying the sense of self in theact of knowing. That sense of self in the act of knowing is,according to Damasio, crucial for the problem of consciousnessand he describes it referring repeatedly to the filmmetaphor:...the neurobiology of consciousness faces two problems:the problem of how the movie-in-the-brain is generated,and the problem of how the brain also generatesthe sense that there is an owner and observer for thatmovie. 9Consciousness, according to Damasio, generates anawareness of images in our mind, and puts these imagesinto the organism’s perspective since it brings them into arelationship with the integrated representation of the organism.8 Damasio, Antonio, The Feeling of What Happens; Body andEmotion in the Making of Consciousness. Harcourt Brace, 1999,p. 11.9 Ibidem, p. 13.If we now return to the performance, we may say thatŠćekić has, symbolically speaking, brought herself and heraudience face to face with her images, that she has createdaccess into the process of generating knowledge abouther own self. Her choreography, which represents pure andclear movement within the familiar space-dynamic framesof R. Laban, affects her organism which, in turn, via neurologicalsignals, affects the computer systems and theirproducts which we eventually see and hear. However, bybeing in her own film created according to Damasio’s stepsfrom emotion to consciousness, Šćekić neither confirms norrefutes his ideas. Human Error is not a scientific experimentdespite appearing so from the descriptions so far; it is aperformance dealing with emotions, and – more than anythingelse, with spirituality.The very first image we see, the strong, convulsive twitchingof arms emerging from the core of the dancer’s body,with the loud accompanying utterance of the word khul(hebr. to twist), suggests an inner struggle, suffering andpowerlessness. The central motif of the performance is alsoa long turning on the spot which evokes thoughts of infinity,dervishes, the Slavonic kolo, a circle or the ecstasy of religiousdances. Finally, the very beginning and ending of theperformance are framed with the biblical In the beginningwas the Word...and the Word became flesh, through whichŠćekić introduces a third element into the equation, onethat has been left out of that permanent confrontation ofmind and body and that is the element of the spirit, or soul,which Damasio had completely overlooked in his investigationand through which the [originally] scientific and philosophicaldiscussion also becomes theological. 10Human knowledge about its own nature is in a stateof development, continually negating and augmenting itself.If Descartes had radically changed the science of histime by saying I think, therefore I am, and claiming everythingphysical and emotional to be divorced from the rational,and if a few centuries later Damasio named his investigationDescartes’ error, claiming reason to be nothingmore than an evolved emotion, then Šćekić asks: what isknowledge; what makes it true and correct; what is the realtruth of our knowledge? And here it is – human error: therelativity of human knowledge, the human tendency tomake mistakes and learn from them, and the constant strivingfor truth and perfection.Plato’s idea of the soul has introduced a possible understandingof the above questions (along with discussionsabout the soul’s separateness from the body also attributedto Plato but later articulated more clearly with Des-10 In his latest book Looking for Spinoza (2004) Damasio doestackle the problem of spirituality [transl. note].16 _ Kretanja 13/14

from Croatian stages: Kretanja 13/14 _ 17

from Croatian stages:cartes). Plato claims that every soul’s destiny is to strivefor God – the one who knows the real truth. Souls whichlose the vision of that truth lag behind on their path andreturn to the beginning, to the earthly path, while thosethat come near it, can in their next life rise above earthlylife 11 . Human nature has no knowledge, but the divine naturehas – so claimed Heraclitus but also many other Greekphilosophers. Xenophanes thus says: Men have seen little,and therefore know little…human knowledge is in itsvery essence deceptive. Humans come to knowledge throughtheir own efforts and even though on this path theycan never achieve complete enlightenment, it is in theirnature to strive for the better. Xenophanes claims: humanknowledge is imperfect, but the wisdom of the godsis faultless. Occasionally, man may say something that iscompletely true, and yet he has no exact knowledge, incontrast to the god. He concludes that the god, unlike themortals, is not in body and mind, making it clear that heconceives his god as incorporeal. Hecateus differs fromhis contemporaries in his idea of truth; he sees humanknowledge as independent of that of the gods’; for him,people set out to discover what is true on their own. LikeXenofanus, he holds that human life is a path of constantsearch and inquiry. In contrast to his forerunners, Heraclitusdoes not see human knowledge only as an accumulationof experiences linked to the external, he says: I searchedinto myself. He places humans somewhere betweenthe deity and the beast. The beasts, with their sensual impressions,enter only the visible, while the god’s knowledgealso comprehends the invisible. Yet humans are able tocombine the perceptions of their senses and feelings andthus speculate about the invisible. Empedoclus finally concludesby saying what Descartes would write centuries later.Starting with the assumption that human perceptionof the senses remains incomplete, based on the sense organswhich are narrowly limited and blunt the thoughts,he says: during his life a man sees but little, he dies quickly,and is certain of only a few things which he happensto have encountered along the way 12 .As a choreographer, Šćekić, of course, believes in thebody, believes in its knowledge. She communicates withbody and dance, she conveys emotions and thoughts. Herbody is literally a medium. The fragment from the Gospelof John: In the beginning was the Word (and the Word waswith God, and the Word was God) (...) and the Word becameflesh, shows a distrust of thought and trust in the body.Šćekić writes this text in Hebrew, where the sign for word11 Plato, Phaedrus, Oxford University Press, 2002.12 Snell, Bruno, The Discovery of the Mind in Greek Philosophyand Literature, Dover Publications, Inc. 1982, pp. 136-152.(dabar) at the same time means word, news, promise, revelation,case, indictment, legal action, event and a thing.An Israeli understands the concept of word not only as ameans for transference of thoughts but something more,something dynamic and creative. A word was considered tobe a creative force which brings the world into existence(creates it) 13 .The word (language) is a later product of civilisation andis generally considered the most important and most magnificentachievement of the human mind, yet knowledgemust have existed before language and resided in the body.Contemporary sociology, especially anarcho-primitivist theoristJohn Zerzan, criticises language and the concept ofprehistoric man with no language and alphabet as beingpoor and brutal. He even goes so far as to claim that bothlanguage and ideology, which is the product of language,are systems of distorted communications between two polesand predicated upon symbolization. In modern languages,the word “mind” serves to describe something thatexists independently in our body, in contrast to the Sanskritword for mind, which means “working within”, presumingan active embrace of sensation, perception and cognition.Zerzan points to language’s reification of the mind’s experiencesand, referencing the works of Freud and Lacan, claimsthat it was devised in order to suppress feelings, representinghumanity’s mastery over the world. Quoting thelinguist Muller, Zerzan writes about the sickness of language,its distortion of thoughts and inability to describe thingsdirectly.There is a profound truth to the notion that “loversneed no words” (...) we must have a world of lovers, aworld of the face-to-face, in which even names can be forgotten,a world which knows that enchantment is the oppositeof ignorance. 14The constant spinning of the dancer and her convulsivetwitching from the beginning and the end of the performancerepresent an awareness of the error, of self-fallibility,of the constant process of searching and the sense ofpowerlessness of absolute knowledge which is in fact impossible,of knowledge that is wholly questionable and subjectto continuous refutation, of the human error of separatingthe body, mind and spirit. English translation: Andreja Jeličić13 Rebić, Aldabert, “Značajke hebrejskog jezika u odnosu naspoznaju i interpretaciju”, in Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 73, No 4,February 2004.14 Zerzan, John, Language: Origin and Meaning, /www.primitivism.com/language.htm.(Fifth Estate, winter 1984).18 _ Kretanja 13/14

