choreographer, stage director, dancer, artistic director

Matjaž Farič (1965, Ptuj) started his career as dancer and choreographer in the 1980s, after graduating from the Maribor Ballet School and the Palucca School of Dance in Dresden, Germany. Later, in 2010, he also graduated from Theatre Directing at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana.
The founder of many dance companies, Farič attracted wider attention with a series of dance performances he created for his The Eastern Dance Project. In 1988, he performed in Ballet Observatory Zenit created by the well-known Slovenian retro-garde formation Red Pilot Cosmokinetic Theatre and also choreographed its last project Drama Observatory Zenit in 1988. In 1991, his project Wind, Dust and Stars, produced by Mladinsko Theatre, received an award at the prestigious Maribor Theatre Festival. In 1988/89, he performed for the Amsterdam-based Testworks and choreographed for Contemporary Dance Studio in Zagreb and Diversions Dance Company from Cardiff.
Between 1994 and 1997, Farič focused on choreographic adaptations of the classical repertoire, developing new interpretations of Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, The Rite of Spring and Trilogy, Last Chapter. In 1999, he founded Flota Company and as resident choreographer at the Cankarjev dom Culture Centre choreographed Terminal, named performance of the year by Mladina magazine. In 2004 he choreographed BETA for the French Compagnie Coline. Besides creating his own work, Farič has also worked as choreographer in a number of theatres in Ljubljana, Nova Gorica, Celje, Maribor, Celovec/Klagenfurt as well as internationally in Zagreb and Rijeka in Croatia and in Antwerpen. He has worked repeatedly with theatre directors Vito Taufer, Eduard Miler and Matjaž Zupančič.
A recipient of several domestic and international dance awards, among them the national Prešeren Fund Award, the Zupančič Award, the Golden Stick Award, the Golden Laurel Wreath at the MESS International Theatre Festival in Sarajevo and Prix d’auteur at Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales in Seine-Saint-Denis, Farič is the artistic director of Flota Institute and Front@ Festival, which is organised annually in Murska Sobota in north-eastern Slovenia as a way to foster decentralisation in the area of contemporary dance. He also teaches composition and creative-research practice at the Alma Mater Europaea academy.

Links: Flota Institute / Wikiwand / Wikipedia (in Slovenian only) / Culture.si – About Flota Institute (English)

DANCE PERFORMANCES

THEATRE, OPERA AND CHILDREN’S PERFORMANCES

COLLABORATIONS AS CHOREOGRAPHER IN THEATRE AND OPERA

COLLABORATIONS AS DANCER AND PERFORMER

FILM, VIDEO AND TELEVISION

PEDAGOGICAL WORK

OTHER

AWARDS

Photo material (early works)

Excerpts from performances