Emanat Institute

Sad sam almost, performed by Matija Ferlin at Stara Elektrarna - Old Power Station, produced by Emanat Institute, 2009

Emanat Institute, an Institute for the Affirmation and Development of Dance and Contemporary Art, aims to gain recognition for contemporary dance through stage, multimedia, and occasionally online production, dance education, and publishing activity. Established in 2006 by the acclaimed choreographer Maja Delak, Emanat produces innovative works that develop their own artistic procedures and work codes as well as stimulate artistic exchange.

Aiming to challenge the notions of spectatorship and spectacle and to open new spaces of visibility for performance and new media art, Emanat has been producing the collaborative project Transmittance, which has beem presented at the online symposium on cyberperformance Cyposium (2012), at the Trouble Festival in Belgium (2012), and at the U3 Triennial of Contemporary Slovene Arts (2013).

Stage production

Emanat's production embraces productions ranging from contemporary dance performances and audio-visual concerts to more site-specific events. Maja Delak's performances include the extremely successful dance-theatre performance Expensive Darlings [Drage, drage] (2007); Serata Artistica Giovanille and Ways of Love, productions which won Delak the 2010 Prešeren Foundation Award; the solo What If (2013); Shame (2011), which won the best performance award at the 2013 Gibanica (Moving Cake) Festival of Slovene Dance; and so on. Delak closely collaborates with musician and performer Luka Prinčič, with whom she has created Ways of Love (2009), the multimedia music performance Frozen Images (2010), and Image Snatchers (2013), etc.

Une façon d'aimer / Ways of love [trailer] by Nova deViator on YouTube

In its productions, as well as in the organisation of workshops, Emanat often collaborates with the City of Women International Festival of Contemporary Arts (HI-RES, Expensive Darlings, Sugar Rush). In 2009, Emanat co-produced the ad-hoc theatre project by the Belgian director Marijs Boulougne Marzipan or Plexi with Tanzquartier Wien and Siemens Arts Programme and produced the project Sugar Rush by Nina Fajdiga, Jasmina Križaj, and Tina Valentan, which was supported by the European Cultural Foundation.

Drage Drage/Expensive Darlings by kaledina on YouTube

Emanat also produces works by younger, but acclaimed authors of contemporary dance, such as Matija Ferlin, Urška Vohar, Irena Tomažin, etc. Multiple international award-winning Matija Ferlin, for example, also won the best choreographer award at the 2013 Gibanica (Moving Cake) Festival of Slovene Dance for his work The Other at the Same Time [Drugi sočasno] (2012), co-produced by Istrian National Theatre, City Theatre Pula, and Cankarjev dom. For his creation Sad Sam Lucky (2012), co-produced by Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis in Centre National de la Danse, Ferlin also recieved a special performance award at the International Festival of Alternative and New Theatre INFANT in Novi Sad, Serbia.

Sad Sam Almost 6 by FTA - Festival TransAmériques on YouTube

Work in dance education

Emanat also founded and manages the AGON Programme (originally organised within En-Knap Productions), an informal training programme for education, research, and self-development in the performing arts held in Ljubljana and led by Maja Delak, an experienced arts educator. Throughout the years, AGON Programme has offered a number of high-quality dance workshops, led by Lisa Nelson, Mark Tompkins and Nuno Rebelo, David Zambrano, Martin Kilvady, Ame Handerson, etc., as well as other performing arts and dramaturgy workshops, given by Ursula Martinez, La Pocha Nostra, Maria Hassabi, Mark Franko, Katja Praznik, and Igor Dobričić. AGON also organises weekly voice workshops by Irena Tomažin and a creative workshop for children by Barbara Kanc.

In 2014, Emanat, together with the Contemporary Dance Association Slovenia, launched year-round pilot programme Practicum in Contemporary Dance Art, carried out by the Pre-School Education and Grammar School, Ljubljana, designed to offer practical higher-education training through daily classes and monthly workshops given by established Slovene educators and choreographers.

Emanat also produces the annual final presentation of students and graduates of the module for contemporary dance at the secondary school Pre-School Education and Grammar School, Ljubljana. The project Pre-Première was launched in 2003 and presents a valuable opportunity to the students to present their work to wider audiences under the mentorship of renowned Slovene dance makers.

