Premiere CITY IN MOTION

Federico Rubisse i Isabelle Zabot

Following a spectacular theatre season, the Ballet of the Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc brings a special surprise to the Rijeka Summer Nights Festival – the world premiere of City in Motion, an original production created by members of the Zajc Ballet ensemble. Choreographed by Rijeka Ballet dancers Isabelle Zabot and Federico Rubisse, this production invites audiences to experience transformative choreographic works that will bring the Principia Archaeological Park to life through universal themes. Their choreography is complemented by the music of George Alexandru Baldovin, whose elegant and contemporary musical language weaves the individual pieces into a single, unforgettable artistic experience.

PART ONE

Choreographer: Federico Rubisse

Performed by: Ksenija Krutova, Tea Rušin, Laura Orlić, Sephora Ferrillo, Yurika Kimura, Ali Tabbouch, Giorgio Otranto, Simon Boley / Samuele Taccone

This choreographic work explores the relationship between body, space, and time as matter in a constant state of transformation. Bodies move like particles within a universe that breathes, expands, and collapses. Space is not a neutral container, but a living presence that bends and shifts under the influence of physical energy. Trajectories intertwine, attract, and repel one another, creating unstable systems and temporary orbits. Movement passes through states of compression and dispersion, birth and dissolution. Every encounter becomes an event; every distance, a tension. The work investigates the perpetual cycle between origin and transformation as an invisible principle shaping existence.

“The world is not made of things, but of events.”

— Carlo Rovelli

PART TWO

Choreographer: Isabelle Zabot

Performed by: Marta Kanazir, Ksenija Krutova, Tea Rušin, Laura Orlić, Marta Voinea Čavrak, Sonja Milovanov, Alessia Tacchini, Sephora Ferrillo, Yurika Kimura

A sharp, sweet sound of a female voice. A mystical atmosphere, mist from which shadows slowly emerge. And then those shadows transform. They are women, in their light white dresses. Like their voices, their thoughts, their souls. All so different, each with her own personal story and experience, and yet all the same. Together they create unison, dancing figures that float through space. Their movements can be gentle or reveal the strength they possess. Women are joy to those who know how to appreciate them; women are sadness, melancholy, and fragility. Women are human beings. Each in her own sea of emotions, truthful, authentic, and unique.

General sponsor of the Ballet