Edward Clug: Cluster

Romanian-born choreographer Edward Clug joined the ballet company of the Slovene National Theatre in Maribor as a dancer in 1991 and became its artistic director in 2003. His career as a choreographer began in 1996 with Babylon, while his breakthrough arrived two years later with Tango. It was here that he began his collaboration with set designer Marko Japelj and costume designer Leo Kulaš, who have since become his constant creative partners. Over the years Clug has developed a unique style that has won him international acclaim and elevated the Maribor Ballet to the world stage. He has won numerous accolades and honours, including a Prešeren Fund Prize (2005) and several prizes at international ballet competitions. Cluster, which brings together some of Edward Clug’s choreographic greatest hits, could be characterised in technical and aesthetic terms as virtuosic and anthological. The intimate dimension of Clug’s choreographies is revealed in his treatment of different themes and in the atmosphere created by the music of artists such as the Slovene composer Milko Lazar, who has been working closely with Clug since 2008, and the British art-rock band Radiohead, led by singer Thom Yorke. Clug’s original choreographic world is gradually revealed through a sequence of dance performances – Proof, Mutual Comfort, Handman and Cluster – originally created for the Netherlands Dance Theatre. In his exploration of different existential and social themes, Clug constantly endeavours to remain or become open to all that is different or other and, above all, human.