The Non-choreography of Iztok Kovač and the En-knap Dance Group

written by Eda Čufer

 

Over ten years have passed since Iztok Kovač first staged his dance performance How I Caught the Falcon in Trbovlje, Slovenia in February 1991. This show made a big impression on everyone engaged in modern European dance in the nineties. Critics could not help but wonder: “New dance coming from Slovenia?!” In fact, since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Eastern Europe had not produced a single dance piece recognised and accepted by the international dance community. This isolated one-man show How I Caught the Falcon won the London Dance and Performance Award in 1993 alongside Merce Cunningham and Ron Vawter. Soon after the European tour a Belgian producer, Stuck, and the organiser of the Klapstuck festival expressed an interest in Kovač’s brainchild. The festival is known to have launched such names as Jan Fabre, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Vim Vadekeybus.