Photo Credit: Hans Schubert

Oberlin Dance Department Hosts Slovenian Artist Jurij Konjar

As part of the year-long series of events celebrating the 50th anniversary of Contact Improvisation (CI) and the role of Oberlin College in the development of the form, Slovenian dancer Jurij Konjar (who has reconstructed various solo dances by Steve Paxton) will teach workshops during Winter Term. Konjar will teach a movement workshop in the morning. In the afternoon, the group will explore questions of re-enactment of Steve Paxton’s seminal work Magnesium.

Konjar is a Slovenian artist working in the field of dance. Following his education at PARTS in Brussels the creation of his early works, in 2007 he suffered a head injury that shifted his focus towards the potential of the present moment. In 2009, an in-depth observation of Steve Paxton’s Goldberg Variations video triggered what became an improvisation practice and provided a basis for a rich on-going dialogue. Collaborating with Steve Paxton (2010-2016), he has performed Paxton’s work Bound (1982), Flat (1964) and Quicksand (2016) for the Paxton retrospective at Dia Beacon, as well as staged Satisfyin' Lover (1967). In 2014 he launched Habitat, a nomadic working space for process-oriented practices. He has been performing the Goldberg Variations in venues around the world since 2010, most recently in Bilbao, Spain.