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Slovene dancer and choreographer Gaj Žmavc began his ballet training at the Conservatory for Music and Ballet in Maribor and continued his studies at the International Academy for Classical Dance in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. In 2006, he joined the Maribor ballet ensemble, where he began his close collaboration with its artistic director and choreographer, Edward Clug.
As a member and featured soloist of the Maribor ballet ensemble, he toured Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Sweden, Belgium, France, Russian federation, Ukraine, South Korea, Singapore, Columbia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, USA, etc. He has also performed at the acclaimed and prestigious dance festival venues, such as Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Bogota, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Stars of the White Nights at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, the Bolshoi Theater, Swedish Royal Opera and many others.
Gaj Žmavc has also performed in the productions by internationally acclaimed choreographers, such as Johan Inger, Mauro Bigonzetti, Jean Christophe Maillot, Staša Zurovac, Zoran Markovič, etc.
In 2013, he made his successful debut as a choreographer with the title Home for a new Maribor ballet premiere, a triple bill shared with Staša Zurovac and Zoran Markovič. Since then, he has been a guest house choreographer at the SNG Maribor and created choreographies for ballet, opera and drama. In 2015, upon the invitation from the president of the Slovene Ballet Artists’ Association, Mr. Tomaž Rode, he created a new work for the Young Slovene Ballet titled Four Last Songs after Richard Strauss’s compositions of the same name. In 2017, he created choreography for a new Maribor production of Richard Wagner’s music drama Das Rheingold (directed by Igor Pison). Later that same year, he won 1st prize at the 3rd Young Slovene Choreographers’ Competition, namely for his new piece Yesterdays.
In 2018, he presented new work for the ballet company of SNG Maribor, an exciting piece Maestro, which was part of a triple bill shared with Edward Clug and Alexander Ekman. His most recent works for the SNG Maribor include choreography for Gounod's opera Faust (directed by Pier Francesco Maestrini, 2019), his first evening-length work Little Creation, a piece combined of eight solos and duets, for the soloists of SNG Maribor and guest artists (2020), and solo work Creation Acrylique to the music by Ravel’s Bolero, which was created in collaboration with Tetiana Svetlična and premiered at the Šibenik dance festival special summer edition in 2020.
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