dance visual art:dance visual art: MAJA MARJANČIĆMOVING IS THE LIGHTKretanja 13/14 _ 19

dance visual art:< Indijski ples gertrud Leistikow, 1917. >< Vježbe škole Leistikow, 1916. >26 _ Kretanja 13/14

dance visual art: ˝MAJA ĐURINOVIĆThe Exhibition and AfterwardsAvant-Garde Tendencies in Croatia,Klovićevi dvori Gallery, 2007The exhibition Avant-Garde Tendencies in Croatia,conceptually designed by Zvonko Maković andopened in the spring of 2007 at the Klovićevi dvoriGallery, included dance for the first time. Maković wantedto cover all forms of artistic expression that had developedsimultaneously and often interacted with each other thusopening new ground for creation. It was also his wish to“reconstruct the spiritual and cultural atmosphere in whichthe Croatian avant-garde and neo-avant-garde practicewould develop and include all broader European directionsof the avant-garde movement”. I was invited to theexhibition as the author of the section devoted to dance,together with Branimir Donat (literature), Nikša Gligo andEva Sedak (music), Ljiljana Kolešnik (art critic), Ana Lederer(theatre), Zvonko Maković (fine art), Darija Radović-Mahečić(architecture), Marija Tonković (photography), HrvojeTurković (film) and Feđa Vukić (design). Even though manyinteresting and inspirational facts came to light during ourcooperation, joint meetings and individual presentations,even more questions and issues were raised about the balanceof criteria and international context, as well as thesegregation of individual works affiliated to a certain area.This left no time or space for concrete possible interactionsof us presenters and exhibitors; we tried to keep to ourown areas at the previously arranged level. It was only afterthe exhibition had opened did I discover possible newareas of cooperation.(For example, Josip Vaništa designed a unique poster forthe Concert in the Museum of Arts and Crafts danced byKASP – Komorni ansambl suvremenog plesa/Chamber Ensembleof Free Dance in 1964, an ensemble that danced tothe music of Detoni or Radica, performed at Theatre &TD,where Mihajlo Arsovski was active as a designer, etc. Thesenames were present in the exhibition only within theirown areas, but we were not able to “integrate them into anetwork of different areas”, which would now be possible.)Avant-garde movements were born in the twentiethcentury: it was a world of technology and machines, speedand power that is both impressive and intimidating at thesame time; a world of change, motions and actions, a worldof movement. In the dance world, this is reflected in theresistance (and by that I mean both the resistance of spiritand body) towards the system, institution, theatre andgenre conventions. On one hand, there is trust in the innerimpulse, improvisation and personal expression and on theother, the purity of the abstract, geometrical, automatedrhythm of the marionette-body. A new dance, one thatrequires a truly new man, and not a trained rhythms teachercloned for state parades and ceremonies which muchcreative dance and rhythm education has turned into, butone that focuses on the body as a starting point and basicartistic instrument, one that does not recognize nor acceptits historic position of an inferior, trivial and decorativeexpression.Ever since the efforts of Isadora Duncan through danceperformances, lectures and discussions before the Europeanartist and intellectual elite, dance has for over a centurybeen viewed as an autonomous serious art, without decoror libretto; thanks to dance, there is a new era of art – andmotion and movement are one of the main characteristicsof avant-garde art. I have always tried to emphasize thatdance is a form of basic choreographic expression createdKretanja 13/14 _ 27

