Performance Ways of Love / Une façon d’aimer researches, investigates and formulates a language of two authors with different formal backgrounds and experiences. They meet through common themes and common working process that investigates the dialectics of this particular creative collaboration. The process and the product centre on the intimacy created in this particular encounter. The central theme revolves around violence, which is in the process perceived as the only possible articulation of longings for love, lust, dissection and loss of bodily fetters. By bringing the violence and desire behind it into consciousness, two possible ways of resolution open up. First is the way of ‘purification’/catharsis through pain and the second through laughter and self-irony.

Created and performed by: Maja Delak & Luka Prinčič
Music, video, photography: Maja Delak & Luka Prinčič
Visual design and advising: Maja Smrekar
Costumes and styling: Jelena Rusjan
Light design: Urška Vohar
Design: Mauricio Ferlin
Translation: Katja Kosi
English proof reading: Eric Dean Scott
Executive production & coordination: Sabina Potočki
Office coordination: Nina Janež
Produced by: Emanat // Co-produced by: Delavski dom Trbovlje // In collaboration with: KUD France Prešeren // Financial support: Ministry of Culture RS, City Municipality of Ljubljana – Department for Culture // Media support: Mladina, Radio Študent // Sponsored by: Peko by Gacho, Georgia cuisine Zlato Runo

Reviews
Besides the excellent presence of both performers, who convincingly enacted their stage potential, the multimedia performance distinguishes itself with a sensitive reflection of both the contents of the “ways of love” as well as of the modes of presentation itself.
Mojca Kumerdej, Delo, 28.02.2009, Načini ljubezni

The relative concrete stage, sound and video actions open up questions about relationships, pain, power relations, and primarily touch upon many fields of betweenness and contradistinctions. Travesties thus come about in the area of sexual identities, emotional states and power relations. Explicit and symbolic articulations of violence, metaphors of the sexual, examination of positions of sexual identities are made visible between the performers – who have an exceptional presence, especially Maja Delak – on their way of love, as well as the ever significant area of contemplation – the question of power relations, which is inscribed, more or less visibly, conspicuously or subtly, in every relation and sociocultural field.
Neža Mrevlje, Indirekt, 18.02.2009, Na poti ljubezni

Content-wise, the performance progresses from sharp pain, which is in places alienated and ironized, toward liberation, both in the intimate as well as in the sense of general morality, models, expectations.
Petra Tanko, Radio Slovenija, Ocena predstave, D13, 24.02.2009

A dull sound of the bass can be heard, like when standing in front of a club in the middle of the night. We see leather and feel a tiny bit of voluptuousness and a trifle of anxiety. Neon lights below the ceiling, which move us back into the eighties or into the present, while all the details may still suggest the future. It does not matter, as we are slowly becoming immersed into the ways of love – Une façon d’aimer. (…)
Leja Benedičič, Radio Študent, Poti ljubezni, 27.02.2009

Other reviews:
27.05.2010, Infinite Body, Daze of love at Dixon Place, Eva Yaa Asantewaa
29.05.2010, New York Times, Looking at Love, No Sugarcoating Needed, Gia Kourals

Performans Poti ljubezni / Une façon d’aimer temelji na iskanju, raziskovanju in oblikovanju jezika z vstopanjem v timsko delo dveh avtorjev, ki izhajata iz različnih formalnih predispozicij, znanj in izkušenj in uporabljata različne medije tako v procesu kot v sami predstavi. Avtorja se bosta vsebinsko dotikala zaprte intime, ki se razgaljuje v srečanju. Hkrati bo proces usmerjen v raziskovanje teme nasilja, ki izhaja iz nezmožnosti zavestne artikulacije notranjih vozlišč in silnosti; nasilje je v procesu percipirano kot edina možna artikulacija. Nekaj kar je latentno se v pravih pogojih končno vzburi in pojavi na površju – hrepenenje po ljubezni, poželenje, raztelešenje, iskanje izgube telesnih spon, – se manifestira v nasilju. Taka enosmernost postane kompleksen spoj potencialov, ko je prisotna zavestna želja po ozaveščanju skozi nasilje in hrepenenje. Eno od možnih poti predstavlja »očiščenje« skozi bolečino. Drugo pot predstavlja »očiščenje« skozi smeh in samoironični pogled na vloge, ki jih igramo.

Avtorja in izvajalca: Maja Delak in Luka Prinčič
Glasba, video in fotografija: Maja Delak & Luka Prinčič
Svetovanje in vizualna podoba: Maja Smrekar
Kostumografija in stlyling: Jelena Rusjan
Oblikovanje svetlobe: Urška Vohar
Oblikovanje promocijskih materialov: Mauricio Ferlin
Prevodi: Katja Kosi
Lektura angleških besedil: Eric Dean Scott
Koordinacija in izvršna produkcija: Sabina Potočki
Koordinacija pisarne: Nina Janež
Produkcija: Emanat // Koprodukcija: Delavski dom Trbovlje // V sodelovanju: KUD France Prešeren // Finančna podpora: Ministrstvo za kulturo RS, Mestna občina Ljubljana – oddelek za kulturo // Medijska podpora: Mladina in Radio Študent // Sponzor: Peko by Gacho, Gruzijska gostilna Zlato runo

Kritike
Poleg izvrstne izvedbe obeh nastopajočih, ki sta prepričala tudi s svojim, doslej še ne videnim odrskim potencialom, multimedijsko predstavo odlikuje natančen premislek, tako tega, kar zadeva vsebino »načinov ljubezni«, kot tudi načinov same uprizoritve.
Mojca Kumerdej, Delo, 28.02.2009, Načini ljubezni

Relativno konkretno odrsko, zvočno in videodogajanje odpira vprašanja o odnosu, bolečini, razmerju moči, predvsem pa posega na mnoga polja vmesnosti in nasprotij. Travestije se tako zgodijo na področju spolnih identitet, emocionalnih stanj in razmerij moči. Na poti ljubezni se med performerjema, ki sta dobra, še posebej Maja Delak, izrišejo eksplicitne in simbolične artikulacije nasilja, metafore spolnega, prevpraševanje pozicij spolnih identitet in vedno znova vredno področje premlevanja – vprašanje razmerij moči, ki je vpisano, bolj ali manj oprijemljivo, očitno in prefinjeno, v kakršnekoli odnose in družbenokultuma polja.
Neža Mrevlje, Indirekt, 18.02.2009, Na poti ljubezni

Vsebinsko se uprizoritev stopnjuje od močne bolečine, ki je mestoma potujena in ironizirana, proti osvoboditvi, tako v intimnem kot tudi v smislu obče morale, vzorcev, pričakovanj.
Petra Tanko, Radio Slovenija, Ocena predstave, D13, 24.02.2009

Slišimo zamolko bobnenje basov, kot da bi stali sredi noči pred diskoteko. Vidimo usnje in občutimo malce naslade ter malce tesnobe. Na stropu se svetijo neonske luči, ki nas prenesejo v osemdeseta ali v sedaj, mogoče pa vsi detajli sugerirajo prihodnost. Ni važno, ker začnemo toniti v Poti ljubezni – Une façon d’aimer.
Leja Benedičič, Radio Študent, Poti ljubezni, 27.02.2009

Maja Delak’s eleventh performance is the first production by the newly founded Emanat (Emanat Institute). A dance piece based on the pleasure of the physical and moving, Expensive Darlings is conditioned by the quasi-institutional status of contemporary dance in Slovenia.
The choreographer invited six dancers and actresses to participate in the process of exploring the coexistence of various types of personal engagement, as well as various kinds of aspiration of the contemporary dance corpus. How to realise the impacts of aspiration and one’s own openness? How to allow the coexistence of somebody else’s wish? (Katja Praznik)
Maja Delak: Expensive darlings – a revision (a note on the creative process of the performance), Reartikulacija magazine, no. 4, 2008

