Tina Valentan and Urška Vohar, the authors of the performance entitled Why I Can't Leave You, share nearly identical dance background. They almost simultaneously start dancing at Maribor-based Plesna Izba, and in fourteen years of education and creative work in this dance institute they participated in the same dance classes and performances. They simultaneously left to the acknowledged Amsterdam Dance Academy and nearly at the same time return to Slovenia where they declared themselves dancers, dance teachers and performers.
Their constant readdressing of the sense and value of their work often drives them to uncertainty, doubts about their creativity as well as talent and lack of self-confidence. After a few encounters, Tina and Urška realise they have been living in a moderate depressive state for some years and that they find it difficult to enjoy in their work. Thus they decide to engage in a therapeutic process in order to relive that long forgotten pleasure and feeling of happiness.
Why I Can't Leave You reflects existential void, the disintegration of language and the lack of harmonious vision of humanity. Avoiding precise definition it portraits the view of the world shocked and depreciated by conflicts and ideologies. The authors don't move in accordance with a definite objective but rather constantly refer to their mode of expression and suppressed mutual dialogue. They talk past one another, without dialectical exchange. The triumph over the tragic inhibition and anxiety is reflected through anti-dance, the ironic attitude towards the society and effort to escape fixation.
Despite subtle confessional character as well as aesthetical attitude, the performance provides a rather substantial dose of self-irony and therefore a shift from self pity. Indeed, the authors directed the composition to the postmodern choreography processes, such as deconstruction, parody, irony, pleasure and hyperreality.
Authors and performers: Tina Valentan, Urška Vohar
Dramaturge: Aleksandra Blagojević
Light designer: Jaka Šimenc
Stage and costume designer: Barbara Kapelj Osredkar
Graphic designer: Peter Auguštiner
Technical manager: Janko Oven
Photographer: Nada Žgank
Exsecutive producer: Tina Dobnik
Production: Maska Ljubljana
Co-production: Plesna izba Maribor
Partners: Bunker Ljubljana, Stara mestna elektrarna – Elektro Ljubljana