dance visual art:by an author 1 . Of course, the problem is that dance is anunstable, fluid structure whose conventions of genre arebecoming more and more permeable. What remains in theform of documentation are sketches of scenographies, costumes,themes, the music, and that which is important –the choreography and the movements created in the concept,structure, quality and performance of the performingbodies – remains alive only through oral or written transmissionsof what had been seen and remembered. Again,compromise is necessary: without the visual documentation,a drawing, sketch, photo or painting, it is impossibleto even start to imagine the style, character, interpretation,and the history of dance in general.It is significant that both female and male dancers duringthe 20 th century, as conscious artists, especially thosewith connections to the avant-garde tendencies and whosestyle is shaped by attitude 2 , started not only to think outloud, but also to write about the specific concepts of theirpersonal notions of dance. Isadora’s shift (in the sense ofsdvig of the Russian avant-garde twenty years later) openedsome dark depths of subconscious rhythms and the zaumnilanguage, as well as some new horizons to explorethe theatre body beyond imagination; it caused a fire andcleared the area; after her, anything was possible. Soon after,the versatile and broadly educated Rudolf Laban wouldlay down the firm foundations to a scientific and analyticapproach to dance when it comes to choreology, phenomenology,history, sociology, ethnology and anthropology,modern dance education and dance writings 3 . Absolutedance does not require any kind of external accompanimentor decoration according to Laban. The body inscribesitself dynamically into the space, shapes it and communica-1 Loïe Fuller, to whom many ascribe greater meaning, has anotherway of discovering the scene, closer to the notions of fine art:the magic of effects, illusionism, a view from the outside. Duncan‘smodernism starts on the inside; one can dance with their eyesclosed, and the mirror, without which ballet is unthinkable, becomesredundant.2 The question of artistic attitude as an important definingcharacteristic of the avant-garde was raised by Želimir Košćević ata roundtable discussion connected to the exhibition Avant-gardeTendencies in Croatia.3 Laban studied architecture, fine art, acting and dance; he wasfriend with the Futurists and Dadaists in Switzerland, he openedSchool for Art that was active during the summers in Ascona andwhich investigated dance theatre in the open; he analyzed newpathways of dance, dance drama and comedy, as well as groupdance; he opened schools across Europe and published a series offundamental works in the theory of dance.tes with it, 4 while consciously discovering combinations ofquality movements. 5Avant-garde artists are intrigued by and playful inusing other media and are often the performers themselves.Marinetti gives instructions for movement in his Manifestoof the Futurist Dance, but nobody perceives him asa dance theorist because of that; Schlemmer creates choreographiesby trapping the body to serve the costume. 6He does not inscribe the body into space, but describesthe space with living figures, and Picasso designs the decorand costumes for Cocteau’s ballet Parade 7 , where choreographerLéonide Massine is undoubtedly the last link in thechain of authors.The Russian Ballets and Diaghilev attracted the Europeanavant-garde and an audience that adores spectacleand connections with famous names 8 , but if we discuss thedance avant-garde of the Russian Ballets, we must mentionNijinski’s The Afternoon of a Faun, not because of Bakst’scostumes and scenography, but because of the strange andstatic movements, tense moments and erotic scenes thatshocked the theatre audience.Zagreb did not have a strong ballet tradition to be challengedby the younger generation in order to build a newone. The domestic professional scene is specific for its paralleldevelopment of classical ballet (which is actually thenew Russian ballet and the European mainstream) and modernnew dance brought by Croatian female dancers aftertheir return from renowned European schools, especiallyVienna as a centre of modernism which was among thefirst in quality and number, searching for its personal styleand expression. Namely, Margarita Froman came to Zagrebwith her company in 1921 and started working on formingthe national ballet ensemble and introducing famous balletsto audiences. Soon after in 1922 Mirjana Janeček performedsolo dance concerts similar to Duncan’s, but withemphasized dramatic expression. The artists present at theexhibition in addition to Janeček included Vera MilčinovićTashamira, Mercedes Goritz-Pavelić and Mia Čorak Slaven-4 Choreutics is a theory of spatial harmony.5 Eukinetics comprises the total expressivity of movement basedon factors of space, time, strength and flow.6 In the Triadic Ballet of Oskar Schlemmer, “it is not the dancerwho wears the costume, but the costume wears the dancer”, A.Flaker, Avangardni teatar Sergija Glumca, Ex libris, Zagreb 2003.7 To the music of Satie and choreography of Massine, by whichDiaghilev started the cooperation of Russian Ballets with the Europeanavant-garde in 1917.8 George Balanchine claimed that nobody in Europe likes dance.“They like spectacle, decorum, costumes, connection with the greatPicasso and Derain, great... People forget dance.” See interview withL. Botta in Ples kao kazališna umjetnost S. J. Cohen, pp. 218-221.28 _ Kretanja 13/14

dance visual art: ska. They are not the only ones who were active in Croatiaduring those golden 1930s, but they were the ones whomade the “first steps” and shifts in the specific segmentsof the modern Croatian dance scene and were undoubtedlythe carriers of avant-garde tendencies.But if we broaden our perspective to the complete domesticcultural scene to a time before the first Croatianfemale dancers, we will find dance as a topic of writing inthe text by Antun Gustav Matoš (1873–1914), Croatianpoet, about Isadora’s Parisian concert in 1903 9 , and in thedrawings by Anka Krizmanić (1896–1987), Croatian painter,whose constant theme and inspiration were female dancersever since her education in Dresden (1913–1917). Josip Kovačić,who inherited and takes care of the Krizmanić heritage,mentions some 800 drawings, graphics and paintings offemale dancers in different techniques in black ink and watercolour.Anka Krizmanić sees life as movement and viceversa: movement as life. It is well-known that she finishedsome works of art later by memory and with the help ofher sense of lines of the expressive body in action. While inDresden, she followed and drew the dancer Gertrud Leistikow,and later Grete Wiesenthal, Isadora’s student and oneof the first women of Viennese dance expressionism. Therewas also the famous couple Saharov, and Clotilde von Derpherself. At that time, Anka Krizmanić also created her collectionof wood carvings entitled Dance.It is obvious that the 1920s prepared the scene for newgenerations to come and rethink dance in a modern way.This is why Rudolf Laban had great success and stayed inZagreb in the spring of 1924 as part of his European tour.His ensemble Tanzbühne had members such as Vera Milčinović,the daughter of Croatian writers Andrija and AdelaMilčinović. Laban held a lecture on new dance at the exhibitionof the Spring Salon at the Art Pavilion, and his text“New dance art” was published in Scena 10 . The entire stayin Zagreb was so successful that the ensemble, stayed awhole six weeks instead of six days working on a new programme.Zagreb was the place of a very lively discussionbetween two sides: the labans and the antilabans. In additionto media coverage and interesting reviews, the stayof Laban’s Dance Theatre was covered by Sergije Glumac’sDance Studies. Sketched with quick strokes of pastels andusing minimal colouration on small formats of paper, thestudies of dancers point towards the conclusion that theseworks were created while looking at the dancers. This ishow the works were described in the book The Avant-GardeTheatre of Sergije Glumac by Darko Šimičić. By comparingnotes on the sketches with the titles of Laban’s programme,we can conclude without a doubt that it is the same event.9 Pečalbe, 1913.10 Scena, 21 May 1924, Zagreb.Ivan Berislav Vodopja, who helped Šimičić with insightinto some works by Sergije Glumac, 11 brought my attentionto three certain poster sketches. All three were connectedto the Jelisava Törne dance school and the first one read:School of rhythm gymnastics and choreographic movement,the second: School of rhythm gymnastics / Laban’sscience of movement, while the third only said: School ofrhythm gymnastics. The first one I saw on the webpage ofthe Vodopija antique store resembled the style of the DanceStudies of Laban’s dancers that Šimičić wrote about. It isa sketch of a female dancer done in quick strokes of yellowpastel colours on grey paper. The other two are kept in TheMuseum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb and show two figuresclose to Glumac’s scenography projects of watercolour onpaper, whose focus is in the futuristic cubist reduction ofhuman form to geometric shapes in a virtual scenic space. 1211 Sergije Glumac (1909–1964), a graphic artist and scenographer,was educated in Berlin (architecture), Paris (Academierue d‘Odessa André Lhotea) and Zagreb. Šimičić noted that theinfluences of the international theatre avant-garde scene onGlumac’s work are more than obvious. He exhibited in New York inthe 1920s (International Theatre Exposition), Paris and Barcelona –which passed unnoticed in Zagreb. The British Museum bought hiscollection Le Métro in 1930. In Zagreb he worked as an assistantscenographer in the Croatian National Theatre. For the play JuliusCeasar he first introduced the rotating scene. After the 1950s hewas renowned for his poster designs.12 A. Flaker, Avangardni teatar Sergija Glumca, Ex libris, Zagreb,2003.Kretanja 13/14 _ 29

