A hybrid improvised music concert and dance performance by Beno Novak, Boštjan Simon and Elvis Homan .
A draining performance, absorbed with sensuality.
- Metod Zupan, Neodvisni.art
Resurrection 2.0 is an enchanting trialogue of three authors who cut mercilessly into our monotonous perception of time, music, and dance. The final feeling is a complete catharsis.
- Merciless provocation, Matic Ferlan, Odrišča.si
Performers: Elvis Homan (drums), Beno Novak (body) and Boštjan Simon (saxophone)
Backing: Matej Kejžar
Production: Pekinpah
Photos: Matija Lukić
Premiere: 19 June 2021, Spider Festival, Ljubljana
The physical and acoustic bodies of the work generate spaces for imagination and sensor connections, celebrating movement, rhythms, and the special collaboration of the three performers.
- Award for Best Performance at Gibanica 2023 by an expert jury of the 12th Biennial of Slovenian Contemporary Dance Art Roberto Casarotto (Italy), Dries Douibi (Belgium), and Lea Loeb (Swiss/Argentina)
Beno Novak, Elvis Homan, and Boštjan Simon – the first as a contemporary dancer and the other two as musicians – met at the Festival of Radical Bodies Spider's stage in 2021. This meeting was neither by chance nor completely predictable, as every interaction between dance and musical creativity introduces a domain of contradictions, exchanges, and intersections, particularly within experimental contexts. Interweaving an improvised musical concert with dance, their new performance is founded upon the very paradoxes that emerge from the interaction of three artists, each embodying unique and distinct artistic perspectives.
The performance Resurrection 2.0, which received the award for the best performance of the 12th Biennial of Slovenian Contemporary Dance Art Gibanica in 2023, unfolds as an improvised trialogue between a dancer and two musicians, throughout the performance interconnected through a trigger sensor system, thereby maintaining an unbroken connection and communication. Positioned on both the dancer's body and the venue floor, the sensors are directly wired to the musicians' instruments. Every detected movement of the dancer is instantaneously digitized and translated into sound using algorithms, which is then transmitted back to the dancer's body, directing his movements: the movement is imbibing the sound, while the sound imbibes the movement, mutually.
The meeting between a dancer, a musician, and another musician evolves into a spatial event – a space of visibility and invisibility, audibility and (in)audibility, a space where there are no coincidences and surprises, yet these bodies collaboratively shape them; the space of in-betweenness. It is in this search for equilibrium between silence/stillness and movement/sound, between the full and the empty, the digital and the analogue where the resurrection occurs.
© Matija Lukić
About the authors:
Beno Novak (1991) is a dancer and choreographer who graduated from Salzburg's SEAD and furthered his studies at Tisch NYU and The Place London. His career involves collaborations with esteemed companies including Gary Clarke Company, Jason Mabana Dance, and James Wilton Dance. Novak's choreography centers on personal experiences, blending physicality with sensitivity, fragility, power, and exhaustion. Much of his work is done in collaboration with other artists, such as the duet 400 Rabbits with Marina Abib, the solo Owe by Junior Mufutau Jussuf, and Body Concert with Ana Romih. He also leads the Summer Intensive Festival in Portugal and Slovenia's Kalejdoskop Festival, showcasing his commitment to artistic creation and direction. In 2023, Beno Novak received the Ksenija Hribar Award for the promising male contemporary dance artist at the 12th Biennial of Slovenian Contemporary Dance Art Gibanica.
Elvis Homan (1991) is a drummer, sound designer, composer, and pedagogue. He graduated from Codarts Rotterdam and the University of Ljubljana, pursuing further studies in composition and live electronics at the Academy in Amsterdam. He was a winner of Erasmus Jazz Prijs in 2016 and 2017, and De Doelen Rotterdam and Leiden Jazz Award in 2017. He regularly performs at various festivals in Slovenia and abroad, participates in different international projects, and is a member of numerous musical collectives, such as Rotterdam Electronic Orchestra, Quartzite 4tet, Punky Button Clan, Void Noise, aug.unis, etc. His collaboration with saxophonist Boštjan Simon also extended to composing music for the film Haxan.
Boštjan Simon (1982) is an accomplished instrumentalist, educator, and producer. Graduating from the University of Ljubljana and Amsterdam Conservatory, he's a founding member of the esteemed Orkester brez meja (Borderless Orchestra), led by Zlatko Kaučič, and an artistic co-director of Sax Go International Saxophonists’ Meeting. He is widely recognized as one of the best Slovenian saxophonists and works regularly all around the world.