Dunja Jocić & Spellbound Contemporary Ballet Rome

Folk

In Folk, an exuberant club night slowly transforms into a hypnotic ritual. The dance floor becomes an altar, and the night unfolds into a sequence of rituals in which uniformity takes over. As the atmosphere shifts, so does the dynamic: the group forms a shared identity that is constantly evolving, without a foothold, absorbing or rejecting individuals.

Eight dancers take the audience on a physical and immersive journey in which group behaviour unfolds according to ever‑changing logics. You are drawn into increasingly unfamiliar rituals, and your ideas of what you see and feel are repeatedly overturned. The performance makes you experience how confronting, seductive and unsettling collective forces can be.

Zwaan award‑winner Dunja Jocić creates dance performances that expose the depths of the human psyche. Classical ballet collides with the raw energy of Balkan music and dance, giving the piece a rhythmic drive you can almost feel in your own body.

Jocić draws inspiration from the rich folk traditions of former Yugoslavia and the turbulent 1990s, when ideological shifts deeply affected everyday life and personal identity. That history resonates in the way groups form, and how people adapt or resist. This makes Folk strikingly relevant today, in a time when collective thinking and identity are under constant pressure.

choreography & direction Dunja Jocić dance Giovanni Visone, Daniele Sibilli, Thomas Fauc, Ivan Tocchetti, Alice Leoni, Miriam Raffone, Sasha Peskens & Jacob Donnarumma

This performance has no interval.