Maribor Ballet celebrates 25 years of Edward Clug's work
Maribor, 10 September - The national theatre SNG Maribor is marking the 25th anniversary of Maribor Ballet artistic director Edward Clug with a retrospective of Clug's shows opening on Saturday.
Maribor.
SNG Maribor theatre.
Photo: Nebojša Tejić/STA
File photo
Maribor.
Choreogrpaher and artistic director of Maribor Ballet Edward Clug.
Photo: Bojan Šuštar/STA
File photo
Clug Week will open tonight with Tango, a show from 1998, which was his debut ballet production.
His most successful production, Radio & Juliet will be played next week, followed by Pret-a-Porter, Watching Others, Stabat Mater, Rite of Spring and Peer Gynt.
SNG Maribor director Danilo Rošker said appointing Clug as artistic director in 2003 had been "the only right thing to do, which still proves to be so today".
"Other artistic directors came and went, but I'm still good friends with Edward," he said at a news conference in Maribor earlier this week.
Clug said that the retrospective was a chance to think about all the achievements in the past 25 years. However, recreating past shows is not an easy task.
"Every show marked a certain period of my life. It's not easy to face my beliefs from those times and understand the Edward from 15, 20 or 25 years ago," the 43-year-old choreographer said.
He will dance himself in the shows after having worked only as a choreographer for quite some time. "I won't be trying to prove anything, but to enjoy my hour on stage," he said.
When asked if Clug Week in fact meant the official end to his dancing career, he said he had ended it a long time ago, but he still occasionally goes "from coaching to playing".
Clug thanked former theatre director Tomaž Pandur (1963-2016) for giving him a chance to prove himself and also Rošker for entrusting him with the role of artistic director of the Maribor Ballet.
Clug Week will culminate and come to a close on 17 September with a guest appearance at the SNG Maribor by the Swiss Ballet Zurich of the Zurich Opera House, the Dutch Nederlands Dans Theater and the German Stuttgart Ballet.
"We have only Edward to thank for the opportunity to host these giant ensembles, which the SNG Maribor would not be able to afford otherwise," Rošker said.
Clug was born in Romania's Beius. His career in Slovenia began in 1991, when he joined Maribor's Slovenian National Theatre as principal dancer.
Since being appointed artistic director of the Maribor Ballet, Clug has gained local as well as international acclaim for his work in choreography.
He received several national and international awards, including the Prešeren Fund Prize in 2005 for his show Lacrimas and Maribor's Glazer Prize in 2008 for lifetime achievements in the arts.