Concept and choreography: Maja Delak
Authors and performers: Maja Delak, Katja Kosi, Barbara Krajnc, Jelena Rusjan, Vlasta Veselko, Urška Vohar, Nataša Živković
Dramaturgy: Katja Praznik
Set design: Marko Peljhan
Original Music: Gipo Gurrado, Atilla Faravelli
Lighting design: Urška Vohar
Costume design: Nadja Bedjanič
Costumes: Dominika Zver
Design: Špela Drašler
Photo by: Zoe Vincenti
Technician: Janko Oven
Traslation: Katja Kosi, Melita Silič
Language editing: Simona Ana Radež
Production assistant: Nina Janež
Executive production: Sabina Potočki
Produced by: Emanat Institute
Co-produced by: Festival City of Women – Association for the Promotion of Women in Culture and Ljubljana Dance Theatre
Sponsors: POP TV / Kanal A, OBI, Airsoft Slovenija

Reviews
… The performance Expensive Darlings is a telling intertwinement of the universal and the individual, the social and the intimate. The seven dancers and actresses – beside the author Maja Delak also Barbara Krajnc, Jelena Rusjan, Vlasta Veselko, Urška Vohar, Nataša Živković and the translator into English Katja Kosi – find themselves in-between the opposing, though at once constitutively connected oppositions: between how they see themselves and how, in their view, others see them, between creative enthusiasm and fear of failure, between accepting their gender and the impression that it might have been easier for them in this profession if they were men, between the pleasure to be on stage and the financial privation behind the scenes of everyday life, etc… The performers embody different roles, from the gloomy Vampirella, the fragile angel, the bold toreador to Latino macho pop singer Adriano Celentano, excellently and wittily interpreted by Maja Delak… Perhaps the performance reaches its peak in the moment, when the seven performers seize the guns and raise them to the audience. Yet, already in the next moment, their ultimate gesture dissolves into a likeable dance entertainment, with the music from the film Barbarella playing in the background. They slip from their ethical, ultimate position on the sharp edge of existence into a strait of entertaining, dance decoration. … Expensive Darlings is a performance about the struggle for art as an individual ethical position (with all that pertains to this, the good, the bad, delightful, distressing, etc.), and is one of the most engaged performances of the past years in Slovenia.
Liminal Stories About the Centre, Mojca Kumerdej, Delo, 10.10.2007

… Expensive Darlings is a performance about the position of women in the cultural, social and political context of contemporary dance in Slovenia. And in this, it is of key importance. Why? Because it opens up, discloses, exhibits, authorizes, actualizes and problematizes the inaugural point of contemporary dance history in our space: contemporary dance was constituted by women already before the universal right to vote had been introduced in this geopolitical territory, and is as such principally a practice of emancipated women’s creativity.
Rebels, Artists, Masochists, Rok Vevar, Večer, 16.10.2007

…Expensive Darlings is a performance, engaged in the noblest sense of the word. Its engagement is directed into a search of new spaces for the movement of the body and thought.
Mapping Contemporary Performing Arts II, Tomaž Toporišič, Dialogi, 11-12/07

The viewer’s focus elegantly passes from one performer to the other, who – despite a rather large number of the cast – equally distributes the time and space for their stories, without repeating themselves, although they share many a thing. All are women, all devoted themselves to the stage, all work in unfavourable conditions, all reveal themselves to the audience, and above all, they all love the art of dance.
Radio Student, Festival term II.: City of Women; 8.10.2007, Alja B.

A calm but convincing protest with a clear concept, though reasons for the current position of contemporary dance in Slovenia could perhaps also be found within the wider social context and its values.
Maja Delak Is Not Laughing; Jasna Zavodnik, CoWeb

… “Maja Delak was especially interested in the open, relaxed structure, a result of thinking about how to construct a form that reveals the vision of seven creators. Not only do direction and choreography meet in the performance (a unique dance theater where the dance and movement material is connected to the singing and acting pieces), but the choreographer is at the same time the director who (together with six co-creators) conceives the performance. Such a method of work presupposes extensive preceding discussions that enable the articulation of individual positions as well as their common vision. The choreographer found her conceptual inspiration for the structure in Sedwick, who in accordance with Deleuzian topology and the consideration of alternative spatializing methods, introduces the concept of “beside” that enables an non-hierarchical coexistence of the seven solos. (…) Regarding the structure of the performance Expensive Darlings, it is especially telling, how the awareness of the power of the institution (a cultural and political instance that regulates art production and distribution) becomes an integral part of the performance. The realization of the set design by Marko Peljhan, who equipped the whole performance space with a surveillance system establishes a metaphor of a system that mostly surveys contemporary dance activities instead of appropriately supporting them.” …
“Female” Creativity in Slovenia: The Case of Contemporary Dance – Mojca Puncer, Maska Magazine – The Passage Of The Gaze, 113-144 – spring 2008

Drage drage je plesna predstava, ki izhaja iz kvaziinstitucionalnega statusa sodobnega plesa v Sloveniji in temelji na užitku do fizičnega in gibajočega. Koreografinja je k sodelovanju povabila šest plesalk in igralk, ki v komaj znosni bližini sinhronih fizičnih akcij zasledujejo osebne angažmaje in se soočajo s kulturnimi konvencijami in stereotipi. Formalno in vsebinsko predstava vzpostavlja več vrst želenja sodobnega plesnega telesa in v njej ustvarjalke ne soobstajajo po principih izločene sredine, nasprotij, poenotenja ali skladnosti. V predstavi so v položaju, ko jih zapeljujeta lastna želja in užitek. Obenem pa se poskušajo poistovetiti s svojo družbeno vlogo in se izogniti ujetosti v odnos, v katerem bi lahko upoštevale le učinke svoje maske na druge. Zato poskušajo uprizoriti odprtost v hkratnem sobivanju z željo drugega. (Katja Praznik)

Reartikulacija št. 4, poletje 2008
Maja Delak: Expensive darlings – a revision (zapis procesa nastajanja predstave) >>>

Koncept in koreografija: Maja Delak
Ustvarjalke in izvajalke: Maja Delak, Katja Kosi, Barbara Krajnc, Jelena Rusjan, Vlasta Veselko, Urška Vohar, Nataša Živković
Dramaturgija: Katja Praznik
Scenografija: Marko Peljhan
Originalna glasba: Gipo Gurrado, Attila Faravelli
Oblikovanje svetlobe: Urška Vohar
Kostumografija: Nadja Bedjanič
Prevajalka: Katja Kosi
Lektorica: Simona Ana Radež
Oblikovanje: Špela Drašlar
Fotografije: Zoe Vincenti
Tehnična izvedba: Janko Oven
Tehnična pomoč pri scenografiji: Bojan Mastilovič
Izvršna producentka: Sabina Potočki
Pomoč pri produkciji: Nina Janež
Produkcija: Emanat
Koprodukcija: Festival Mesto žensk – Društvo za promocijo žensk v kulturi, Plesni Teater Ljubljana
S finančno podporo: Ministrstvo za kulturo RS, Mestna občina Ljubljana
Sponzorji: POP TV / Kanal A, OBI, Airsoft Slovenija

