Lucia Holinová: A DREAM
DREAM by choreographer Lucia Holinová and co-author of the concept Zuzana Očenášová-Vasičáková brings stories of dreaming, nightmares, hidden desires, fears, and unfulfilled ideas of the self. Dreams unfold in abstract images, unrestrained and guided by their own logic—an intuitively tuned functionality of absurdity. Into Nina Pixel’s music, the sound resonances of observer-performers playing meditation bowls are interwoven, serving as a kind of commentary. Subtle shifts and nuances in the music accompany gentle ruptures on stage, unpredictable changes in atmosphere. Performers and co-authors of the choreography—Lukáš Bobalik, Katarína Chilli Čillíková, Daniel Raček, and Paulína Šmatláková—bring the best of their diverse dance backgrounds into the intricately crafted movement concept. Their dance transitions into weightlessness with acrobatic ease, only to become fully grounded again in hip-hop sequences or to stir the atmosphere with the drama of expressive movement. Daniel Raček brilliantly takes on the role of mediator. In his solo with a mask (designed by Jozef Kurinec), he encapsulates the multidimensionality of the dream world. Costumes by Veronika Keresztesová, together with lighting design by Róbert Polák, create a magical visual symbiosis, playfully working with unsettling details and provocative contrasts. In her project, Holinová avoids melancholic tones, confidently moving along the fine line between miracles and reality. The fluidity of movement integrates the flow of time, where past, present, and future slip away from the linear axis and play with the viewer’s perception.
Monika Čertezni
The choreographer and the dancers, with variety of dancing backgrounds – including modern dance, street dance, martial arts, and classical dance – and of different ages, bring a fresh physical context to the performance. The piece merges meditative scenes, in which dancers transforms into musicians, playing on crystal bowls while seated. The central thematic thread of the performance is abstraction and absurdity of dreams, their plurality of meanings, drawn from biological processes, intuition, and, above all, an infinite amount of stories.
The music for the performance is composed by Slovak producer and DJ Nina Pixel, who is based in Berlin. Her work ranges from techno to dark doom ambient, incorporating folklore and traditional elements. She has been exploring the theme of dreams for several years.
Direction and choreography: Lucia Holinová
Dance and movement material: Lukáš Bobalik, Daniel Raček, Paulína Šmatláková, Katarína Čillíková
Music: Nina Pixel
Motive: Zuzana Očenášová Vasičáková
Costumes: Veronika Keresztesová
Light design: Robert Polák
Mask: Jozef Kurinec
Projection: Jozef Miklós
Produkcion: RESERVA, o. z.
The performance was supported by the Fond pre umenie, the performance was created with the support of Telocvičňa – Residential Centre for Dance, BSK and Nová Cvernovka.
Lucia Holinová is a choreographer, dancer, dance teacher, dance dramaturge, editor-in-chief of the magazine TANEC, and a publisher of dance literature. She graduated from the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, specialising in dance and modern dance pedagogy. During her studies at the Academy of Performing Arts, she clearly defined the nature of her future work. Her approach to contact technique and partner work explores themes of relationships without emotional overcharge. Instead, she portrays them through an objective lens of principal interest and quest that follows after the triggering tension and conflicts. Her first full-length performance, Škára (1999), marked the beginning of the theme of hiding and peeking into the inner world, which she revisited in Fuga/A Gap (2012). She further developed themes of fragility and vulnerability in the face of external manipulation and abuse in her productions Watch (2015) and Watch Now (2016). In 2019, she created Niveau Stable (2021), a tribute to Mary Fulkerson, and site – specific performance The Other side (Genius Loci) created for the Bratislava in Movement festival in 2021. In 2023, she premiered Sen/A Dream. As a dramaturge, she has collaborated with the choreographer Šárka Ondrišovová on productions for the Slovak Nationale Theatre, Theatre elledanse, and Ballet Bratislava, as well as with other Slovak choreographers. In 2014, she co-founded the civic group Neskorý zber alongside Monika Čertezni, Daniel Raček, and Anna Sedlačková, bringing together mature dancers. Within this collective, she contributed to the team choreography of Zámerné čakanie (Theatre elledanse, 2014). Between 2010 and 2013, she served as the managing director of Theatre and Dance School elledanse. She collaborated with theatre LEN TAK TAK, which integrates disabled and non-disabled dancers, and created the productions Pi Story (2015) and Dunaj (2016) for the company.