October at the Mediterranean Dance Center
BODY, SPACE, GAZE
October at the Mediterranean Dance Center
From 16 to 18 October, the Mediterranean Dance Center presents Body, Space, Gaze, a programme offering several different ways of encountering dance through dance film, live performance, conversation, education and opening the space to the public.
The programme begins on 16 October at 20:00 with choreographer and dance artist Martina Nevistić Vukobrat and three of her dance films: Pulsar, Deep Neon: In Between and The Girl from Tomorrow. Created between 2019 and 2024, the films explore the relationship between body, movement and camera in different ways, as well as the possibilities that film opens up for dance. The screenings will be followed by a conversation with the artist.
On 17 October, from 10:00 to 13:00, MDC Open Doors invites audiences into the Center. Alongside a guided tour of the space, we will screen Dance Me a Story, a series of five short dance films choreographed by Andreja Jandrić, Gendis Putri Kartini, Jovana Zelenović, Margareta Firinger and Sintija Kučić. This edition of Open Doors takes place while the evening performance is being set up, giving audiences a chance to glimpse part of the process of preparing the space, set and lighting for the performance.
Later that day, at 20:00, Matija Ferlin’s Sleep, My Baby, Sleep is on the programme. Based on a dramatic text by Jon Fosse, the work was developed with performers Petra Chelfi, Martina Tomić, Ivana Pavlović and Petra Valentić. The performance premiered at MDC in 2025 and now returns to San Vincenti nominated for Best Performance as a Whole, an award presented by the Croatian professional dance associations UPUH and UPPU PULS.
The programme concludes on 18 October with MDC Classroom, a programme for educators. In her workshop Catch the Dance, Martina Tomić explores the relationship between dance and words, while Martina Nevistić Vukobrat’s Movement and Camera takes movement and the possibilities of capturing it on camera as its starting point. Through practical work, participants are introduced to tools they can adapt for their own work with children and young people.
Body, Space, Gaze connects these different formats through the question of how we look at dance and what happens to it when we change the medium, the space or our own position. The camera allows us to see movement from a different proximity and perspective, film moves it from the performance space to the screen, Open Day takes us behind what we usually encounter only as a finished performance, while the workshop turns the spectator into an active participant. Between the moving image, the space of MDC and live performance, the body remains their common point of connection.
Alongside the public programme, MDC continues its residency programme in October. Choreographer Lara Vejrup Ostan, dancer Ella Östlund and musician Moritz Nahold are developing GRAYSCALE, a project continuing Ostan’s choreographic research into roads, driving, transportation and labour.
See you in San Vincenti!
ps. A reminder that the Open Call for MDC’s 2027 residency programme is still open. Applications are open until 10 October 2026.