The Sun Stopped Gazing at the Miracle

Ethno-dance project

The performance has an origin in Croatian dance and music folklore tradition. Of course, we have modified an extensive musical, dance and ritual material into the contemporary dance expression feeding on magical strength, beauty and richness of symbolism of life and customs. In the centre there is a human being, who seeks, touches, meets, passes by another. It finds unity in movement, rhythm, and wheel dance as a symbol of collective consciousness. It discovers traces of gods and they become his primordial need for being, socializing, and belonging. The unity creates energy, a wish for competing, proving oneself, it procreates passion, playfulness of the soul and body, and erotic attraction. From the collective an individual is crystallized, which yearns for love, which is inclined to hedonism, but also to autoirony. It is not enough that the life is created, it is necessary that it survives. In the symbol of grain a memory of creative tendencies of a man is projected, it seeks work, creative effort and it makes a survival possible. In the symbol of water a human being recognizes the source of life, but also a mean of purification, a feeling of freshness and relaxation. The rhythm, wheel dance, song, and energy were an incentive and challenge at the beginning, and during the dance they became a principle and passion of moving bodies.

Željka Turčinović, dramaturge

Dancers: Kristina Bajza, Alen Gotal, Zvonimir Kvesić, Antonia Matković, Martina Tomić, Nina Sakić, Ivana Vratarić
Choreographer: Rajko Pavlić
Music: Stanko Juzbašić
Costume design: Nina Husain
Dramaturge: Željka Turčinović
Light design: Mario Vnučec
Musicians: Josip Novosel - solo violin, Aleksandra Ptičar - voice, Stanko Juzbašić - other instruments

The performance was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia and the City Office for Education, Culture and Sport of the City of Zagreb.

The premier of the restaged performance "The Sun Stopped Gazing at the Miracle" was at Histrionski dom, Zagreb on March 1st, 2009.

Liberdance had a guest performance of the "The Sun Stopped Gazing at the Miracle" at the VII Festival Internacional "Mujeres en la Danza" in Ecuador on March 17th and 18th, 2009.