"Borderless Body"

Borderless Body, developed over four years under the artistic direction of Michal Rynia and Nastja Bremec Rynia with a permanent international dance ensemble, brought to life several full-length productions, shorter choreographies, and dance films (To the Moon and Back, Distance, Border-Line, F-Lights, Prometheus, A-Line, Drop).
During the candidacy for the European Capital of Culture, we conceived this project as one of the program’s highlights — a platform for questioning humanity’s future in the face of climate change and, above all, our responses to the challenges the future will bring. The project seeks to explore the limits of the human body and connect dance with artificial intelligence and robotics, while raising questions about the future relationship between the biological and the technological.
What happens when the human body can be “optimized” through technology?
What will a “body” even be in the future, and will the mind still need a biological body to function?
Can artificial intelligence move a body through algorithms?
The “future” reached us sooner than we had expected. Today, artificial intelligence is our constant companion. Cyborgs are becoming a reality. Robotic arms and legs can be moved by the power of the human brain. And with the advancement of medical technology, we are becoming increasingly hybrid beings.
How should we respond to this? Will we use technology to serve us, or will we succumb to the principle of self-optimization — imposed on anyone who is “not perfect”? These are frightening yet inevitable questions for the future of humanity. But within them lie hope and new solutions for an aging society.
In the exciting phase of exploring this urgent topic within the *Boundless Body* process — which concludes with a performance of the same name — we examine these questions through the dancer’s “flawless” body, caught in limitations and placed in various contexts.
What intrigued us most was the human confrontation with the limits of their body, mind, and planet — and the possibilities of surpassing them. Historically, humans have turned to religion and science for this — today, to artificial intelligence and robotics.
Humanity senses that beyond its limitations lies an immense potential, something it constantly longs for. It reaches toward boundlessness, seeks the true meaning of its existence, and explores its vastness and depth. The fear of death and meaninglessness drives us to strive every day to be better than the day before — to create, explore, conquer, and discover new worlds both outside and within ourselves.
Will we succeed in finding what we seek?


Choreographers and directors
Michal Rynia, Nastja Bremec Rynia

Authors of the texts
Boris Benko and the team

Dramaturgy
Ana Kržišnik Blažica

Artistic consultant
Neda Rusjan Bric

Authors of the music
Silence (Primož Hladnik, Boris Benko)

Scenography
Michal Rynia

Costumography
Nastja Bremec Rynia

Light designer
Matjaž Bajc

Oblikovalec zvoka
Marko Turel

Author of the video
Fabris Šulin

Tehnical director
Rok Ložar

Informatic
Tom Kerševan

Maker of the scenographic elements
Igor Remeta

Creator of the props
Gorazd Prinčič

Author of the mobile application
Arctur d. o. o.

Seamstress
Marinka Colja, Robert Žiković

Assistant for the dance on the rope
Branko Potočan

Project coordinator
Jasmina Bremec

Music performer
Simfonični orkester RTV Slovenija

The conductor
Patrik Greblo

Music producer
Žiga Stanič

Dancer
Michal Rynia, Nastja Bremec Rynia, Luka Vodopivec, Eri Nishibara, Elia Zahnd, Lucy Woodhouse, Nathan Dhugues, Rebecca Granzotto, Iva Ilievska, Manon Veenstra, Stefania Pisapia, Noemi Capuano, Iva Mačus, Ema Gashi, Alexander Belin

Recorded at Studio 26 Radio Slovenia

The performance uses quotes from the films 2001
A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner.

Duration
75 minutes

Production
MN Dance Company

Co - production GO!2025 European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica - Gorica, SNG Nova Gorica

The project is part of the official program of the European Capital of Culture 2025 Nova Gorica - Gorizia, as a part of the ECOC GO! 2025 project, Borderless Body.

This project is co-financed by GO! 2025 - European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica - Gorizia, the Ministry of Culture of Slovenia, the Municipality of Nova Gorica and EU Japan Fest.

Author: Natalia Polonskaia

"Prometheus"

Prometheus, a Titan and the Greek god of fire, the creator of humans from clay brought fire, and many other things to the people that had previously been exclusive to the Olympians and was condemned to eternal suffering, chained to therock. Prometheus symbolises the Enlightenment, but at thesame time, he is a defiler of the divine order. Prometheus and Pandora, whose box was used by Zeus to punish people, are like the two sides of the same coin, the good and the bad, the entry and the exit points of humanity. The dance performance explores the entry points of humans into progress, development, freedom, and the exit points of the very same, human pain, misfortune, desperation, as a consequence of careless and wanton acts and above all asks what Prometheus brings us today.

