“DANCE Mondays” in the smaller studio of the Slovak National Theatre (SND) strive to present and promote the best of contemporary dance, in and outside Slovakia.
On March 17, the programme combines both of these aspects: Slovak choreographer/dancer Milan Tomášik has long been living abroad, and his Off Beat Plus piece first premiered in Ljubljana, Slovenia, before moving on to Slovakia and then Belgium. It is a unique, modern exploration of breath, rhythm and body movement set to Baroque music.
In the National theatre, the music – composed by Janez Krstnik Dolar and Sašo Kalan – will be performed live for the first time. “It has been my dream since the premiere in 2011 to present Off Beat with live musicians,” Tomášik wrote to The Slovak Spectator. “So, I am very much looking forward to the Bratislava performance, although it involves a lot of work.”
Off Beat Plus will be played by the Cuore Barocco (Ján Kružliak Jr., Peter Zelenka, Marin Gedeon, Tomáš Kardoš, Metod Podolský and Jana Dzurňáková), an ensemble founded in 2010 by cellist Tomáš Kardoš, which plays historically-based performances of Baroque and Classical music on replicas of period instruments.
Off Beat was already performed in a slightly modified version in the Stanica Žilina-Záriečie and in the Štúdio Tanca theatre in Banská Bystrica, so after travelling around Slovakia, it will go directly to the SND in the capital. Tomášik, who now lives and works in Belgium and Slovenia, can show his perception of Baroque at home.