dance visual art:It was Törne who first mentioned Mercedes Goritz-Pavelićto me, who was her student in modern expressive danceclasses on Preradović Square in Zagreb in 1924 or 1925.Whether the school later moved (or was located previously)in Dalmatinska 5 in Zagreb, as is shown on one of the posters,as well as the actual time of Törne’s arrival to and departurefrom Zagreb, remains yet to be discovered. In severalissues of the magazine World in 1926 and 1927, I foundreviews of dance exercises and shows directed by “famousdance and rhythm movement teacher” Jelisava Törne, whoalso created the choreography. This shows that the time ofthe design of the poster is obviously the time of Laban’s stayin Zagreb, which leads to the conclusion that the first danceLaban, Rudolf, Život za ples, Zagreb: Naklada MD / Gesta /Hrvatski sabor kulture, 1993.Mercedes Goritz-Pavelić, Zagreb: Naklada MD / Gesta /Čvorak, 2000.Pojmovnik ruske avangarde, ed. by A. Flaker and D. Ugrešić,GZH and Zavod za znanost o književnosti FF u Zagrebu,1984 (vol. 1 and 2) and 1985 (vol. 3 and 4).Vizualnost, zagrebački pojmovnik kulture 20. stoljeća, ed.by A. Flaker and J. Užarević, FF, Zagreb, 2003.The Dance Encyclopedia, New York: Simon and Schuster,1967.Ana Maletić, Biografija, a manuscript.Mirjana Janeček, materials handed in to Maja Đurinović.Vera Milčinović Tashamira, materials kept in HAZU – Departmentof history of Croatian literature, theatre and music/Departmentfor the history of theatre.Scena, revija za sve pojave scenskog života, Zagreb, 21 May1924.Kretanja, časopis za plesnu umjetnost, Nr. 2, Hrvatski centarITI UNESCO, Zagreb, 2004.Kretanja, časopis za plesnu umjetnost, Nr. 5, Hrvatski centarITI UNESCO, Zagreb, 2006.Cantus, glasilo Hrvatskog društva skladatelja, Nr. 120, Zagreb,April 2003.Tvrđa, časopis za teoriju, kulturu i vizualne umjetnosti, Nr.1/2, Hrvatsko društvo pisaca, Zagreb, 2006.In principio era il corpo… exhibition catalogue L’Arte delMovimento a Mosca negli anni ’20, Electa, Milano 1999.La Danza delle Avanguardie, exhibition catalogue Dipinti,scene e costumi, de Degas a Picasso, da Matisse a KeithHaring, Skira, Ginevra-Milano, 2005.schools in Zagreb dated as far into the past as the 1920s. English translation: Sonja NovakLITERATURE:Avangardni teatar Sergija Glumca, Ex libris, Zagreb, 2003.Duncan, Isadora, Moje uspomene, Publisher Ante Velzek,Zagreb, 1944.Cohen, Selma Jeanne, Ples kao kazališna umjetnost, Zagreb:Cekade, 1988.Đurinović, Maja and Zvonimir Podkovac, Mia Čorak Slavenska,Zagreb: Naklada MD / Ogranak MH SlavonskiBrod, 2004.Edward, Lucie-Smith, Umjetnost danas, Zagreb: Mladost,1978.Goldberg, RoseLee, Perfomance Art, Thames and Hudson,1988, reprinted edition, Mladinska knjiga, Slovenija, 1993.Hrvatsko narodno kazalište u Zagrebu 1840 / 1860 / 1992,Zagreb: Croatian national theatre in Zagreb and ŠK, 1992.30 _ Kretanja 13/14

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Milko Sparamblek:34 _ Kretanja 13/14

Milko Sparemblek: Introductory Notes:The editorial board of the journal Kretanja (Movements) initiated and organiseda symposium on the work of Milko Šparemblek on the occasion of theartist’s 80 th birthday. The conference was held at the Croatian National Theatrein Zagreb on 1 December 2008, the same theatre in which Šparemblek, at theinvitation of Ana Roje and Oskar Harmoš, began his dancing career in 1947. Thisfirst such symposium gathered admirers of Šparemblek’s work, his associates andfriends – not to utter praises and recount a truly impressive biography, but withthe wish and need to interpret and reinterpret his works. From the point of viewof different sets of instruments related to the source of analysis and generationsof authors, the symposium brought together a variety of approaches and insightsthat, which was evident immediately, barely scratched the surface of this impressivecorpus.Šparemblek staged his first choreographies Quatuor (1957), Les Amants deTeruel (1959), Héros et miroirs (1960) in Paris, in the companies of Milorad Mišković(Ballet des Etoiles de Paris) and Ludmilla Tcherina, and his latest ones, Songsof Love and Death (2007) and The Miraculous Mandarin (2008), world-widehits, were recently restaged in Croatian theatres. This is the framework of fiftyyears of intensive authorial work during which Šparemblek staged more than ahundred performances and made some forty TV films and programmes; he wasthe ballet master in Maurice Béjart’s Ballet de XX e siècle in Brussels, director ofthe Ballet of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Gulbenkian Ballet in Lisbon,the Ballet in Lyon, and finally, briefly the Ballet of the Croatian NationalTheatre in Zagreb.The presentations from the symposium on the work of Milko Šparemblekwere collected and printed in a special issue of Kretanja 11 (2009). Here we presenta selection of the texts that we believe will stimulate foreign theoreticiansand historians of dance to research the work of this important and Croatian andinternational dance artist who is still active today.Maja ĐurinovićKretanja 13/14 _ 35

Milko Sparemblek:36 _ Kretanja 13/14

Milko Sparemblek: < FOTO: Saša Novković >VJERAN ZUPPALUDIO DOCTUSon Milko Šparemblek, something completelyoutside the professionIn modern European poetry some, albeit very rare, poetshave been called ‘learned’. For instance, Ezra Poundor T. S. Eliot were awarded that special attribute: PoetaDoctus, meaning: learned poet.In Croatian poetry however, those who are altogetherdifferent have always been particularly valued; poets whodistinguished themselves primarily by ‘natural talent’ andcertain ‘poetic skills’. But not by any particular intellect orundertakings in such areas of knowledge where mere associationwith them, it was considered (and still is), mighthave any impact on what was called “the autonomy of thepoetic word”. In more recent times, for instance, Vlado Gotovacwas frequently evaluated in literary criticism as a poetadoctus, a ‘learned poet’, which is exactly why he is largelyunderestimated in our literary-historical appraisal.Just ten years ago, in a conversation with Milko Šparemblek(Nemo propheta, interview with A. Juniku and G.S. Pristaš, Frakcija No 8/1998) I read his, rather offhand,remark that he has “for four years now been proscribedfrom the Croatian National Theatre (CNT) in Zagreb” andthat he is “in general, a persona non grata” there.An entire decade has passed since, and the situationwith Šparemblek, including that with the CNT, has notalways remained the same. However, Šparemblek was andhas acted always in the same way: exceptionally learnedwhile creatively focused on the world of dance, and witheach of his works he has problematically entered the demandingcontemporary stage, penetrating at the same timethe exceptionally complex world of the body.The world of the body came to be neglected or dismissedas a problem by classical philosophical ethics and especiallychurch moralism, and was completely abandonedby mysticism. In fact, only in the field of aesthetics has thebody – because of its capacity for transfiguration – beenlastingly thematized.Only at the beginning of the last century, if we may bypassNietzsche, and thanks to the works of Husserl, Merleau-Ponty,G. Marcel and some, very rare others (e.g. G.Deleuze), has the body been entirely seriously and theoreticallycentralised. And this primarily due to the fruitful formulation:Je suis mon corps (M. Merleau-Ponty), where thethus described ‘I’ equally implies both the distance and thelack of distance from the body.Everything started though with the lesser known observationby Husserl that the cognitive, Cartesian: I think, isinseparably linked with the motoric of the body itself, andthat it should therefore state: I can.I would hold that literally all of Šparemblek’s dance performances,at least in the last two decades, have been formulatedwith a deep sense for that subjective problem ofKretanja 13/14 _ 37

