Context 004: SNJEŽANA PREMUŠ
Choreographer and dancer Snježana Premuš has been professionally active in the Slovenian arts scene since 2001. Her work is closely tied to discursive approaches and theoretical perspectives. She continuously invites writers, dramaturgs, and other external observers to reflect on her practice. Her precise and detailed articulation of her own interests, motivations, and methodologies led us to shape this edition of Context as a dialogue between verbalized impulses and/or methodological procedures and short excerpts from her performances, revealing the interconnections between them.
credits
Prepared by: Maša Radi Buh, Tery Žeželj
Poster design: Tanja Radež
Producer: Špela Kopitar
Technical support: Stara mestna elektrarna team
Photography: Nada Žgank
Premiere: 22 September 2023
Past performances:
- 29 March 2025
- 23 September 2023
Amplified Body is a series of performances focusing on the body in relation to sound, which I found logical, stemming from the physical connection between music and dance and the way we were educated. At the dance academy in London, which had a strong modernist orientation, there were conventional practices for how this relationship was approached. I was looking to deconstruct those logical connections and create new ones.
For us (with Tomaž Grom, ed.), it felt natural to explore how to amplify the body so that it could also be present in the composition. The starting point—amplification of the body—was clear, but how to bring that sound out in a way that it could serve as material for the musician, we didn’t know at first.
(Community of Emancipated Thoughts and Bodies, p. 26)
For me, the body and bodily images have long not been merely representations in the theatrical sense. The presence of the body becomes an open field for becoming. Becoming as a process where the destination (the image) is not the main focus; rather, the opposite: becoming shapes our presence. Of course, I deal with presence as a choreographer and dancer, but the boundaries between stage and life are gradually dissolving. I increasingly understand the burden of the culturally disciplined body.
(Poiesis of the Self)
One thought that fascinated me in Jean-Luc Nancy’s Corpus was: two people cannot simultaneously occupy the same place. This sentence became a score—a guideline for the final part of the performance Poiesis of the Self. We repeat this same instruction each time, but every new constellation of people in the space redefines its meaning.
Snježana Premuš (The Body as Space. Interview with Snježana Premuš, Pia Brezavšček, Neodvisni)
BMC operates on the principle of isolating one bodily system from the whole—e.g., the organic, muscular, or skeletal system. The direct experience of this then results in a different mode of movement, sensation, and consciousness, which is reintegrated into the body as a whole. The body, due to this new information, reorganizes and responds in a completely different way.
(Community of Emancipated Thoughts and Bodies, p. 31)
Somatic techniques are both a foundation and, through my work, I’m discovering they can also be a product that simultaneously remains a process. … In Physical Manifestations, for example, actor Gregor Zorc performed, and in some aspects, he was freer than many dancers. I’m generally interested in different bodies—what remains specific within them, and to what extent the patterns that define you stay inside you or whether you can transcend them and begin to communicate differently. I’m especially interested in what happens when you bring together the bodies of a ballet dancer, an actor, and a contemporary dancer. … What the process confirmed for me is that when you go back to the basics and foundational principles we all share, connection becomes possible.
(Community of Emancipated Thoughts and Bodies, p. 31)