Contemporary dance and circus festival - Periskop 2025.

Mobilizing the format and legacy of the cabaret genre, Žak Branko Valente’s Chez Michou project intertwines the image of the French singer and drag artist Michou with a poetic contemplation of disorientation. Bodies on stage activate a queer spatiality that blurs the boundary between the inner and outer worlds, between abstraction and the reality of fiction. Leading the imagination into a confusion of identities, the choreography reveals a cartography of dislocation saturated with vivid textures of objects, gestures and words. The collapse of heteronormative structures is radicalized through the possibility of flesh to oppose fixed coordinates and perform a subject that is somehow out of place. As an invitation to lose yourself, Chez Michou celebrates the horizon that disappears and returns to the affective territories of Otherness.

Author and choreographer: Žak Valenta
Co-creators and performers: Toni Flego, Maria Arkouli / Eleonora Magdalena Vrdoljak, Ekin Tunçeli, Hannah Krebs, Žak Branko Valenta
Dramaturgy: Andrej Mirčev
Visual identity: Nikoleta Mirčev
Music: Dušan Maksimovski
Production: TRAFIK Arts Organization; RIJEKA, MDT Moderna Danstatern Stockholm, SKH Stockholm University of the Arts.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to supervisors Dinis Machado, Dr. Andrej Mirčev and Dr. Siegmar Zacharias. Special thanks to mentor Jennifer Lacey. Many thanks to Karin Hauptmann, producer of MA choreography SKH. The program is made possible by public budget funds: City of Rijeka, City of Zagreb, Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia.
Duration: 60 min
Note: for your comfort, you can leave your shoes in front of the entrance to the performance space and pick them up at the end of the performance at the exit.

ŽAK VALENTA, author. MA in art-choreography born on December 13, 1966 in Umag, Republic of Croatia. Choreographer, contemporary dancer, physical theatre performer, eurythmy and dance pedagogue and somatic practitioner. Artistic director of TRAFIK Dance Theatre since 2013. He has been an active participant in the Croatian and international dance scene for many years, known for his exploratory approach to movement and the body.

TRAFIK (Transitional-fantasy theatre) is an independent theatre group from Rijeka that has been operating since 1998. It is one of the first non-institutional theatre groups in Croatia and brings together artists of various profiles – from directors, actors and dancers to visual artists and musicians – often educated abroad due to the lack of specialized schools in Croatia. The group fosters a collective and exploratory approach to theatre, emphasizing themes specific to the Mediterranean and Central European space, but also universal ideas that communicate with a wider European audience. Their performances often deal with lesser-known or neglected topics, and their work has won multiple awards at international festivals. TRAFIK has significantly contributed to the development of Rijeka's independent theatre scene and has become a platform for new generations of artists. The group fosters a specific, recognizable poetics and fosters dialogue on cultural and political issues. Theatre scholar Andrej Mirčev points out that despite the challenges, TRAFIK consistently insisted on layered and aesthetically complex projects, thus revitalizing the Croatian theatre scene. TRAFIK's performances are characterized by interdisciplinary and a strong audio-visual component, and their approach is called "transitional-fictional theatre".

With the support of the City of Rijeka.

What came before me? What remains after the performance? What will remain after I am gone? A choreographic journey or a scenic shipwreck, Never ALLone represents a symbolic collision between fragile humanity and inorganic machinery. Through exploratory yet humorous melancholy, Matea Bilosnić builds a hybrid environment in which she questions personal trauma, proposes philosophical landscapes, experiments with shipwreck imagery and communicates with a machine entity. In the seven-chapter choreography she reshapes her past and re-examines our collective future.

