We have entered an age where it seems all have fallen silent on what is essential, even when they speak, and suddenly the very stones must cry out - Miklavž Komelj
Miklavž Komelj, among other things, wrote the following poem Čudež (Miracle) during the process:
MIRACLE For Leja Jurišić
To hold a stone with such conviction, that when you let it go, it is an equal miracle whether it falls to the ground or flies up to the sky.
The title of the performance is a tribute to a short poem by Jure Detela: "Be in the stone, magical dance, / dreams have come, from above, / thoughts are migrating!" Stone is usually perceived as something inanimate and motionless, but this performance attempts to discover the dance that is in the stone and explores how this dance can connect with dreams and thoughts. And with the migration and change of thoughts, because such an approach to stone is only possible through the process of "breaking" one's own limitations in the perception of oneself and the world.
In the most iconic performance of the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre, Sleepy Star, the bandit has a stone instead of a heart, and then the stone transforms into a heart. However, the performance Dance in Stone attempts to discover the life within the stone itself, without needing to change the stone. In doing so, it follows what Michelangelo Buonarroti wrote in one of his sonnets: that a good sculptor has no concept that is not already contained within the stone. Can there be thoughts in the stone? Can there be emotions in the stone? Can there be movement in the stone? The creators of the performance try to discover this without breaking or damaging the stones in any way. This performance does not use stones as material, but asks what the stones would like to tell us. A great inspiration for the creators of the performance was the way the OHO movement approached the world. How to animate stones if the soul is already within them? If we want to be co-dancers of the dance that is in the stone, we must "unstone" ourselves (a term from a poem by Mak Dizdar, which is also read in the performance). When the puppeteers recognize the life that is in the stone, they animate and move what was immobile in themselves, perhaps changing hard and deeply rooted thoughts, ideas, and principles.
The performance is genre-hybrid; it contains elements of post-dramatic theatre, dance, object theatre, and installation, but the fundamental state of mind it attempts to evoke is poetry. It establishes different registers, from mythically sublime to humorous. The words that encounter the stones in this performance range from the re-creation of humans after the great flood, achieved by Deucalion and Pyrrha throwing stones in Ovid's Metamorphoses, through Kafka's interpretation of the myth of Prometheus, to the poetry of Anton Aškerc, Jure Detela, and Miklavž Komelj. At the same time, it establishes a true palimpsest of intertextual connections; the final effect connects with the description of a mysterious stone in Pier Paolo Pasolini's novel Petrolio:
"The infinite variety of its mild colors corresponds to the infinite variety of matter, yet none of them has truly been recognized, for every mineral possesses contradictory properties, both in relation to itself and in relation to the other minerals with which it is mixed or from which it is composed: in that stone, it was impossible to distinguish what seemed precious from what seemed worthless or even poisonous; to this day, it has been impossible to define its inaccessibility to analysis and its complete contradictoriness..."
By focusing on how we can develop a different relationship with the stone, the performance attempts to establish a different relationship with the world. The stones in the performance are not objects that could be simply reshaped according to our wishes. The relationship of each performer to the radical unchangeability, incomprehensibility, or rather, misunderstanding of the stone, to its immovable persistence, is a special challenge of the performance. The stones in the performance also function as scenography. The actors use the stones to create dynamic landscapes and symbols—from barriers and obstacles that need to be overcome, through paths that lead to outer and inner worlds, to bridges that connect. When the stones are separated from the ground and lifted into the air with the performers, we enter a space where supposed physical laws lose their power. Here, imagination, magnetic forces, and the endless flow between knowing and not knowing intertwine.
CREDITS:
Author, Director, and Choreographer: Leja Jurišić
Text Author: Miklavž Komelj
Authors of Used Texts: Franz Kafka, Jure Detela, Anton Aškerc, Mia Skrbinac, Alenka Tetičkovič
Dramaturgs: Petra Veber, Leja Jurišić
Set Designer, Costume Designer, and Light Designer: Petra Veber
Co-creators and Performers: Rok Kunaver, Gašper Malnar, Martina Maurič Lazar, Alenka Tetičkovič, Mia Skrbinac
Music Author: Eduardo Raon
Video Author: Atej Tutta
Animation Consultant: Martina Maurič Lazar
Language Consultant: Irena Androjna Mencinger
Puppetry Technologist: Zoran Srdić
Performance Manager and Sound Designer: Damir Radončić
Producer: Alja Mihajlović Cerar/Katra Krsmanović
Lighting Operation: Maša Avsec
Stage Technician: Jakob Kozelj
Thanks: Jiři Bezlaj, Ema Kugler, Andrej Detela, Marko Pogačnik
Co-production: Pekinpah
Premiera: 23. october 2025
Leja Jurišić is a dancer and choreographer working in the field of dance and performing arts. She has presented her original works across Europe, the USA, and Mexico. She has received numerous awards, including the Borštnik Award and the Ksenija Hribar Award, together with Marko Mandić, for the performance Skupaj (Together).
An author who is not unfamiliar with criticizing society, especially the economic and political distortion of freedom, she perceives the human body as a powerful emancipatory tool in creating an experience of resistance. She remains committed to exploring the personal and intimate, as well as the (bio)political.
Jurišić thoroughly processed the relationship with the stone in the performance and during the process for Ni mogoče čakati zaman (It is not possible to wait in vain), co-authored with Miklavž Komelj and Petra Veber. In that performance, the stone is not a prop for Leja Jurišić but a scene partner. On stage, she dedicates a long, profound, and tender attention to it, which was the result of long hours and days of almost Zen-like concentrated rehearsals. This attention allows the audience to become aware of our a priori assumption that a stone is not a living being. At one point in the process, Jurišić states that the stones are so powerful that they enable her to do anything.
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© Petra Veber