With the performance Don’t carry the world upon your shoulders, we continue to explore the practice of translation, this time focusing on the issue of overthinking. Starting with the translation of the term itself and the search for a suitable Croatian equivalent, we extend the translation process to finding an appropriate movement (and state) for the concept, alternately falling into and avoiding the trap of overthinking that accompanies us throughout the process. Although we begin our inquiry by translating Hamlet – the most famous fictional overthinker (thereby continuing the Shakespeare translations initiated in the performance il sonetto), we eventually move away from him and address our own instances of overthinking in both personal and professional spheres, exploring how they stretch between two extremes: paralysis and superpower. By choosing the format of a performance lecture, we open up space for a (popular) scientific approach to the concept and state of overthinking, as well as space for self-reflection and the poeticization of overthinking through movement.
Choreography and performance: Martina Tomić
Dramaturgy: Ivana Đula
Choreographic support: Matea Bilosnić
Music: Luka Vrbanić
Light design: Saša Fistrić
Set design: Stefano Katunar
Costume design: Tina Spahija
Drawings for projections: Lena Kramarić
Projections: Ivan Lušičić Liik
Graphic design: Martina Granić
Photography and trailer: Neven Petrović
Production: UO Genijator
Public relations: Ivana Sansević
Co-production: PLATFORMA HR 2025, Dance Center Tala
Special thanks to: Petra Orehovec, Fabijan Komljenović, Nataša Govedić
Premiere: May 24, 2025, Dance Center Tala
Martina Tomić, a dancer, choreographer, and dance educator, is a co-founder of the Tras studio and the Genijator art organization in which she works as an author, dancer, and producer. She holds an MA in Journalism and a BA in Contemporary Dance (teaching strand) from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. She completed a yoga teacher training program and three DNS modules at the Prague School, and she is both a practitioner and a teacher of these disciplines. She was the president of the Association of Dance Artists of Croatia (UPUH) from 2018 to 2020. Martina has won the UPUH and PULS professional associations’ award for Best Overall Performance (2019, 2024), and the professional associations’ award for Best Choreography (2025). Since 2024, she is the artistic director of the Contemporary Dance Studio (Studio za suvremeni ples).
