Na knap. Festival of Short Dance Form

The new festival of short dance form, Na knap, weaves together three worlds of contemporary movement: dance on stage, dance film, and dance in virtual reality. Conceived as a unique experiment, the festival explores what happens when these distinct media meet within a short, playful, and intense format. The short form here is not a limitation but a challenge—an opportunity to distill movement to its essence and invite audiences into concentrated encounters with dance in its many temporalities and technologies.Taking place over three days, the festival in its first edition presented an international selection of short dance works from more than twenty countries across five continents, offering a diverse landscape of choreographic voices and perspectives on the art of movement. The programme spanned South Korea, Germany, Portugal, Ivory Coast, Spain, Finland, the United States, Sweden, Austria, China, Italy, Catalonia, South Africa, France, Hungary, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Egypt, and Croatia. All presented works were shown in Slovenia for the first time.Alongside the main programme, Na knapcollaborates with regional institutions, forming a network and enabling selected artists—this year, the groups SIGA and Bellanda—to embark on a regional tour. The festival thus strengthens intercity and cross-border cooperation in the contemporary dance field, building new networks and audiences in the region.The third day of the festival merged into Moste Open, an open-air event that activated the riverside path of the Ljubljanica from Moste to Fužine. The day featured two outdoor performances and a series of movement workshops for all generations, transforming public space into a playground for dance and community.“In a time of accelerated information flow and limited attention, the short form in dance reflects the spirit of our age,” says the festival’s artistic director Iztok Kovač. “Precisely because of its brevity, it must be taken with utmost seriousness. In short form, there is no space for excess—the idea must be sharpened, purified, and delivered as a concentrated result.”Na knap situates itself within the expanded field of contemporary dance. It is dedicated to movement—and its dialectical relation to stillness—not only on stage, but also in film and virtual reality. At the same time, the festival expands the notion of dance as an institution. It embraces performance, film, exhibition, discourse, and education as interrelated forms, creating a space for experimentation, learning, and participation. In this way, Na knapconnects artistic practice with community, making space for encounters that extend beyond the theatre.The general thematic thread, Body of Identity – Identity of Body, explores how the body—individual and collective—constitutes, resists, and redefines identity. Through movement, dance both affirms and exceeds identity, embodying love, exhaustion, ecology, gender, imagination, politics, and history. It falls short of full definition, yet it overflows with meaning—excess short.Looking ahead, Na knap aims to grow into a sustainable annual platform that nurtures the short form as a vital, complex, and rigorous artistic language. Future editions will continue to bridge stage, film, and VR, support regional touring networks, and support the creators working at the intersection of dance and technology. The festival’s long-term vision is to strengthen the visibility, exchange, and critical discourse of short dance forms within the broader field of contemporary performing arts.