Who am I?
I am Urša - a bear! Since 9 years of age, theatre, especially theatre improvisation, represented a big part of my life and my identity, therefore I am a faithful believer in the power of art to change ourselves and the world. I am, who I am, because of theatre and impro. Improviser, pedagogue, artist, anthropologist, writer, lover, enthusiast, wanderer, a child, a friend. Lately, I am trying to master how to pass impro knowledge to different target groups and different cultural environments. But mostly I use and do impro and art for self-expression, growth and fun!
What do I do?
Mostly I am an impro pedagogue for the young, who tries to ensure safe and encouraging environment in which the participants can explore, discover and create without limitations. Lately, I am also a mentor of teachers, who can benefit from impro in various ways - not only to learn new ways how to nurture successful communication, but especially to gain trust in themselves and their creative potential to find new teaching approaches and their own expression. I also perform as an improviser and lately as a student of contemporary dance training. I believe in truth on stage and in life.
What do I want to achieve?
I want to encourage people to be courageous, playful and attentive towards themselves and others. My main goal is to include impro into basic primary education to enable all children and the young to find their own means of expression. I want to achieve raised awareness to the connection between our bodies, hearts and minds and shift focus from purely rational to imaginative and intuitive. Above all, I would love for people to use art to become more open, loving, brave in standing their own ground and finding their own way to live and create, for all of us to be more forgiving and understanding towards ourselves and others and to transform the fear of mistakes into the drive to try and do.
Who am I?
I am an out-of-space creature with moving capabilities. I have an everyday desire to move and to be moved. I try to understand people language and I am doing better and better every day. The people call me a dancer, dance teacher, mentor and most common name for me is Katja. When I land on Earth, I transform in to a very kind and positive person. Most of my time I am spending in country called Slovenia.
My passion is also singing and playing the piano.
I love spending all of my free time with my family, researching the beauty of nature.
What do I do?
I am a dancer; dance teacher and I have a master’s degree in pedagogy. With all that combined I try to learn from the children how to move naturally, let the imagination move the body and expand the existing world.
I believe that with all of my knowledge about children development, embodied cognition and experience in dance, I can change the world in to a better place for next generations (and wave like a candidate for miss Universe☺). And I am trying to do that through creative dance and movement. I believe that we all have creative capabilities; we just have to allow them to speak to us through our inner child. So, I am constantly trying to wake up this part in grown-ups and teach the children how to keep this part in them further in life.
What do I want to achieve?
There are many things I want to accomplish and do in near future. I want to improve and accomplish different things for myself, but dance related, I want to open my own kindergarten where children would have an everyday opportunity to move and dance. And I would want to work in this kindergarten with my family or friends. I know I could trust people like that, and rely on them and create with them a warm environment for children. In this institution I would implement a cross-curricular program of arts and general fields of preschool education with main concept of the program - embodied cognition.
Who am I?
I am what i do: A long, long time ago (when I was 8 years old) I met with creative movement/dance. I fell in love and I knew at that moment, it is what I want to do in my life. I am someone who believes in magic and everything that makes my eyes sparkle.. Fast and furious. Energetic and magnetic human being, always researching and facing unknown. Sometimes too organized and always looking for chaos to reorganize. Thoughtful and caring, intuitive and alert. Sensitive and at the same time strong as a rock. Choreographer, dancer, artist, mentor, educator and co-founder of KUD Qulenium Ljubljana where, together with other members of the association we are connecting a platform of young and professional dance creators. As a young artist I have been working on the Slovenian cultural and artistic scene for 20 years. I graduated in 2014 at SNDO (Academy for New Dance development) in the Netherlands.
What do I do?
Currently I am teaching and working with young people on the contemporary dance scene, in various projects and competitions. In addition to dance, I am actively involved in the organization and performance of the Kaleidoscope Festival in Kranj and Ljubljana. Also I am working as an independent artist.
In addition to dance expression, I am also interested in the field of theater and performance and their interplay.
In workshops, I explore different forms of transformation (how movement can be transformed and transformed into another), exploring identity within oneself, and discovering the unknown, where I like to erase the boundaries between the real and the imaginary, and at the same time, reflect the current state of mind/ surrounding with a humorous-critical approach.
What do I want to achieve (related with theatre/dance)
I want to achive that from a very young age dance/movment becomes an important tool in everyday life. My main goal is to open different doors/perspectives, through movement research, that can be used not only on stage, but also in real life situations. That imagination should always be encouraged. To awaken body awareness, where we start listening more to ourselves, our body, mind and spirit.
To pass on the knowledge, inspire and use art as a valuable form of exspressing and healing at the same time.
Who am I?
My name is Staša Prah and I started performing when I was 4 years old. My first performing art was Classical Ballet. I was in love with it because I quickly recognize how my body is changing in a very sophisticated way, I learned how many hours of training are important to be perfect in some move and especially that on the stage, along the performance, you have to show to audience just lightness, virtuosity and smile. One night after third rehearsal, I broke my leg so hard when I was 14, that I had to stop dancing in such a hard way. In that moment, I did not know any other way. However, theatre and Impro theatre came along to me. Because I am very passionate woman, the theatre and impro became for me a second BIG love. At our theater classes, I wanted to do everything. From playing on the stage to making scenes, writing texts, etc. However, Impro was for me at the start very hard because there it was normal to make mistakes, to do crazy things, to laugh a lot and I was a little bit confused. I quickly recognized that I know very well how to enter the stage, how to open the scene, how to lead some story forward and this just because I know my body very well, I know how to express fillings with the body, how to stay in one special creature of the body for some time and so on and so on. Through the years I learned that everything happened for a reason and now I know that I will never be a Classical ballet dancer again but without all this body knowledge, I would never be so good at my work know.
What do I do?
I am a dramaturg. I do dramaturgy mostly for Drama Theater but in past years, I have also done dramaturgy work for opera, puppet theatre and ballet. Why I chose dramaturgy? Because I learned what it means to be on the stage and what that brings to life. I did not want to live life like a performer but I wanted to be part of theatre art. My nature is not to lead, to have the craziest ideas and to have strong visions but I know very well how to support, how to analyze and explain and how to translate visions to practical work on stage.
What do I want to achieve (related with theatre/dance)?
I just want that everybody who will be part of this project recognizes that they have a unique and the most special body. That they can use it for expressing feelings, that they can be the most beautiful and the ugliest one in one second and the most important, that they realize that using body and knowing our bodies is something that is most important for healthy and happy life.