Choreography: Matea Bilosnić
Performers: Matea Bilosnić, Nataša Kustura
Dramaturgy: Nikolina Rafaj
Music: Nikola Krgović N/OBE, Matea Bilosnić meteo
Stage design and visual identity: Josip Kresović
Costume design: Ana Fucijaš
Lighting design: Saša Fistrić
Robot design and construction: Vedran Relja
Photo: Neven Petrović
Duration: 55 min
Production: Zadar Dance Ensemble (ZdPA) with the support of: Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance (HIPP) through Dance Week Festival (TSP) & Zagreb Dance Centre (ZPC) & Mediterranean Dance Center (MPC)

Matea Bilosnić is a Croatian choreographer, dancer, performer, and a multimedia artist. In her work she explores the connection between actions, words and meaning in a multidisciplinary context. She graduated from Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance and is a member of the Zadar Dance Ensemble. She is a part of the production team and co-curates the Monoplay festival of contemporary dance in Zadar, Croatia. She is an Aerowaves 2025 artist. As a performer she has collaborated with various choreographers and since 2019 she has created more than ten works in collaboration with Zagreb Dance Company, TRAS Collective, Zadar Dance Ensemble. With Zadar Dance Ensemble, she created ‘Gozd-danse macabre’, for which she was awarded the Croatian Theatre Gild in the category: Best Choreography in 2020. She is a teaching assistant at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb where she teaches stage movement. Besides dance, theatre and pedagogy she is interested in music and video production.

Financially supported by: Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the City Office for Culture and Civil Society of the City of Zagreb and the Kultura nova Foundation.

Konstrukt speaks about failure, through deconstruction of aerial elements in circus. The characters are fighting their own unrealistic goals, investing a lot of effort in trying to perform on the equipment that is fragile, unsafe and unsuitable for use. Through three metaphors about failure, it deals with questions about how each of us deals with disappointment and what madness drives us to give ourselves the work of Sisyphus.

Author, director: Dora Komenda
Interpreters: Klara Barišić, Georgina Cassels, Georgiana Johnson
Light design: Domagoj Šoić
Music curator: Mišo Komenda
Production: Cirkus Kolektiv
Co-production: circusnext
Duration: 50 mins

Dora Komenda is an architect and self-taught circus artist from Split, Croatia. In 2015, she graduated in architecture and at the same time discovered circus, and has been active in both disciplines simultaneously since then. Since 2018, she has been working as a producer at Cirkus Kolektiv and is starting her first solo creations, and in 2021, she founded the architectural office Kolektiv tri. In 2024, she started directing for the first time in the show Konstrukt, which was selected as one of the 12 finalists of the European circusnext project, which is considered the greatest achievement in her author work so far. Her shows and works in progress are performed throughout Europe and she is continuously educated in different technical aspects of mainly aerial circus disciplines, along with circus dramaturgy and different aspects of producing and cultural work. She is one of the founders and a steering committee member of croatian Contemporary Circus Artist’s Association since 2021. and a steering committee member of Youth Center Platform in Split since 2024.

Support: Ministry of culture and media Republic of Croatia, The city of Split, C.IN.E. Sineu, Tollhaus Karlsruhe, Circus residential network Croatia 2022, ROOM 100, Cirkorama, Cirqueon, La central del circ, Culture Moves Europe, shortlisted circusnext 2022-2023, project co-funded by the European Union

“This One: Gratia” is the third part of the dance performance trilogy This One, in which Anika and Valentina explore the theme of staging questions related to the idea of life and death within theatrical heritage.
The performance situates the authors’ work in a relationship best compared to that of a painter who paints foggy skies and somber, bleak landscapes with a cheerful spirit, with joy and peace. His nature is both. This One: Gratia, as a response and conclusion to the authors’ three-year thematic journey, brings to the forefront a dance of attack, cry, and tenderness. The environment in which the dance lives is three-layered, opening space for confronting human nature and intention, and thus their dangers and beauties, including human relationships and surrendering to them. This One: Gratia offers traces of acceptance, gentleness, sacrifice, and resilience.
Following the dance performances This One: Misericordia, which explores what it means to live and die in the context of performance, and This One: Tristitia, which deals with the theme of celebration and mourning, with This One: Gratia, the artists explore the staging of human resistance that can transform into a state of gratitude, peace, and reconciliation with everything life can be—and is.

