authors: Alexandra Madsen / Ognjen Vučinić
performance: Ognjen Vučinić
concept/choreography: Alexandra Madsen
assistant director: Filip Porvernić
music: selection of authors
sound design: Luka Gamulin
light design: Saša Bogojević
speech assistant: Anita Tripalo
costume: Ljerka Zmajić
graphic design: Tihana Šeremet
production: M A S A D A N C E C O M P A N Y
Support in the realization of the project: Residential Program of the Mediterranean Dance Center and Contemporary Dance Week
The project was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia and the City Office for Culture of the City of Zagreb
Special thanks to: Dance Center Tala
Rave culture represents the author’s social memory, his attempt to feel part of the community by creating a bond with the tribe through dance and physicality. The music and aesthetics of the rave dance movement have a meaning for him that is felt as a journey, transformation, transcendence and liberating power, recognition of individuality within the collective. In the author’s body, rave resonates as a feeling evoked by sounds and rhythm. According to him, “his” rave is only his and that the space is what he shares with people, but not the feeling. This statement is a threat to mutual misunderstanding in general. In this work, by elaborating on the feeling that arises from the affective body, a true conference is encouraged. Thus, this solo balances between a parody of vague attempts to explain the phenomenon of rave culture and a serious attempt to see the inner Self. The structure and concept were inspired by the work of Joseph Beuys, known as a “provocative artist”, and his performance “How to explain pictures to a dead rabbit” from 1965. He created art that was supposed to be “feltly or intuitively seen, not intellectually “understood”. With that, he suggests that not everything can be explained. This is why this dance solo is motivated by questions: how and in what way can we explain the feeling of rave? Can you “rave” alone? How can it be translated and explain something that is individual and ineffable? Can it succeed in its elaboration?
MASA DANCE COMPANY is an artistic organization whose founders are recent and multiple award-winning contemporary dancers and choreographers Alexandra Madsen and Ognjen Vučinić. Since its foundation in 2009, Masa dance company has intensively developed its activities in production and dance education in the country and abroad, with headquarters in Zagreb.
Current activities are focused on:
– creation, production, distribution and promotion of artistic dance projects
– organizing educational dance programs for different target groups
In all productions and collaborations, Masa dance company remains faithful to its dance poetics. A strong visual approach, physicality, intuition, communication and atmospheric conditions are specific elements of the company’s creativity. This diversity is made possible in part through collaboration with dancers of different practices, actors, musicians, poets, visual artists and other artists from different disciplines. Style, originality and authenticity are recognized in the company’s work, and it gathers a large number of audiences. Our productions have been visited and praised both here in Croatia and abroad.
OGNJEN VUČINIĆ is a renowned Croatian dancer, choreographer and dance pedagogue in the field of contemporary dance. He started dancing at the age of four at the Zaro dance studio, where he attended ballet classes. In 2000, he moved to Zagreb and became a member of the Zagreb Dance Ensemble, where he danced in its projects until 2015. In 2009, together with Alexandra Madsen, he founded MasaDanceCompany. He is a three-time winner of the Croatian Theater Award for the best male role in contemporary dance – in 2006, 2010, and 2012. Throughout his career, he works as a dance pedagogue, working with amateurs and professionals.
In 2019, he became part of the team of the Belgrade Dance Institute, where he works as a contemporary dance lecturer and choreographer.
ALEXANDRA MADSEN graduated in Performance Dramaturgy and completed BA studies in Contemporary Dance – teaching major at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. She trained in Croatia and abroad with renowned dance pedagogues in various dance practices (Laban Center London, ImPulsTanz). She was a permanent member of the Zagreb Dance Ensemble (2009-2016), collaborating with many foreign choreographers. At the same time, she developed her own artistic practice, exploring expanded forms of performance and choreography, founding the artistic organization MasaDanceCompany with Ognjen Vučinić. As an author, she created numerous notable plays: TI, ONA, RAVE (ON)!). She won the Croatian Theater Award in 2014 for the best dance performance in Žak Valenta’s “Hermaphrodites of the Soul”, and as a choreographer, she won the “Award for the most promising young choreographer” in 2004, the “Critic’s Award at the Festival of Choreographic Miniatures” in 2011 in Belgrade and the Grand Prix at the 6th International Festival of Contemporary Dance in Algeria for the play “TI” co-authored with Vučinić. As a dance teacher, she works in Croatia and abroad, teaching contemporary dance, partnering and improvisation. She also works as a teacher at the Secondary School for Contemporary Dance of the Franjo Lučić Art School in Velika Gorica and collaborates with the Belgrade Dance Institute in Belgrade and the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb at the department of Contemporary dance. She is the member of the Croatian Screenwriters and Playwrights Guild and president of the board of the Croatian Dancers Association. She lives and works in Zagreb.
