SUBJECT:
PEOPLE WITH DISORDER IN MENTAL DEVELOPMENT in the field of CONTEMPORARY DANCE

This is a group of individuals (each of them very special: Maja B., Kristina, Bernarda, Maja P., Lucija, Katherine, Slavko, Bogo, Gorazd and Robi ), a group of 7 adult people with diferent disorder in mental development and 3 assistents (before we used to work with 13 -15 people and 4-5 assistents).  For our work I use playground of many experiences in contemporaray  dance to develope body and mind awarness. We work a lot on phyisical, emotional and social levels. Through dance and improvisation we open creative spaces for individuals and group. Performing on stage became an important step for them (performing they are in the situation of giving and not needing constant help or support, they became more selfconfidante, they are still very motivated and their possabilities to express themselfs, not just through dance, are growing...), for audiance and society we live in. We explore each other's way of thinking and moving, so manifestation of new ideas always find new, reinventing or addapted concepts off how we can express them in performance.

It was and still is the biggest school of my teachings in contemporary dance field.

In my IDOCDE proposal in Ljubljana I presented the way we created our last choreography "A LITTLE HERE, A LITTLE THERE", with which we performed in Slovenia this year and we are for the first  time guests of some international contemporary dance festival: "FRONTA of contemporary dance 2012" in Murska Sobota - Slovenia.
I attached 2 videos of our last two performances. 

CREATIVE PROCESS for choreography : A LITTLE  HERE, A LITTLE THERE
(what does it mean to be here, whay I like/don't like to be here, whay I go there, whay am I not accepted here, playing and being everywhere, alone, with you...)

Themes we worked on and questions we asked:

RELATIONS in interaction- being a part of society

ISOLATION / INDIVIDUALIZATION ( one person likes to sit on the chair away from us, soo chair became our main object, GESTERS of the person  on the chair became strong part of the performance)

BEING ACCEPTED ( understanding the meaning, everybody wants to be accepted, they know when they meet ignorance)

SOCIALIZATION ( for them it means to be heard, seen, respected and prefer being the leaders than the followers in the dance group)

HOW TO BE PART OF THE GROUP (silently, telling what they truely mean or adapting, looking for more attention, giving or taking space...)

Their comments:   - SOMETIMES  I DON‘T WANT TO BE IN THE GROUP BUT STILL PART OF IT...

ROLLES in every day life - ROLLES ON STAGE - Is there a difference? 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE IN LOVE ?

COUPLES AND FRIENDS ( friendship, conflicts, love and hate, expectations, suport, solidarity...)

- methods of  work:

• building and discovering new skills of individuals and group in warming up exerciseses
• dance improvisation: scores to play with chairs very physical, taking-sharing-giving the space, with stops, falling off, playing with rolles and rules
• music  (this time we choose music in the very begining, listening a lot, getintg into the musicality and rhythm,dancing stille of swing and twist)
• choreography / score for stage (out of improvisation),
• (un)predictable situations - Bernarda lives the stage, Slavko and Bogo doesn't appear...
• touching, playing with weight, floor work, eye contact,
• leading and folowing in partner work,
• massage, relaxations
• sharing experiences

At the end of the presentation we shared different questions, situations and methods of the subject .