Authors: Valentina Miloš, Anika Cetina
Performers: Gendis Putri Kartini, Valentina Miloš
Scenography: Aleksandra Ana Buković
Music: Nikola Krgović N/OBE
Light Design: Saša Fistrić
Spoken text: Isabela Eva Ljubičić
Trailer and photography: Neven Petrović
Production: Umjetnička organizacija ova
Co-production: Zagrebački plesni centar
Duration: 50 min

Valentina Miloš and Anika Cetina are emerging dance artists based in Zagreb, working as choreographers, authors, and performers within the independent contemporary dance scene. After completing their BA in Contemporary Dance at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb in 2021, they performed in projects by numerous artists, including Petra Hrašćanec, Irma Omerzo, Tomo Savić-Gecan, Naomi Brand, and others.
In 2023, they decided to focus on their collaborative artistic work and, in 2024, founded the artistic organization This One. Their thematic interests lie in the psychological dimensions of human existence, questions of life and death, and emotional states and responses embedded in everyday experience. Their artistic approach is grounded in a fusion of intuition, intimacy, and performative clarity, with a strong emphasis on the transparency of human presence.
Their joint authorship begins with the dance trilogy "This One": Misericordia (2023), Tristitia (2024), and Gratia (2025), in which they explore ways of staging fundamental existential questions within the context of performance and theatrical heritage.

With the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia.

Marine Mane's starting point was a reanimation exercise: years after her sister's death, she found photos of her childhood and her family, of joyful and vivid memories, of uplifting moments in the truest sense of the word, where bodies seemed both welcome and welcoming, happy and light. Three of these in particular caught her attention and became the choreographic support for the piece. The show explores the memory of our emotional relationships, those that exist, those that no longer exist, those that never existed, and yet are foundational.
Contrary to popular belief, a photograph is first and foremost the product of a gesture at the crossroads of a place, a moment, an emotion, an intention and an action, and not the result of a mechanical device. This implies a completely different approach to photographic images and their role in our hyper-mediatised societies. The body reminds us that every memory is first and foremost a gesture anchored in time and space, and that this is of fundamental importance.

Concept & art direction: Marine Mane
Music: Franky Gogo, with the participation of Alexandre Nahon / The track «Sister» is a composition by JS Bach arranged and performed by Leïla Martial
Interpreters: Sophie Billon, Clémence Dieny
Clothing: Compagnie In Vitro
Light design: Lucien Valle
Dramaturgy assistant: Nathalia Kloos
Production/touring/administration: Orane Lindegaard and Philippe Naulot
Co-productions and partners: Les Scènes du Jura, Scène nationale ; Le PALC - Pôle national cirque, Châlons-en Champagne Grand Est ; ACT - Art en Coopérative Transfrontalière : Usine à Gaz à Nyon, les Scènes nationales de Bourgen-Bresse et du Jura (Lons-le-Saunier/Dole), le Théâtre Am Stram Gram, centre international de création partenaire de l’enfance et la jeunesse à Genève et Château Rouge, scène conventionnée à Annemasse / Interreg France Suisse, programme cofinancé par l’Union européenne
Duration: 45 min

Marine Mane founded the company in Vitro in 2012. She received grants and subsidies from Beaumarchais, Dicréam, and SACD : her transdisciplinary career can be seen on stages as diverse as her influences and practices (dance, music, theater, circus, photography). She is an associate artist at Théâtre Molière, national stage of Sète.
The company in Vitro is accredited by the Ministry of Culture and Communication – DRAC Grand Est. It receives regular support from the City of Reims, the Marne department and the Region Grand Est, and from writing grants from Beaumarchais, SACD, the CNC, and the DGCA.

With the support of the French Institute in Serbia and Teatroskop, a program initiated by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the French Ministry of Culture, and Institut français Paris.