Emanat Institute participated in a network of 12 European dance educators who ran a 2-year pilot project called International Documentation of Contemporary Dance Education (IDOCDE) with an aim to develop and document best practices of contemporary dance education. In May 2012 Maja Delak held dance lessons at the K3 Zentrum für Choreographie, Tanzplan Hamburg. The IDOCDE symposium took place during ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival in Summer 2013.

Emanat also offers the education series Contemporary Dance Lesson to primary and secondary schools, designed as a get-to-know contemporary dance tool kit, which practically and theoretically discusses contemporary dance as a 20th-century art phenomenon.

Transitions book series and Kamizdat netlabel

Emanat's small, but interesting, publishing programme aims to publish original and translated works that inform or connect with the field of performing arts. The Transitions [Prehodi] series includes Slovenian translations of books such as The Ignorant Schoolmaster by Jacques Rancière, Poetics of Contemporary Dance by Laurence Louppe, Touching Feeling by Eve Sedgwick, Ways of Seeing by John Berger, as well as other titles relating to different aspects of the field of contemporary dance, while the Transitions - XS Series also includes the translation of Sarah Kane's Crave, Jasna Žmak's The Other at the Same Time, selected writings by Lisa Nelson Tuning Scores, and a compendium of texts on the relation of folk singing and contemporary performing arts Co-voicings.

Emanat also runs a net-label Kamizdat, primarily releasing works of local artists, that is based on a do-it-yourself ethos, local action, free software, environmental awareness, and critical theory. Among others, the releases include an EP from the technoburlesque Image Snatchers, music from Irena Tomažin's performance The Taste of Silence, and Wanda and Nova deViator's Pacification.

Anatomija gibanja, slovenian translation of Anatomie pour le mouvement by Blandine Calais-Germain, published by Emanat Institute Transitions book series, 2007

External links

Gallery

Plesati modernizem/Uprizarjati politiko by Mark Franko. Published by Emanat Institute Transitions book series

Singer Hasmik Harutyunyan (Yerevan) facilitates an Armenian folk music workshop, as part of Emanat Institute's education programme, 2006

Drage drage (Expensive Darlings), choreographed by Maja Delak, premiering at Dance Theatre Ljubljana co-produced by Emanat Institute and City of Women International Festival of Contemporary Arts, 2007.

Drage drage [Expensive darlings], choreographed by Maja Delak, premiering at Dance Theatre Ljubljana during City of Women International Festival of Contemporary Arts, 2007

Rdeča kapica: da te bolje vidim [Little Red Riding Hood: I see that this is better] performed at Cankarjev dom, choreographed by Matej Kejžar, produced by Emanat Institute 2007

Touring show Drage drage, choreographed by Maja Delak performed at Europalia Festival, Center Bozar, Brussels, Belgium, 2008

Serata Artistica Giovanile, Maja Delak, Marko Peljhan & Katja Praznik, Cankarjev dom, produced by Emanat Institute, 2008

Improvisation specialist, dancer choreographer and educator David Zambrano (Venezuela/ Netherlands) leads a dance workshop as part of Emanat Institute's education programme, 2009

Marcipan ali pleksi [Marzipan or plexi], contemporary dance production choreographed by Boulogne Marijs, premièring at Stara Elektrarna - Old Power Station, produced by Emanat Institute 2009

Poti ljubezni [Way of love], by Maja Delak & Luka Prinčič at KUD France Prešeren Arts and Culture Association, 2009

Sad sam almost, performed by Matija Ferlin at Stara Elektrarna - Old Power Station, produced by Emanat Institute, 2009

Premier of Zamrznjene podobe (Frozen Images), Wanda & Nova deViator, at Menza pri koritu Metelkova mesto Autonomous Cultural Zone, produced by Emanat Institute 2010

Wanda & Nova deViator, Emanat Institute performs at the Klub Menza pri koritu at the International Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawns 2015

Maja Delak, dancer and founder of Emanat Institute in 2006, Emanat produces innovative works that develop their own artistic procedures and work codes as well as stimulate artistic exchange

Dancer and choreographer with Emanat Institute, Maja Delak receiving the prestigious PreÅ¡eren Foundation Award for her work contributing to modern dance, 2009

Performance Ways of love / Une façon d'aimer by artists Maja Delak and Luka Prinčič at the Račka Gallery in Celje, 2010