Milko Sparemblek:the body. For the problem of the originary attachment of ‘Ithink’ alongside ‘I can’.A careful viewing of Šparemblek’s most recent and, atthe same time, most complex performances – JohannesFaust Passion (2001) and The Songs of Love and Death(2007) – confirms this entirely. Here, that very importantthird role within Jean Wahl’s metaphysical, threefold distributionof the ‘roles of the body’, is fully confirmed.It is the role where the body “ensures a metamorphosisof ideas into things” (J. Wahl).Only when that role of the body – the role of ensuringa transformation of ideas into things – is taken into consideration,will Šparemblek’s remark from the already mentionedconversation take on its exceptionally serious, critical,and not some completely casual, polemical character.“Zagreb tradition, for instance, still has balletomaneswho clap frenetically when a lady turns three times on onetoe, which, of course, is absurd as this in no way comprisesthe art of ballet but is simply a skill.”Since I do not belong among the experts in the fieldof dance art, I must particularly emphasize some ofŠparemblek’s opinions or point to those performative momentsthat the rationality of my claim depends on that MilkoŠparemblek is completely different from all our otherdance artists. That is because he is our first, and for nowonly, ludio doctus. A learned player.The concepts ludio or ludius have since Roman timessignified a player, actor or dancer who “practices acting,dancing and pantomimic dancing as a craft” (M. Divković,1899).And I have correlated this ludio, this ludius, this playerand artisan dancer with doctus, learned, because onlywhen these terms are combined can a complete descriptionof Šparemblek’s creative and working persona be given.The screen of such a person is drawn from all directions:of course, also from the fact that he used to be a student ofcomparative literature which ‘excites him to this very day;from having been a volunteer in the ballet of Oskar Harmoš1 ; a Zagreb dance volunteer, and also a member of theMetropolitan Opera in New York for several years; from havingbeen a dancer who “goes from one company to another”but also a ballet director and author of numerous choreographies.However, the character of ludio doctus is particularlydrawn from Šparemblek’s major ballets, which are above all,I would say, his “dramatised reflections” (P. Sloterdijk). This1 Oskar Harmoš (1911–92), a Croatian ballet dancer, teacherand choreographer; director of the Ballet of the Croatian NationalTheatre (1941–53) [transl. note].is also reflected in the TV film about Ujević 2 (1981), as wellas from the previously mentioned interview in which he historicallyreliable, and theoretically relevant, says:“Classical technique is a great enigma. The question ishow it came to be at all. This idealization of the body, up toits utmost possibilities, makes an excellent foundation. It isa European invention, and Europe is something very large,it has 5000 years of history. People forget something else:Aeschylus is an excellent choreographer. Sophocles was awell-known dancer, an excellent interpreter of female roles.None of these people spat on it [dance, transl. note] but ratherengaged in it. Today the [theatre] director looks uponthe choreographer and the dancer as inferiors. Yet, I repeat,when the first performance in the history of the world happened,we were there.”So when I say that Milko Šparemblek is for now theonly ludio doctus, that he is the only “learned player” onthe stage of our dance theatre, then I would gladly add thatall that is basic and all that is opulent in Šparemblek stemsprecisely from a certain presence of his at that time “whenthe first performance in the history of the world happened”.Hence, it stems from his prehistoric impression of Theatre;from his Aeschylus, the choreographer; and his Sophocles,the dancer.If, however, we leave this story to one side, we still haveat our disposal at least the concepts of the “basic” and the“opulent” in the aesthetic of Milko Šparemblek.The basic which I have in mind here is Šparemblek’sspecial attitude towards the dance “skill”, then towards theballetic “idealization of the body, to the end”, and finally,towards the “theatre of dance”.From the “skill” emerges the body as craftwork. Fromthe classical “idealization of the body, to the end”, constantlyanew, an ideal body is being announced. AndŠparemblek’s “theatre of dance” counts only on the corpusof the work. Not on the story, or the narrative, but on thesemiotic doublet of the concept “body”: on the “texture”;on the fabric of the work itself.Thus the economy of the dance performance is alwaysformed from the relations of dependence between thethree bodies: the dependence of the craftwork and idealbody, and the corpus of the body. All stage metamorphosesof ideas into things depend on this too.The opulence I have in mind here is primarily inŠparemblek’s complex and continuous work on the “choreoact”.I adopt this term from the “credits” of Šparemblek’sTV film produced under the title A Gesture for Tin (1981),and which Milko Šparemblek holds especially dear.2 Tin Ujević, Croatian poet (1891–1955) [transl. note].38 _ Kretanja 13/14

Milko Sparemblek: I hold that the opulence in Milko Šparemblek’s aestheticderives from the combination of two principal moments.The first is the just mentioned choreoact, the main act inthe “fabric” of the dance performance. It is the main elementthrough which Šparemblek forms the very “texture”or corpus of the work; its body.The other moment in the combination which leadstowards Šparemblek’s aesthetic opulence is to be found inthe already mentioned dramatization of reflection. Šparemblekdramatizes it through a special theatrical grasp.Since this grasp – I do have to say it now – includes numerouscharacteristics of that famous late-Romantic Gesamtkunstwerk,it can be said that Johannes Faust Passionand The Songs of Love and Death especially are contemporary,post-dramatic relatives of the Gesamtkunstwerk.Here, at its very foundation, is, of course, ballet. However,the dancer here in Šparemblek’s post-dramatic relative ofthe Gesamtkunstwerk is not fully “embodied” in any ofthe characters; rather it could be said that in it the dancer’sbody is continuously being “emplaced” (J. Luc-Nancy). Ittakes over the whole stage and everything belonging tothe stage; the theatre and everything theatre. When this ishappening, there are no more characters on stage or their“characteristics”. No types or roles.That stage is at the same time the stage of a truly deepinner-worldly change. It is a stage of the singular. And onlythe “singular is plural” says Luc-Nancy, very simply. It isprecisely through such an “emplacement” of the body, thatits really last aesthetic transfiguration comes about.Under the aegis of Milko Šparemblek’s “dance theatre”,a rather serious contemporary thought about the subjectivityof the body has also been “carried out” on ourtheatre stage. It was carried out due to the long work andŠparemblek’s enormous creative grasp of the problem. Wehave also acquired significant dance performances by ouronly “learned player”: Ludio Doctus.Yet, what has Milko Šparemblek received from us? Thatis, if he did not become resigned a long time ago to whatis stated in the title of the long-ago conversation: Nemopropheta in patria. English translation: Andreja JeličićKretanja 13/14 _ 39

Milko Sparemblek:46 _ Kretanja 13/14

Milko Sparemblek: < FOTO: Saša Novković >DARKO GAŠPAROVIĆOn Milko Šparemblek’sDRAMATURGYAccompanying the performance Pjesma i grijeh (Song and Sin),Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc in Rijeka, premiere 7 December 1997How the unpredictable dramaturgy of life can getentangled even in the most professional andmost intelligent dramaturgy of theatrical work ofart was proved by the case of the performance of MilkoŠparemblek’s Song and Sin that he produced at the CroatianNational Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc in Rijeka in 1997. It washis first production in Rijeka where he came at the invitationof the newly appointed Ballet director Leo Stipaničić. Itshould be noted that this was during the crisis period of theBallet of Rijeka which had not received any financing fromthe city budget for the third year in a row, and was barelybeing maintained with a minimum number of dancers onlythanks to the investment of the theatre itself. Under the common,symbolic title the performance linked two completelydifferent parts into a meaningful whole: Mathilde byRichard Wagner and Seven Deadly Sins by Bertolt Brechtand Kurt Weill. It should have been performed as the lastpremiere of the season in June 1997. We shall explain whyit did not come to that later, after we have analysed theconceptual texture and dramaturgical implementation ofthe project.Šparemblek found the inspiration for the first work inRichard Wagner’s Wesendonk-Lieder, in which the greatopera reformer, composing five Mathilde Wesendonk son-gs, evoked the tumultuous and passionate love episode withthe wife of his benefactor Otto Wesendonk who gave himshelter in Zurich from 1857 to 1859. These were the yearsof exile from his native Germany because of his participationin the revolutionary events of the year 1848. However,from an aesthetical point of view, Wesendonk-Liederstand for preparation, one could even say in the melodicsense a sketchy fling, for the composing of the great operalove song Tristan and Isolde. Seven Deadly Sins, a balletwith singing, developed from the cooperation of composerKurt Weill with Bertolt Brecht in 1933, immediately beforethey emigrated from the Nazi regime to the United States ofAmerica. Following outstanding operas – The ThreepennyOpera and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagony – Weillturned to ballet. This was mostly due to his acquaintancewith the great choreographer George Balanchine. This is astory of two sisters, called Anna I and Anna II, or practicalAnna represented by a singer and beautiful Anna embodiedby a dancer. “We started for the great big cities in search ofour fortune…” is the first verse of the song at the beginningof this peculiar musical-stage creation. Leaving their hometo find resources for a house their family needed, the sisterswander about America and perforce commit all the sevendeadly sins (which are, together with the Prologue and Fina-Kretanja 13/14 _ 47