The Forest project is the third and last part of  Danijela’s the personal trilogy entitled Niti PraGozd (eng. it is a play of words:  Threads/Neither Treshold/Primeval - Forest). The trilogy was developed by the author’s first performance Threads, in 2019, continued with the performance Treshold, in 2021, and concludes with performance Forest. The author deals with the "engine" of social change i.e. non violent radicalization, and the position of the individual within society, focusing on the position of women. She questions the relationship between individualization and collectivization of society, deals with the dynamics between social and personal crises and looks for parallels between the individuum and society. Performance takes one of the eco-feminist aspects, mainly from one's own position and placement in the social context. The Forest will deal with one's own position in a majority still patriarchal, neo-capitalist consumer society. The purpose and goal will be to show today's social functioning, i.e. a systemic capitalist system doomed to self-destruction. And the absurdity of this situation, in which the major part of society is aware of it, nevertheless does not require radical change (movie Don’t look up is a good synonym for this situation). In addition to the author, 5 performing dancers/performers and two life musicians are part of the performance. The title of the project “Forest” seeks symbolic parallels with the importance of preserving trees and forests. According to some data, this is even more important than reducing fossil fuels.
The author started developing the project in 2022 in Timisoara (Romania) where she worked with 7 local women performers and dancers and presented Forest - work in progress. In august/september 2023 Danijela worked on solo parts of the project in Circus Residential Network in Rijeka. Research was focused on how waste materials – waste PVC plastic could be used combined in aerial acrobatics. Residence and work in progress presentation was part of Periskop festival organised by Prostor Plus Association.  The show was presented to the public in November 2024, Ljubljana, Španski Borci.

Idea, choreography, direction: Danijela Zajc
Performers: Iva Hađina, Kristinka Dušek, Ivana Peranić, Matea Zatezalo, Tereza Obelić and Danijela Zajc
Adviser for direction: Jaka Andrej Vojevec
Live music: Maja Pahor in Pia Skušek
Light design: Hotimir Knific
Program flyer design: Nevena Aleksovski
Costumography: Katarina Zalar
Video recording and editing: Petra Hrovatin
Technical assistance during the show: Jaka Andrej Vojevec, Gala Jarc
PR: Gala Jarc
Production: Danijela Zajc
Coproduction/coorganisation/partners: Asociatia Solidart (Temišvar, Romunija), Cirkuška rezidencialna mreža, Prostor Plus (Reka, Hrvaška), Društvo Matafir, Društvo Mismo Nismo
Thanks to: Branko Potočan, Broline, PLAC – Participativna Ljubljanska Avtonomna Cona
Support: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, 2022-23
Duration: 50 min

Danijela Zajc (born 1985), holds a university degree in pedagogy and cultural sociology. She is a performer, pedagogue, organizer and technician. She performs solo and with groups such as Fourklour, Feminalz (Thieves of Images), FEM TV, Moja prav(lj)ice, Mismo Nismo, and others. She is a co-founder of the Feminist Choir Z’borke and of the circus training and performance space Cirkusarna NaokRog at AT Rog, where she has been leading aerial acrobatics workshops and organizing the Femi-Queer DIY cabaret series “Feminism is No Joke!” since 2016.

With the support of Perform Europe as part of the Spreading the Roots project.

As part of the Spreading the Roots project, the play Forest / Gozd will tour three European countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia and Romania) in 2025. During the residency, five Croatian performing artists will participate in its preparation for the performance at the Periskop festival, collaborating with the author Danijela Zajc, Jaka Andrej Vojevac and guest musicians.

Performing artists in residence: Iva Hađina, Kristinka Dušek, Ivana Peranić, Matea Zatezalo and Tereza Obelić

With the support of Perform Europe as part of the Spreading the Roots project.

The Contemporary Circus Artists Association – DUSC is an umbrella organization in the artistic field of circus established with the aim of affirming and developing contemporary circus in Croatia. The Association was founded at the Founding Assembly in April 2021 by 20 circus enthusiasts and brings together contemporary circus artists, educators, producers and other experts working in the field of contemporary circus. By establishing the Association, members strive for the professionalization of the circus arts sector and the recognition of the circus as an area of artistic creation in Croatia, as is the case in most developed European countries.

Dora Komenda and Nikola Mijatović, as members of DUSC, will present the work of the Association from its founding to the present day and explain how to become a member of the Association.

