In the first week of February 2021, an online dance premiere produced by Muzeum Institute of Art Production, Distribution and Publishing took place, co-produced by En-Knap Productions in collaboration with Španski borci Cultural Centre. The online premiere of the Time of Tenderness was aired on the 4th of February 2021, marking the 25th anniversary of Muzeum Theatre (1995-2020). The second dance performance by the Muzeum Theater, The Slumberland, was staged on the same day in the framework of the online premiere. The author of both works is Barbara Novakovič (concept, directing, visual set). The Time of Tenderness features the dancers Mateja Rebolj and Ana Kolenc, while in The Slumberland a modern dance trio Igor Sviderski, Kaja Janić and Dušan Teropšič performs, with light design by Hotimir Knific, and the scenic elements designed by Meta Kojc.

According to the theatre programme, the Time of Tenderness includes a set of fragments and redefinitions of Muzeum’s projects from the 25-year long period, accompanied by Joseph Hayden’s Symphony No. 22 in E-flat major, and The Philosopher, a composition by Gal Škrjanec Skaberne.

As a starting point, the author quotes the painting Doma / At Home by Jožef Petkovšek (1870−1900) (the same picture that opened the picturesque drama ballet Crazy Painter (2001) by a choreographer Vlasto Dedović). 

The second part of the premiere, The Slumberland, is based on the motifs of the popular art comics by Winsor McCay, Little Nemo in Slumberland (1905-1911). The performance has been also announced as the second part of the Sleep trilogy. The 3-year project Sleep (2019−2021), deals with the topic of daydreaming and the sleep that begins between vigilance and sleeping (Forms, Landscapes, Creatures, 2019). The second part, The Slumberland (2020), follows the motifs of the comic strip series Little Nemo, while the final part of the trilogy is planned for 2021 with the production of the dance performance Architecture of Dreams III.

The video in the opening image overshadows the round table, where a woman in black is sitting on one side and a young woman in a white costume splendour on the other, when their views and bodily impulses vibrate a supposed, inaudible conversation or stir up the energies of connections, collaborations, and even sparkle and loosen insights of time differences, faded memories that stand out in versions of costume forms, while dance begins with the ballet steps of a little ballerina in a white tutu. This fairy tale illusion stylistically treads and spins along musical romance on shining light paths. The scene is invaded by an invisible world, surrounded by a veil of memories that narrow in time, at the same time drawing closer to the present of a wide path of light. The minimalist scene is artistically pure, while dream flexibility is impressed by the dancers Mateja and Ana who entwine in modern rhythms, even with a tambourine in their hands, but at a distance, at an unattainable distance of a divided duo, without a physical contact.

The Time of Tenderness is woven with the sophisticated threads of purified dance substance, deepened in the memories of two natural entities, two dancers; at the same time, the dream tutu acquires its memory reflection when it surrounds and lights up the dancer’s black costume for a moment. This short memorable dance diagram finds its epilogue on the staircase of dreams, which in the new installation incites the space for the acrobatics of the comic strip hero Nemo in his Slumberland, in a dance performance for children and adults. When three acrobatic dance figures carefully step into the dream world of darkness (Igor, Kaja, and Dušan), they immediately animate the stage atmosphere along with playful tones of Gal Škrjanec Skaberne's music and let their restless acrobatic attractions out, by means of objects such as a hanging ribbon, rings, balls and goodwill (scenic elements are a remake of Sol Le Witt’s sculpture); Gregor Gobec made the video documentation, recording, and editing.

The Time of Tenderness, a project of memories, is quite well framed in a video painting of a sophisticated, time-marked dance landscape surrounded by a stage illusion, while The Slumberland is grasped as a flexible, energy-based animation.

28 May 2021, 18:00, Croatian Cultural Center on Sušak, Rijeka (CRO), The Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts for Children - Plesni zbirkus, 2021

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