Milko Sparemblek:letto also the seven movements of the work: Sloth, Vanity,Anger, Covetousness, Lust, Avarice, Envy). The Seven DeadlySins premiered in Balanchine’s ballet troupe, but it wasnot successful and there have only been a few performancesfrom then to this day.When after careful deliberation Šparemblek suggestedthe union of these two seemingly completely different, andindeed contrary works – for what can actually link the mystiqueof erotic passion propagated by Wagner with thesocially, and in addition politically and radically committedauthor such as Brecht?! – he must have had in mind thatsome dramaturgical connection must exist between themnevertheless. Namely, for a master of total theatre, towhom ballet is the primary but by no means the only meansof theatrical expression so he reaches out not only forsong but for the spoken word as well, the theatre masterfor whom the supreme reign of the art of dramaturgy is thecondition sine qua non of the theatrical act – and that isMilko Šparemblek in the fullness of his artistic being – nothingcan ever be accidental. So it must be the case here too.Let us then think where this invisible link is.It is difficult to find it in the stories themselves. Wagner’smusic of Mathilde’s songs of pining in the spirit of Late Romanticismtakes us to the unreal world of old things andemotions experienced long ago. Everything here is full ofevoking the erotic passion, the same eros and thanatos thatin the greatness of opera form also carries Tristan and Isolde.On the contrary, Brecht-Weill’s story from the 1930s, theperiod of horrible economic crisis and culmination of the politicalpower of totalitarian systems, puts individual destinyin the context of fierce criticism of the capitalist system thattreats man as a thing who has to fight for survival at anycost. At that time Brecht, as a convicted Marxist, unswervinglybelieved that theatre can – and must – change theworld. That is why in his works eros is reduced to bare sex inthe function of procuring money, as the God of Capital commands.The melancholic and decadent world of past love,that has forever remained embedded in the soul and transformedinto an aesthetic experience with song and music,is contrasted with the rough and callous world of Capitalwhere there is definitely no place for emotions.Let us now postpone for a moment the search for theanswer to the question where is the dramatic connectionof these worlds hidden in the dramaturgical idea and stagerealisation of Milko Šparemblek, in order to introduce thealready mentioned dramaturgy of life.After having worked with the ensemble for two months,Šparemblek finalised the performance towards the end ofMay 1997. He introduced the duplication of the main characterin both components, so that in Wagner the characterof young Mathilde was performed by a dancer (OxanaBrandiboura), and the old Mathilde who remembers heryouth and passionate love with Wagner by a singer (MirellaToić, alternating with Eunok Kim). But the two periodsare not strictly separated all the time, because old Mathildeconstantly communicates with her own past, and in severalinstances she enters into direct contact with her youngdouble. The culmination of the drama occurs when youngMathilde, crushed by love pains, seeks shelter in the bosomof her aged double, who is the only person who understandsher in the state of perfect empathy. In the Seven DeadlySins the duplication is built into the work itself because Weilland Brecht purposefully created the character of Anna dividedinto dancer and singer, designing the acting-singingrole for Weill’s wife Lotte Lenya. Šparemblek assigned therole of Anna I to Olivera Baljak, an actress from Rijeka, whoin addition to an exemplary acting career also has a prettymezzo that she had started developing by studying in theprivate academy of Ino Mirković in Lovran a year earlier. ForAnna II he invited the prima ballerina of the Rijeka BalletDiana Zdešar, who at the same time worked as the assistantto the choreographer, as well as the young ballerinaMateja Pučko, recently engaged by the Croatian NationalTheatre in Zagreb. Having in mind the already mentionedtwo-year-long crisis of the Rijeka Ballet, the performancewas awaited not only as an unprecedented artistic experiencebut also as the revival of the Ballet.It was then that the unpredictable dramaturgy of life intervened.Just before the opening night, during one of the last rehearsals,due to some unfortunate circumstances, OliveraBaljak fell from the stage into the orchestral pitand ended up with a serious hip fracture. She had to undergoan operation, have a metal rod inserted and face a longconvalescence. It was clear straight away that she wouldnot be back on stage for the entire next season.In the autumn, the second part of Song and Sin had tostart from the beginning so to say. After the audition, therole of Anna I, the practical one, was entrusted to JozefinaJurišić, a young singer from Rijeka. Šparemblek himselfrecounted how he turned this human and theatrical misfortuneinto artistic gain in his interview with Svjetlana Hribar,in the supplement Mediteran (Mediterranean) of the Rijekadaily Novi list (New Paper) before opening night, in earlyDecember 1997. Since this paragraph also leads to theunderstanding of Maestro’s complex comprehension of thetheatrical process, it is useful to cite it in full:This postponement – improved the performance. Sometime was necessary for the idea to “fall into place” withpeople, that they become accustomed completely, becauseno matter how long the period for the June opening48 _ Kretanja 13/14

