ENTITEY / Jason Martin: The One(s) Who Never Lived (2023
Tuesday, 1 December 2026, at 7:00 pm
Španski borci, Big Hall
dance performance
Duration: 55 min.
For all lovers of virtuosic dance! Jason Martin’s dance duet is the first Canadian contemporary dance work to appear on our stages in a long time. The choreographer is interested in the relationship between the mechanised, industrialised and the organic, the living, within contemporary dance composition.
In the 1990s, as the field of contemporary performing arts in Slovenia was rapidly internationalising, Canadian contemporary dance productions were a regular and highly valued presence on our stages. Even before the contemporary choreographic field became acquainted with the theory of Erin Manning and Brian Massumi, two influential Canadian theorists and philosophers who opened up new ways of thinking about contemporary dance creativity, audiences on our stages were already following the work of Édouard Lock and La La La Human Steps, Holy Body Tattoo, José Navas, Daniel Léveillé, Louise Lecavalier, the experimental artist Lynda Gaudreau, and, not least, directors Robert Lepage and Denis Marleau. Invitations to Canadian artists were sent from Slovenia by curators Miran Šušteršič (1958–2024) and Uršula Cetinski, of the Exodos festival and Cankarjev dom, respectively. George Skalkogiannis, the first manager of the ensemble La La La Human Steps, introduced to us at Exodos the original and inventive promotional strategies and union- and network-based systemic solutions in the field of contemporary dance.
The One(s) Who Never Lived is a cinematic dance duet that, much like works of European dance expressionism, builds an image in space, generated by an invisible text. The viewer is faced with the task of finding an appropriate meaning for these kinetic-dance forms. In this duet by ENTITEY and Jason Martin, “two individuals seek to balance desires for order and production with chaos and destruction. Their movements exhibit a synchronized precision, reminiscent of the monotony often linked to modern industrial processes and assembly line work. They function as conduits, symbolizing the delicate interplay between attraction and repulsion. A contrast arises, involving emotional apathy and a need to connect, to feel alive. A dialogue between the natural and the industrial, the human and the mechanized, highlights how these opposing elements coincide,” write the performance’s creators.
Choreographer: Jason Martin
Creative collaborator: Rebecca Margolick
Performers: Emiliana Battista Marino, Jason Martin
Rehearsal Directors: Isabelle Poirier, Carmen Macias
Dramaturgy: James Viveiros
Lighting Design: Claire Seyller, Emmanuel Bossé-Messier
Music: Jonathan Goulet
Costume Design: Rémi van Bochove
Photography: Melika Dez
Organised by Kino Šiška and NDA Slovenija in collaboration with Zavod EnKnap
With the support of:
