Marjana Krajač

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Marjana Krajac is a choreographer and researcher based in Zagreb.

She created more then 20 choreographic works for different dance companies and in wide range of formats. Reaching across the legacies of modernism and minimalism, she grippingly connects her somber choreographic panoramas with the intensity of profoundness and depth. Her works are often connected to relevant composers and authors of contemporary music and many of her recent works are directly created in collaboration with them.

She was awarded with the Croatian Theatre Award for the outstanding choreographic achievement and Annual Award of the Croatian Dance Artists Association for the choreographic achievement of the year (2014). Dance ensemble of her durational choreography Variations on Sensitive was awarded as the best dance achievement of the year (2015). In 2010 her work was nominated for T-HT Award of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb.

She was selected as Choreoroam Europe Artist by CSC Bassano del Grappa – Opera Estate Festival (Italy), The Place London (UK), Rotterdam Dansateliers (Netherlands), a-2/Certamen Choreography Paso de Madrid (Spain) and Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance (Croatia), where she developed her research mentored by choreographer Rosemary Butcher (2011).

She collaborated and danced for and with numerous choreographers in Germany, France and Croatia and has participated in research projects with artists such as Meg Stuart and Mårten Spångberg, as well as in several academic research projects. She was also influenced by some of the relevant masters of dance, like prima ballerina and John Cranco’s leading dancer Ms. Marcia Haydée and Croatian avant-garde choreographer active during ’60s & ’70s, now deceased, Ms. Milana Bros.

She graduated at the State Conservatory for Dance Ana Maletic in Zagreb (Croatia), a conservatory of 8-years duration that has a strong focus on ballet and contemporary dance, classical music and choreographic systems. She continued her studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Berlin (Germany) graduating with the BA degree at the Dance Department. Afterwards, she expanded her studies towards theology and history at Humboldt University in Berlin (Germany).

In 2015 she was a jury member of the Ana Roje Award, the yearly award of the Ballet of Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. Her recent work, a main stage ballet for 16 dancers titled Dark Landscapes, created for the Ballet of Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, premiered in November 2016 and was in 2017/2018 repertoire.

Marjana also writes about dance and choreography related subjects and her texts have been published in New York’s Movement Research Performance Journal, Croatian Performing Arts Magazine Frakcija and Croatian Journal for Dance Art Kretanja. In August 2018, a collection of her essays about the choreographic process, its reflections and intellectual repercussions was published as a book, titled Choreographic Journal: seeing / vidjeti.

She is artistic director of Sodaberg Choreographic Laboratory in Zagreb, a platform for choreographic and dance research.

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