Milko Sparemblek: was, some time had to pass – especially with regards to thedancers, who were faced with a consequential number ofunknowns – to overcome the transference from their owncontext of usual behaviour and the imposition of somethingnew. To change the way of the play, voice, and wayof singing – all that hurts. Now that is definitely set in thepeople and we can perform.This might contain the gist of Šparemblek’s theatricalpoetics. The idea must first “fall into place” with the author,then with the performers to whom he is transferringit with patient work on numerous details, and in parallelconstantly stimulating their creative engagement. This isa painful process because it demands a more or less radicalchange of behaviour and gradual mastering of the unknowns,and that can be achieved only by a bold breakthroughfrom routine as a prerequisite for any creativity.When the yearning is fulfilled, and that is the targeted meetingpoint of the author’s creative idea and its total adoptionby the performers – and it is of course, not enough thatthey adopt it mechanically, but with full investment of theirown creative power and imagination – the process reachesits realisation in the performing act. Then that illuminatinghappiness of creation explodes, that is transferred to theaudience, creating a powerful synergetic circle of thoughtsand feelings.All three known forms of intelligent cognition are atwork here: intellectual, intuitive and emotional. If one ofthese components is lacking, it is impossible to create totaltheatre. Quite often, Šparemblek’s poetics is deemed andconsidered as exclusively intellectual, even more intellectualistic.By this token, Šparemblek’s theatre would be a highlysophisticated and refined (should we say – cold) intellectualgame. However, this is not so. Because Šparemblek’sentire artistic being strives to its realisation in the fullness ofintellectual and emotional eros, which, in its turn, finds itsconcretisation in total artistic work. That being works withthe passion of an indefatigable researcher on the perfectarrangement of hundreds and thousands of details to reachthe essence of One.The unpredictability of dramaturgy can only delay thispassion, but never prevent it as it was shown on the exampleof the performance in Rijeka.Let us go back to the inner, structural dramaturgy oftwo parts of one act. First individually and then weshall embark on the search for the union into thementioned One. Needless to say, on the macro-plan, becauseon the micro-plan, as is to be expected, we shall findno common points.The musical dramaturgy of Wesendonk-Lieder is basedon five loosely linked songs – more with the same, nostalgicemotion than with theme. Apart from love, there isa feeling of home, a bygone childhood, and all of this is,as it always exists in the lyrical, happening in the poeticalevocation. This is the case of fixation of a moment caughtfor eternity. Although there are still no leitmotivs in sensustricto, the melody naturally traverses from one song intoanother and thus creates a bridge over which the composerwill reach the unbroken melody that he will masterfullydevelop in his later operas, in The Ring of Nibelung andParsifal. In Šparemblek’s dramaturgical idea, which he developedin the choreography and directing in an exemplarymanner, the classical love triangle – wife, husband, lover –follows the same logical linear story line from the acquaintance,beginning of the relationship, its passionate culminationand resigned finale, and the more important, nonlinearoptics which are expressed by the inexhaustible imaginationthrough the symbolic staging of scenes. Here the author,as a modern devotee of the excellent dance and musicalclassic, creatively examines the beauty and harmony ofclassical aesthetics in its modernist mirror and applies this inthe coherent dramaturgical schedule.The music-dance-drama dramaturgy of Brecht and Weillin Seven Deadly Sins is not only different, but we dare say,even completely contrary. It is built on two parallel storylines. The first and principal one is realised on the danceacting-singingplan and it leads the line of travels and “sinful”situations of Anna, a subject torn into duality, and thesecond, subsidiary one is instigated by Anna’s family throughsituations realised by a quartet of singers. Šparemblekadded a third plan – the dramatic one. He introduced twoclowns in a kind of interplay who interpret some selectedpassages from Brecht’s poetic opus, and they pertain to hisbiography and socio-political engagement: from “the manwho came from the black forests”, through an expressionisticentrance to a Marxist-oriented fierce critic of capitalism.Thus he once again created a total work of art from theBrechtian paradigm.Here we come to the macro-plan where the connectionof two counterpoint parts of the whole can be seen. Thisis, consequently, the performance work of art as the allencompassingtheatre of total expression. In this sense, thechosen paradigm speaks like pars pro toto. To the two dramaturgicalcategories, that of the aesthetical topic and thatof life, we can now add the third, which has undoubtedlyentered into Šparemblek’s performance: the artistic anddramaturgical context of the Rijeka theatre at the end ofthe last and the first decade of this century. It is substantiallymarked by the focus on the theatre of total expression,with the participation and permeation of all aspects of theatricalartistic activity. This stylistic determinant of the newRijeka theatre started at the end of February 1990 with Fa-Kretanja 13/14 _ 49

Milko Sparemblek:brio-Gašparević’s Vježbanje života (Exercise of Life), directedby Georgij Paro. This line is clearly visible today throughsome other performances and Song and Sin, but this isnot the occasion or place to further elaborate on it. But itis here that the participation of Milko Šparemblek shouldfinally be determined – not only in the revival of the RijekaBallet but also of the total repertory of the Croatian NationalTheatre Ivan pl. Zajc – with this theatrical (double)act asbeing huge, in fact immeasurable.In the 2007/2008 season Milko Šparemblek returned tothe stage of the Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajcin Rijeka, originally staging Epitaph for Frédéric to themusic of Frédéric Chopin and for the fourth time his notablechoreography of The Miraculous Mandarin by BelaBartók. This was yet anther triumph of the Rijeka Balletwhich under the artistic direction of Staša Zurovac, an outstandingchoreographer and excellent dancer, has been livingout stellar moments during the last seasons. Althoughan interesting deliberation of dramaturgical procedurescould be developed on this example as well, starting fromŠparemblek’s parallel positioning of classic-modern (thistime united in essentially romantic ethos), we yield from abroader elaboration because our goal was to present ourtheses on one paradigmatic sample.It is obvious that the centre of observation and analysisof Milko Šparemblek’s art in this text is directed to hisdramaturgy. Although it was analysed on only one of manyexamples, this suffices to conclude in the end: the great internationalchoreographer, creatively active even in his eighties,is at the same time an excellent dramaturge. This is,we can say in the end, self-understanding – because one issimply impossible without the other. English translation: Jasenka Zajec50 _ Kretanja 13/14