Zrinka Uzbinec

Choreography as inquiry, dance as a gesture and artistic proposal, collaborative practice, feminist and gender studies 

Moving Between Cuteness and Violence: A Choreographic Investigation

EDUCATION:

1999-2004 – Faculty of Economics, University of Zagreb (4 year study program / diploma)

2016-2020 – MA CUP (Master in Choreography and Performance) at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies, Gießen

Thesis: “Imploded Goo: Thoughts on Montage-like Choreography”
Supervisors: prof. dr. Bojana Kunst, dr. Martina Ruhsam

2017 – Erasmus student at Master in Critical Studies, Akademie der bildenden Künste, Wien, Austria

2021 – ongoing – a PhD researcher at Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE), Coventry University, England

2024 – Assistant Professor, Dance Department, Academy of Dramatic Arts, Zagreb

ARTISTIC PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

2002 – present – dance artist, working with choreography, drawings and social sculptures

2000 – 2013 – one of the coordinators of Experimental Free Scene (Ekscena), an independent organisation established to promote contemporary dance and other forms of performing arts

2006 – 2020 – a member of BADco., a performance collective based in Zagreb, Croatia 

2004 – present – (co)author in various projects outside of BADco.

2020 – a six months fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (Tanzpakt)

THEATRE AND DANCE PERFORMANCES:

2023 – dancer in Es Un No Parar, choreography by Darìo Barreto Damas, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt, Espacio La Granja, Tenerife, Kondenz festival Belgrade, EAREYE festival Malmö

2022 – choreographer in Dolls and Goats, Gallery Močvara, Pogon Jedinstvo, Zagreb

2022 – choreographer in On Pink-tinted Future, a dance performance with Ana Kreitmeyer, Zagreb

2021 – co-curator in Reihe zur zeitgenössischen Vortragskunst | Um(j)etnost predavanja | The art of the lecture with Helen Brecht, Nina Gojić, Jascha Sommer, Cologne

2021 – a choreographer in Mi smo kompost, WHW, Gallery Nova, Zagreb

2021 – a maker of a gamified performance Kitchen-ing Questions with Ida Daniel and Todor Stoyanov, TakeAction, Fonds DAKU

2021 – dance video Natur/&$!#@1!/Romantik with Rahel Barra, Nah Dran residency, ada Studios, Berlin

2020 – choreography without a performer/installation, Such a Cute Crash, Academy Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart

2019 – dancer in Improvised Events, with Andreja Kulunčić, Jasna Jovićević and Anette Giesriegl, MSU Zagreb

2019 – choreographer, performer in Impossible Dances, BADco.

2019 – choreographer, performer in Exploded Goo, a final work at MA CuP, Frankfurt/Giessen

2019 – Ida Daniel in collaboration with Todor Stoyanov, Zrinka Uzbinec and Katarzyna Kania in I will not stay here long

2019 – Katarzyna Kania together with collaborators: Ida Daniel, Piotr Stanek, Todor Stoyanov, Zrinka Užbinec in Scores for Yearning

2018 – dancer in Woman with Stones, the performance by Caroline Creutzburg

2017 – choreographer and dancer in Still To Come, a feminist pornscape with Rahel Barra, Ida Daniel, Ana Dubljević and Frida Laux

2016 – choreographer and dancer in The Tracking Dog with Mila Pavićević

2016 – choreographer and dancer in In the Eyes with Roberta Milevoj and Matija Ferlin

2016 – choreographer and dancer in ART-ACT-BOX, performative exhibition, work done with the artist Andreja Kulunčić

(for older works, I invite you to check the website)

ARTISTIC WORK PRESENTED IN:

Zagreb (Teatar &td, Croatian National Theatre, ZKM, Zagreb Dance Centre, Museum of Contemporary Arts, Atelier Žitnjak, Cultural Center Remetinec, POGON Jedinstvo), Stuttgart (Theatre Rampe), Sofia (The Red House Centre for Culture and Debate “Andrey Nikolov”), Frankfurt (Mousonturm), Venice (54th Venice Biennale), Berlin (Podewill, Sophiensalle / Tanz im August, Volksbühne), Bergen (BIT, Oktoberdans), Vienna (Tanzquartier Wien, GarageX), Stockholm (Orionteatern, Theater Guillotine, MDT), Graz (Steirischer Herbst), Madrid (In-presentable), London (Chelsea Theater), Bilbao (Alhondiga), Ljubljana (Cankarjev dom/Exodos, Aksioma, Stara Elektrarna / Maska), Novi Sad (Infant, Balkan Dance Platform, PerArt / Serbian National Theatre), Belgrade (Kondenz Festival, BITEF teatar / TkH), Athens (BYCEM), Tallin (Kanuti Gildi Saal), Istanbul, Prague (Teater PONEC), Tromso (Radstua Theatre), Exeter, Bath, Lincoln (LPAC), Roubaix (Les Reperages), Copenhagen (Metropolis Biennalen, Dansehallerne), Gothenburg (SKOGEN), Skegness, Ghent (CAMPO nieuwpoort), Akçakoca, Ünye, Çamlıhemşin, Hopa, Batumi (SEAS), Kortrijk (BUDA)
Dubrovnik (Art Workshop Lazareti), Rijeka (Male scene, Drugo More, Rijeka Summer Nights), Zadar (Zadar snova)
Varaždin (Days of Contemporary Dance), Malmö, Tenerife

EXHIBITIONS:

2020 – Such a Cute Crash, Čvorište efemernog, Galerija Miroslav Kraljević, Zagreb, and Improspekcije, MSU, Zagreb

2019 – Improvisational Structures, performative exhibition, MSU Zagreb

2016 – 2019 – ART-ACT-BOX, performative exhibition

2016 – BADco. video installation Stasis, Gallery Nova

2016 – performer in Sanja Iveković’s performance Repetitio est Mater

2015 – Do It Yourself, Artomat, HDLU Zagreb

2014 – participation with BADco. in El Contrato, Alhóndiga Bilbao

2014 Bad. solo exhibition: Broken Performances – Fleshdance, Multimedia Cultural Center Split, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka, Gallery of Old and New Masters, Varaždin

2013 – BADco. solo exhibition: Responsibility for Things Seen: Tales in Negative Space, Aksioma | Project Space, Ljubljana, curator Janez Janša

2013 – BADco.: performative installation TVolution won’t be televised – Broken performances at Skogen, Göteborg, April

2013 – dancer in dance video Grey, author: Irma Omerzo

2013 – dancer in dance video Dance with…, author: Irma Omerzo

2012 – participation with BADco. in From Below, as a Neighbour, Galerija Kortil, Rijeka, curator Fatima Hellberg (Electra)

2012 – One Needs to Live Self-Confidently… Watching, presents Antonio G. Lauer a.k.a. Tomislav Gotovac and BADco., Gallery Nova, Zagreb, curated by WHW

2011 – La Biennale di Venezia – 54th International Art Exhibition – Croatian Pavilion, One Needs to Live Self-Confidently… Watching, presents Antonio G. Lauer a.k.a. Tomislav Gotovac and BADco., Gallery Nova, curated by WHW, nominated for UniCredit Venice Award

ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND RESEARCH PROJECTS:

2024 – funded research project – Dances for Nobody's Gaze Except for a Fleeing Fox, The Ministry of Culture, Croatia

2023 – funded research project – Koreografija kože, The Ministry of Culture, Croatia

2023 – residency at Flutgraben Performances Residency together with Kasia Kania, Berlin

2022 – funded research project SKINS – Where do we go when the glass shatters, Fonds DAKU #Takeheart

2021 – funded research project On Violence and Cuteness by way of montage-like choreography, DIS-TANZEN

2020 – co-organization of Imaginary school for the future of the (art) institutions, Imaginations ~ Institutions ~ Precarity together with peers from MA CuP

2011 – 2014 – ALVES – Algorithmic Live Video Editing System, researcher. The project is part of LABO21, a partner project of BADco. (Zagreb), Random Dance London), Troubleyn (Antwerp) and International Choreographic Arts Centre (Amsterdam) ; dramaturgical and technological development of documentation and representation tool. Project leaders: Tomislav Medak and Daniel Turing

2010 –2014 – Post Hoc Dramaturgy – reflections on poetics of presentation and circulation in performing arts

2010 – 10d1u in Museum Of Contemporary Art Zagreb, together with collective 6M1L

2006 – 2010 – Whatever Dance Toolbox – technological tool for movement analysis. Researcher as a member of BADco.The research was a part of LABO21 – European Platform for Interdisciplinary Research on Artistic Methodologies, a partner project of BADco. (Zagreb)

2005 – Korpozicije, a year-long project that focused of the analysis of authorial approaches of the youngest generation of Croatian choreographers (Silvia Marchig, Mila Čuljak, Sandra Banić, Ana Kreitmeyer, Zrinka Užbinec, Maja Marjančić).

