Tabak is a research on expanded choreograpy concerned with repetition and social behaviour conceived by Francisco Tomsich in 2020. Since 2021, it has been articulated as a collective process of creation in the field of contemporary dance by an ensemble composed by Natalija Gajić, Nina Grmovšek Seljak, Anastasiya Pruyidze, Valentina Tomažinčič and Francisco Tomsich.


Tabak’s working process has been developed through research on movement and dance practices from various places and times, workshops given by each integrant of the ensemble to the others, the application of diverse dance and performance techniques and exercises, the discussion of sounds and images connected with the applied methods and the extensive use of video as a tool for documenting, analyzing and composing. The first result of this series of conversations, meetings and rehearsals is Tabak: The Square, a ca. 40-minutes dance piece for four performers which was first presented to the public in the form of an open rehearsal carried out at Arcoiris R, Bologna, in April, 2022.


Tabak: The Square is a contemporary dance work strongly engaged with repetition as method and impossibility, and representation through movement. There is almost no space for improvisation inside it. Its composition is shaped by the observation, abstraction and replication of spontaneous actions, movements done in the margins of “dancing”, grey zones of conducts, the deconstruction of habits. It explores notions of public space, friendship and the social roots of the intimate.


Tabak: The Square proposes a narrative composed by sections in which a certain set of choreographic problems are explored by four strongly distinct characters. Those sections fluctuate between solo-based compositions and the movement towards the whole. The sounds created by the actions themselves are as important as the signs that hands make and the calculated and choreographed facial motions.