This workshop focuses heavily on the core and on understanding C-shaping by drilling the essential techniques to help achieve advanced core based skills for rolling up, rolling down and rolling on the spot. This workshop looks at technical elements on rope and silks.

Georgina Ilona Cassels (1992) is a circus artist educated at the National Centre for Circus Arts (2013-15) and Gravity Circus Centre (2017) and is currently based in Budapest. Georgina is a member of ‘Konstrukt’ directed by Dora Komenda/Cirkus Kolektiv which was selected as a CircusNext finalist of 2023. She was a fellow of the New Horizon’s Leadership Program EU of 2023-24 led by Cirkus Syd, DYNAMO, and Rigas Cirks, under the mentorship of Maartje Bonarius, Artistic Director of Tall Tales Company.
In 2017 she spent three months working with the Palestinian Circus School as a volunteer aerial instructor. In 2018, she moved to Budapest and has since performed for Firebirds Circus and collaborated as part of an aerial rope duo ‘Rollmeknot’ researching innovative duo techniques and teaching workshops and performing across Europe. In 2019 she organised and co-hosted the Budapest Aerial Meeting with additional editions in 2022, 2024 and August 2025.
She is the co-founder of the Budapest based aerial collective One Thousand Faces with their show ‘TERRA’ and ensemble piece “AXIS”. Both projects were granted awards at the Cyrkulacje Contemporary Circus Festival in which Rollmeknot received the Media Award & Sponsor Award in 2020 and One Thousand Faces received the Media Award & Second Prize in 2021.
In 2024 Georgina received the Capital Circus of Budapest award at the Much Festival Showcase and debuted her tissu act “Indigo” at the Night of Circuses.

You're my sister, Soeur is about caring for others, tact, touch and the relationship between care and other people's bodies; that's what we're exploring in the workshops. What does it feel like to touch someone? To be touched? How do you care for someone? To yourself? What does our body feel like when we're completely unconcerned, in total opposition to conflict? These questions are all linked in the play and we try to re-question them in the workshops.

Marine Mane founded the company in Vitro in 2012. A recipient of Beaumarchais, Dicréam-CNC, SACD and DGCA grants and subsidies, her transdisciplinary career can be seen on stages as diverse as her influences and practices (dance, music, theatre, circus, photography). She is an associate artist at the Théâtre Molière, scène Nationale de Sète and Bords 2 scènes in Vitry le François. The In Vitro company is subsidised by the Ministère de la culture et de la communication - DRAC Grand Est and by the Région Grand Est. It receives regular support from the City of Reims and the Marne department.

Born in 1997, Sophie Billon began her dance training at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Reims and then at the Paris Conservatoire, combining it with other disciplines such as piano and theatre. She then entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Lyon, graduating in 2019. During her studies, she discovered the different work of a number of choreographers, as well as the creative process, both on her own and with others. Since 2019, Sophie has been performing with choreographers and directors including Daniel Larrieu, Nicolas Barry, Marine Mane, Marine Colard, Marion Alzieu and Gerold Schumann. She holds a state diploma as a contemporary dance teacher, and regularly runs workshops for a wide range of audiences to help them discover dance and its creative potential.

Originally from Grenoble, Clémence Dieny trained in contemporary dance at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, graduating in June 2016. She continued her training with the "Etudianse" course at the CNSMDP, and the "Prototype" course at Royaumont Abbey. Since 2018 Clémence has been a performer with several companies in France and Germany, and works with different choreographers such as Harris Gkekas, Mathilde Monfreux, Marie Lena Kaiser, Judith Sanchez Ruiz and Maguy Marin. For over five years, she has worked closely with Marine Mane on a number of creations as a performer and on transmission and re-creation projects for different audiences (EHPAD, collèges, non-allophone UPE2A classes). Clémence moved to the Roya Valley in 2020, where she is developing the work of her company. She recently created TourbillonS, a choreographic quartet with live music. Alongside this creative work, Clémence has been giving workshops in schools in the valley and at the ESAT du Prieuré for the last 4 years.