/Republic of North Macedonia, Germany/
This guest-performance is supported by the (NON)ALIGNED MOVEMENTS Strengthening contemporary dance in Western Balkans / NAM project of the Balkan Dance Network of Nomad Dance Academy, co-financed by the European Union and “Culture” Programme of Sofia Municipality.
Who are you? Where are you right now and where do you belong? What is your superpower?
Figure it Out! was created from the conflict between the political and individual identities in each of us, and takes place as a series of 100 questions, addressed to herself, by choreographer and performer Viktorija Illioska. The body, an object of projections and societal role perceptions, is the central medium of expression of the solo performance. Between the questions, “Viktorija, what would East and West mean if you were a dog?“, “Viktorija, what will happen in the future?“, or: „Viktorija, how long do you brush your teeth?“ the boundaries become blurred between questioner and respondent, stage action, and daily reality. Figure it Out! also questions the audience, because, most likely answers can be found there, the answers to the questions of humanity.
Viktorija Ilioska, born in 1990 as a Macedonian citizen, is a choreographer and performer who nowadays lives and works in Germany. Since 2016 she has been based in Gießen, where she is finishing her MA in Choreography and Performance at the Institute of Applied Theatre Studies at JLU Gießen, under the professorship of Bojana Kunst and Xavier Le Roy. Ilioska is actively working at programs for support and development of contemporary dance and performance, both collaborating with institutions and strengthening the independent scene.
Amongst her recent works is the long-term performative research project “It could be something very minimal” which started in 2018 between her, Patrick Faurot, and Max Smirzitz. This project looks for the ways of constant audible, visual and perceptive alteration of the body and was shown at LAB and Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt. In her last solo piece “Figure it Out!” (2019) Viktorija asks 100 questions in a format of self-interview. Playing with different forms of provocation, she addresses the notions of identity and political female representation in the public sphere.
Her current research is working and experimenting with certain objects, materials and searching for different bodily support systems. Her latest production “A Womb for an Adult” (2020) is building an extensive panorama space permeated with bodies and objects with which she is exploring a visual dramaturgy of a playground.