Kritike
Predstava Drage drage je prepričljiv preplet občega in posamičnega, družbenega in intimnega. Sedem plesalk in igralk, – poleg avtorice še Barbara Krajnc, Jelena Rusjan, Vlasta Veselko, Urška Vohar, Nataša Živković in prevajalka v angleščino Katja Kosi – je razpetih med nasprotujoča, a hkrati konstitutivno povezana nasprotja: med to, kako vidijo same sebe in jih, po njihovem vidijo drugi, med ustvarjalnim entuziazmom in strahom pred porazom, med sprejemanjem svojega spola in razmislekom, da bi jim bilo najbrž kot moškim v tem poklicu lažje, med užitkom na odru in finančno depriviligiranostjo v zaodrju vsakdanjosti itd. … Nastopajoče utelešajo različne vloge, od mračne Vampirele, krhkega angela, drznega toreadorja do latino mačo šlagerista Adriana Celentana, ki ga izvrstno in duhovito interpretira Maja Delak. … Morda je vrhunec predstave trenutek, ko vseh sedem nastopajočih pograbi puške in jih nameri v občinstvo, a že v naslednjem trenutku se njihova ultimativna gesta ob glasbi iz filma Barbarella zmehča v všečno plesno zabavo, s svojega etičnega, ultimativnega položaja na ostrini eksistencialnega roba pa zdrsijo v strugo zabavljaške, plesne dekoracije. … Drage drage je predstava o boju za umetnost kot individualno etično pozicijo (z vsem kar spada zraven, dobrim, prijetnim, slabim, mukotrpnim idr.), je ena najbolj angažiranih slovenskih predstav v zadnjih letih.
Robne zgodbe o središču, Mojca Kumerdej, Delo, 10.10.2007

To je predstava o poziciji ženske v kulturnem, socialnem in političnem kontekstu sodobnega plesa v Sloveniji in v tem je ključna. Zakaj? Ker odpira, razpira, razstavlja, avtorizira, aktualizira in problematizira inavguralno točko sodobnoplesne zgodovine pri nas: sodobni ples so ženske zasnovale še preden je bila na tem geopolitičnem teritoriju uvedena splošna volilna pravica in kot tak je prvenstveno praksa emancipirane ženske ustvarjalnosti.
Upornice, artistke, mazohistke, Rok Vevar, Večer, 16.10.2007

Drage drage so predstava, ki je angažirana v najžlahtnejšem pomenu besede, saj je njen angažma usmerjen v iskanje novih prostorov za gibanja misli in telesa.
Tomaž Toporišič, Dialogi, št. 11-12, 2007

»Namesto preverjenih koreografskih postopkov je Majo Delak tokrat posebno zanimala odprta, zrahljana struktura, ki je nasledek spraševanja, kako skonstruirati formo, ki razkrije vizijo sedmih ustvarjalk. Ne le da se v predstavi srečata režija in koreografija (svojevrsdtno plesno gledališče, kjer je gibalno-plesni material povezan s pevsko-igralskimi vložki), koreografinja je hkrati režiserka, ki s šestimi soustvarjalkami snuje predstavo. Takšen način dela predpostavlja obsežne predhodne diskusije, ki omogočajo artikulacijo tako posameznih pozicij kot skupne vizije. Koeografinja je konceptualni navdih z oblikovanje strukture našla pri Sedgwickovi, ki v skladu z deleuzovsko topologijo in razmislekom o alternativnih načinih uprostorjenja vpeljuje koncept zraven, ki omogoča nehierarhizirano sobivanje sedmih likov. (…) Glede strukture predstave Drage drage je posebno pomenljivo tudi, kako zavedanje o moči institucije (kulturnopolitične instance, ki kroji umetniško produkcijo in distribucijo) postane integralni del predstave. Z realizacijo scenografske zamisli Marka Peljhana, da je celoten prostor predstave opremljen z nadzornim sistemom, je vzpostavljena metafora sistema, ki sodobnoplesno dogajanje predvsem nadzira, namesto da bi ga ustrezno podpiral.”
Mojca Puncer, Maska – Pasaža pogleda, št. 113-114, pomlad 2008…»Ženska« ustvarjalnost v Sloveniji: Primer sodobnega plesa