DancEUA Artist-in-Residence is organized as a part of DancEUA, a Creative Europe project (2025-2027) created by Studio Contemporary Dance Company – SSP (Croatia), Central Europe Dance Theatre – CEDT (Hungary), M Studio (Romania), Vitlycke – CPA (Sweden) and UA Contemporary Dance Platform (Ukraine) to empower Ukrainian contemporary dance through creativity, connection and resilience. The DancEUA residency program is designed to foster artistic dialogue, support the development of individual projects, and encourage collaboration between artists from Ukraine and the partner countries.

“Rearward Eye: In Her Time” by Isabella Eva Ljubičić + Lea Filipčić (HR)
Rearward Eye: In Her Time is an artistic research project exploring death through objects, movement, film, and language. The research asks: “How can I animate something non-living or make something living dead?” It investigates the uncanny qualities of objects, the fetishization of young bodies, and gestures of mourning. Through cuts, loops, repetition, and time manipulation, the project explores how principles of inorganic movement can become dance material, while developing a personal poetics of language and performance.

About the artists
Contemporary dance artists Isabela Eva Ljubičić and Lea Filipčić, based in Zagreb (Croatia), work in the field of contemporary dance, where they pursue their interests in performance, choreography, research, art, and theory. Isabela Eva Ljubičić completed her primary and secondary contemporary dance education at the Silvija Hercigonja Dance School and further honed her skills through the Podmladak 2.0 program in Zagreb. Together with Maja Drobac, she created the original project Nepoznato (The Unknown), which premiered in 2022 at the Zagreb Dance Center (ZPC). Lea Filipčić began her dance training at the Ana Maletić Contemporary Dance School and also developed as a performer through her membership in Podmladak 2.0. She performed in Žak Valenta’s piece HODAČI-CE (Walkers) during her secondary dance education — appearing at the Contemporary Dance Week in Zagreb — and attended the SOLID GROUND dance camp in Munich. Outside of her formal studies, she participated in the performance Olimpijada duše (Olympiad of the Soul) by Aleksandra Madsen. Both artists are currently nearing the completion of their undergraduate studies in
contemporary dance at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. This year (2025/2026), they continued their education through the Erasmus+ program at the HZT academy in Berlin. They have participated together in numerous festivals and dance events, including Improspekcije, Požeški Plesokaz, Monoplay, and activities organized by the Kružok association. By alternating between the roles of choreographer and performer, they have supported each other in their initial experiences as creators.

Mentor of the DancEUA residencies – Gry Kipperberg (NO)
Gry Kipperberg is a dance artist educated at KHiO in Oslo and the Merce Cunningham Studio in New York, and is a certified BMC® Practitioner. She has worked and performed both nationally and internationally with numerous choreographers and in a wide range of artistic collaborations since 1990. In 1999 she co-founded the company Wee with Francesco Scavetta, where she also created two solo performances — Strangely Enough (2010) and Under the Nothing Night (2020).

She has been employed by the Norwegian Actors’ and Dancers’ Alliance (Skuespiller- og Danseralliansen) since 2013, and has extensive experience as a teacher, mentor, and outside eye, as well as from organizational work within the dance field. Gry was awarded the Rolf Gammleng Award in 2012 and received a ten-year Government Grant for Established Artists in 2024.