Kaja Janjić: ManoAmano/Soočenje

After a two-week residency at Cirkulacija 2, author Kaja Janjić and co-creators Gea Erjavec, Alja Lacković and Petra Hrovatin open the doors of their rehearsals to the public and invite you to join them for a presentation of work in progress of the dance-intermedia performance ManoAmano/Soočenje, which will take place on July 3rd 2026 at 7 pm at Cirkulacija 2.

ManoAmano/Soočenje project explores intertwining of the worlds of three women, the worlds of man and woman, the worlds of man and all the “others,” and the intertwining of the physical-on stage world with the nonphysical online cyberspace. It is a hybrid movement-audio-visual event with three performers, combining dance/movement with play/voice, the physical world with the online, and live performance with an edited prerecorded podcast.
It explores the over-saturation of the world of information and simultaneous lack of data.
The three main thematic focuses of the project are, first, violence against women and social silence. The play explores physical, psychological and digital violence, and the ways in which society normalizes and pushes it out of sight. As a second and parallel thematic focus, the rise of misogynistic “alpha-male” discourse. Alpha-male podcasts as “self-help” reproduce hierarchies, promote dehumanization, fear, manipulation and hatred towards women and vulnerable groups.
The third thematic focus is a data gap (Invisible Women: Caroline Criado Perez), which asks; “What happens to a body that data cannot see?” and “How to exist if you are not recorded?” The performance aims to create a space where the body rewrites erased experiences.
A triple body, three dancers, three performers, embodying three responses to a violent reality. They embody three different experiences; The Body That Resists. , The Body That Adapts. and The Body That Disappears. We establish two parallel viewing experiences, on-set (live in space) and off-set (webcast). The different viewing experiences reveal cracks in the way society constructs images of women, normalizes violence, and creates data gaps that erase certain bodies and their experiences from visibility. The starting point of the performance is the conflict between body and discourse, between the body that speaks through movement, presence, effort and vulnerability, and between the voice that comes from the podcast format, live recording, distortions, comments and digital fragments. These two entities constantly confront each other – mano a mano, hand against hand, body against system, voice against statistics.

Kaja Janjić began her professional career as a dancer and choreographer in 2006 with BA at SEAD – Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance. Her work ranges from dance to theater, cabaret, children’s performances and music. In 2013, she created her first original work with Matic Bobnar – the duet Pas De Tea, produced by Flota. In 2016, she created a solo performance Cianoza as part of Svetlobna Gverila and Ukrep festivals. In 2018, together with Gea Erjavec, she created a dance theater performance Ali si z nami?, produced by Plesni forum Celje. In 2019, in collaboration with Urška Preis, she created the music-movement performance Razgaljeno, produced by Cirkulacija 2. In 2023, she created her second solo dance/audio-visual performance Why so angry? Why not!?, produced by Plesni Teater Ljubljana. As a dancer and co-creator, she has also collaborated in recent years with choreographer Jan Rozman, choreographer Jurij Konjar, director Hristina Vasić Tomše, director Barbara Novaković, the Yebba collective (Alja Lacković, Petra Peček, Manca Trampuš) and with the Finnish director Jari Juttinen. Since 2015, she has been appearing on stage as a musical performer under the pseudonym Fraw Blanka. As a musician, she currently works under independent labels Munje records and NoKlan recordings.

AUTHOR/CONCEPT: Kaja Janjić
PERFORMERS and MOVEMENT CO-CREATORS: Gea Erjavec, Kaja Janjić, Alja Lacković
CHOREOGRAPHY: Kaja Janjić
MOVEMENT ASSISTANT: Mojca Majcen
MUSIC: Kaja Janjić
SET DESIGN: Kaja Janjić and Gea Erjavec
COSTUME DESIGN: Gea Erjavec
VIDEO: Petra Hrovatin
CO-PRODUCTION: Dance Forum Celje
COOPERATION: CIRKULACIJA 2 and DRUŠTVO ŠKUC