Ursula is engaged in an ongoing collaboration with the Macedonian choreographer Iskra Sukarova. The two artists first met when they performed together in Yoshiko Chuma’s A Page Out of Order in 2006.
In April 2010, they had the opportunity to build upon this foundation and to learn more about each other’s processes, curiosities, and context for making work. Their time together culminated in a performance at Skopje’s Dramski Theatre featuring Ursula’s Fields of Ida and Iskra’s It, a solo for Ursula based on the mythology of the Sphinx. A reviewer from Utrinski Vesnik wrote, “The performance of Ursula Eagly in It reaches you so deeply that even the short sickness you might feel will make you happy.”
In April 2011, Iskra came to New York City for the Performance Mix Festival’s Balkan Express program, in which Ursula performed It for New York audiences. The two artists also participated in a panel discussion on strategies for cross-cultural exchange in the Balkans. Ursula’s performance in It was listed in Eva Yaa Asantewaa’s “Playing Favorites... of 2011.”
Iskra returned to New York in September 2011 for a research trip organized by Ursula.
Iskra Sukarova is an established principal soloist and choreographer at the Macedonian Opera and Ballet. She was a student of contemporary dance at the National Conservatorium Superior in Lyon, France, and in 2002 obtained her Master’s Degree at the Laban Center in London. In 2003 she was invited to perform her solo piece Off at a Tangent at the Tanztenzenden, Germany, the 2nd Balkan Dance Platform - Bucharest and in Fivizzano, Italy, where she was awarded the Golden Dolphin. Her production Ouch Couch toured in Sarajevo (Teatar fest), Malmö (Dansstationen), Sofia (Redhouse), Belgrade (Dom omladine), Durrës (an International festival). Orleans Choreographic centre Artistic Director Josef Nadj honored Iskra with an artistic residency to create Formula, a collaboration with the Slovenian choreographer Dejan Srhoj. In 2003, together with Biljana Tanurovska and Nataša Dimitrievska, she founded Lokomotiva - Centre for New Initiatives in Arts and Culture. At Lokomotiva she is engaged as contemporary dance art director. She is one of the founders of the Balkan Dance Network and the NOMAD Dance Academy project.
This project is supported by Lokomotiva and Bunker Productions. It is funded, in part, by Dance Theater Workshop’s Suitcase Fund as part of the East/Central Europe Cultural Partnerships Program, with support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding.
Writing on this collaboration:
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photographs by Ljupco Tanurovski return...
above: Ursula Eagly performing Fields of Ida in Skopje
below: Ursula Eagly performing Iskra Sukarova’s It in Skopje