"The legend tries to explain the inexplicable.
As it comes out of the substratum of truth it has
in turn to end in the inexplicable."
Franz Kafka


Choreographers
Michal Rynia, Nastja Bremec Rynia

Dramaturg
Ana Kržišnik Blažica

Composers
Sebastien Ballieux, Mateja Starič

Scenography
Michal Rynia

Light Designer
Matjaž Bajc

Sound Designer
Stojan Nemec

Designer of Scenic Elements and Props
Gorazd Prinčič

Set Design Consultant
Aleksander Blažica

Video recording
Fabris Šulin

Dancers
Michal Rynia, Nastja Bremec Rynia, Luka Vodopivec, Eri Nishibara, Elia Zahnd, Lucy Woodhouse, Nathan Dhugues, Rebecca Granzotto, Iva Ilievska, Manon Veenstra, Stefania Pisapia, Alexander Belin

Live Musicians
Ensemble Dissonance String Quartet - Klemen, Bračko, Jelena Ždrale, Klemen Hvala, Deyan Muc, Jelena Pejić

Duration
60 min

Production
Zavod MN produkcija - MN Dance Company, GO! 2025 - European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica - Gorizia

Co-production
SNG Nova Gorica, CD Ljubljana

The project is part of the official program of the European Capital of Culture 2025 Nova Gorica - Gorizia, as a part of the ECOC GO! 2025 project, Borderless Body.

This project is co-financed by GO! 2025 - European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica - Gorizia, the Ministry of Culture of Slovenia, and the Municipality of Nova Gorica.

Author: Darja Stravs Tisu

"The DistANCE"

The notion of distance is peculiar to modern society and is very well known. It is about social and physical distance, distancing the individual on a physical and, consequently, also on a social, mental and spiritual level. With the modern way of life and the introduction of digital technology, contacts between people are decreasing, impoverished, and formalized. Modern inventions for improving human life certainly work, but at the same time, they interfere with millennia-old established ways of life, natural patterns of living, biological rhythms, social life of humans, which threaten human physical and mental health. The distance, which took on special dimensions in the half-past period of covid, deepened the gap between people, alienation, individualism, and the distance of man from himself, which is already present in modern society. At the same time, it also accelerated the development of digital society and artificial intelligence. It is the latter, which has recently been on an explosive rise, that opens up new possibilities for the technological progress of mankind, but at the same time potentiates the most dangerous form of distance - distance from reality, which man as a social animal needs so much.
Current dance performance does not distance itself from pressing social issues and dance touches the essence of human existence - closeness. Closeness to the body, fellow human being, co-creator, the world and the planet we live on. With an international cast of dancers, MN Dance Company in co-production with SNG Nova Gorica will contribute to the motto of uniting and connecting, overcoming all distances, which ECOC 2025 carries.

Choreography
Michal Rynia, Nastja Bremec Rynia

Dramaturgy
Ana Kržišnik Blažica

Composer
Mateja Starič

Cello Player
Klemen Hvala

Designer of scenic elements
Gorazd Prinčič

Mask creator
Hana Huseinspahic

Light Designer
Matjaž Bajc

Sound Designer
Stojan Nemec

Video
Urban Košir

Editing
Michal Rynia

Photo
Oksana Sur

Dancers
Nastja Bremec Rynia, Marie De Silva, Noemi Capuano,Paula Garcia, Eri Nishibara, Luka Vodopivec, Michal Rynia, Luca Marchi,Rebecca Granzotto, Tjaša Bucik, Iva Mačus, Iva Ilievska, Erica Modotti

Producion
Zavod MN Produkcija - MN DANCE COMPANY, Zavod GO! 2025,
In co-production with SNG Nova Gorica and Cankarjev dom Ljubljana.

The performance is part of the ECOC GO! 2025 official program - project Borderless Body.
Supported by
Ministry of Culture R Slovenia, Municipality of Nova Gorica, GO! 2025

"The only reality we cannot deny is the one we feel in our body."
MN

Author: Oksana Sur