Choreography and dancer: Aleksander Zain
Music: Katarina Ranković
Stage & costume: Janja Valjarević
Developed through the fellowship with Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart
Premiere: November 29th, 2025, Stuttgart
The short dance piece TENSION explores how physical and emotional tension is stored in the body, how it affects movement, and what leads to its release. By combining personal and social aspects, I investigate tension through dance and choreography, connecting bodily experience, identity, and external influences.
As a dancer, I have often received critiques that I hold “tension in my shoulders” or appear “too muscular.” This led me to further explore how tension is retained in the body, how it affects movement, and what happens when, instead of avoiding it, we accept and integrate it into the choreographic language. I want to examine how tension—just like fluidity—can be treated as both an aesthetic and technical choice rather than a limitation.
This research is not only about the physical aspects of tension but also about the external factors that generate it. Political pressures, economic instability, growing up as a transgender person in the
Balkans, and living within a marginalized community create a constant tension in the body. Through this process, I aim to understand how this tension shapes the body and movement and what truly leads to its release.
The piece was officially selected for the Bitef festival 2025 and was later performed at ne: Bitef.