2004 – research project “HWE” (Hardcore Workshop Exchange – dance in the Balkan/ Nordic region)

TEACHING:

2024 – a public lecture at the Academy of Dramatic Arts / Dance department, Zagreb, Croatia, on Contemporary Dance Technique / From Dance Technique to the Dance that Choreographs

2023 – teaching at Mjesečnica and Nomad Dance Academy / Modularna School, Zagreb

2018/2019/2020/2025 – teaching at the JLU, Institute for Applied Theatre Studies, Gießen and HfMDK Frankfurt

2017/2019/2020/2021 – teaching at the Academy of Dramatic Arts / Dance department, Zagreb, Croatia

2017 – teaching at the Faculty of Dance Theatre, Bytom, Poland

2016 – teaching at P.A.R.T.S. the school for contemporary dance, with BADco., as a part of P.A.R.T.S. Research Studios’ Cluster #2: Time and rhythm – conceived and guided by Bojana Cvejić and Tom Engels, Bruxelles (BE)

2014 – workshop Whatever Dance Toolbox with young choreographers in the Spazio project (a collaborative project between International Choreographic Arts Centre – Amsterdam and Zagreb Dance Center)

2012 – presentation Whatever Dance Toolbox, Escenas Discursivas_thinking laboratory, Matadero, El Ranchito, Madrid (ESP)

2012 – presentation Whatever Dance Toolbox at the International conference ARTAUD FORUM 2: Konnecting Gestures. International Conference-Workshop on Performance and Sound Technologies, Brunel University, Uxbridge, West London (UK)

2011 – workshop and presentation Whatever Dance Toolbox, Bath (UK)

2011 – presentation Whatever Dance Toolbox, Universität der Künste Berlin, Berlin, presentation Whatever Dance Toolbox, Pleskavica Dance Festival, Ljubljana, workshop Whatever Dance Toolbox, Motion Bank, Frankfurt, presentation, workshop and installation Whatever Dance Toolbox, international symposium Algorithmic Reflections of Choreography: From Choreography to Software and Back, Pogon/Jedinstvo, Zagreb

2011 – choreographic workshop Recapitulations, Eks-Scena, Zagreb

2009 – workshop, Do It Yourself 2, Medika, Zagreb, workshop Do It Yourself 2, Zadar Dance School, Zadar, workshop Do It Yourself 2, Eks-Scena, Zagreb,  workshop Do It Yourself 2, Prostor Plus, Rijeka (HR)

PUBLICATIONS

Electronic Media
Whatever Dance Toolbox, BADco. and Daniel Turing, Zagreb: BADco. 2010

Articles

The Minimum and, at the same time, the maximum, FRAKCIJA, Performing Arts Magazine

Choreographing ruptures, TREĆA, Center for Women Studies

Beautiful Monster of Collaboration, KRETANJA, performance art magazine

MEMBERSHIP:

2005 – present – Member of the Croatian Association of Dance Artists (UPUH)

2012 – 2014 – Member of the Board of UPUH

AWARDS:

2022 – Nomination for Croatian Dancers Association’s Award for choreography in On Pink-tinted Future

2015 – Croatian Association of Dance Artists Award for choreography in A Lesser Evil

2015 – Croatian Association of Dance Artists Award for solo performance in A Lesser Evil

2011 – Nomination for Croatian Dancers Association’s Award to BADco. for the installation “Responsibility for Things Seen” presented at Venice Biennial

2011 – Nomination together with Tomislav Gotovac for UniCredit Venice Award at Venice Biennial

2010 – Croatian Association of Dance Artists to BADco. for “outstanding contribution to development of dance”

2007 – Croatian Association of Dance Artists to Ekscena for special contribution to the development of contemporary dance