Dance Hub residency Kaja Lorenci at WSF Budapest

In the frame of the Dance Hub exchange activity, Kaja Lorenci was selected by NDA Slovenia for a residency at Workshop Foundation Budapest. There is a public presentation at the end of the residency.
She works on her latest production

STABAT MATER / PROLONGATION OF A MOMENT

In the performance Stabat Mater, Kaja Lorenci will continue to explore the emergence of dance from or through music. Kaja wants to dedicate herself even more to the development of her specific artistic expression / language, which in recent years has focused on the embodiment of musical scores. For this specific piece Kaja choses to combine (the content of) the image of Stabat Mater Dolorosa and a few musical settings of Stabat Mater.

There is an interesting paradox between the text of Stabat Mater and the emotion it conveys. There is almost no action (or movement) implied in the text, because it describes an image of standing and weeping. It is the emotion that »does all the movement«. And this emotion is brought on and accumulated by the music.

During the residency, Kaja will focus on exploring the feeling (sense) of “being moved”(emotionally) and searching for the most direct ways of its embodiment. By what means can we translate the state of being moved (to move, to move oneself, to move someone) into a specific performance language?

How can the music move us from the moment of silence (static) to the moment of action? Namely, dance has the ability to reveal what is incomprehensible in music (which "moves" us from within) and at the same time the advantage of being human and tangible. Music, on the other hand, is the one that introduces delay into immediacy or has the ability to prolong, stretch a moment into an event.

Kaja's goal is to search for and define strategies, which will enable me to design a specific language of embodying a musical setting or score. I believe I have to start as a listener who gradually becomes a conveyer. Listen – feel – experience – participate – convey.

In the 10-day residency, Kaja has focused on exploring the feeling (sense) of “being moved”(emotionally) and searching for the most direct ways of its embodiment. Kaja's goal was to search for and define strategies to design a specific language of embodying a musical setting or score.

At the end of the residency, there was an open presentation. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, there was very little audience. Nevertheless, this open sharing was an important aspect of the residency, Kaja received feedback to her work, and could have an in-depth conversation with the representatives of the local scene.

This Dance exchange allowed the local host Workshop Foundation to reach beyond the local scene and bring international artists in order to introduce previously unknown players to the Hungarian scene. It was also beneficial for Kaja, during the residency she could have a concentrated, intense working period, an important step towards the creation of her new work.

View her experience report in the upper right column.