NEMANJA MARAŠ

Photographer / Visual Artist

Nemanja Maraš, a photographer, visual artist, a professor at The Dance institute in Belgrade and member of ULUPUDS. Always exploring his inner self.

2015-2020

Après

The after-show creation

All photographs of ballet dancers from Nemanja Maras’s monograph “Après” were taken immediately after performances, just when the curtains came down. However, if one should observe the signs of the dancers’ emotional and physical status, he would get no impression of the completion of an art event, but more of its natural extension in the form of analysis, improvement and evolvement of a dance power.

Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet still remember the legendary Rudolf Nureyev, known for his perfectionism. Every time the performance ended, Rudolf used to ask all the dancers and theatre workers to leave the stage. Having stayed alone, he would turn on full stage lights and then search for hours for new, more virtuous technique, style and emotional approach to his just finished performance.

Nemanja Maras’s photographs encourage a spectator to think about the after-show creation, the time when dancers evaluate their work, trying to find a better artistic outcome. The aforementioned Nureyev’s way of work represents a powerful creative instrument that significantly improves an artist’s performance and performance in general, by keeping the experience from oblivion.

     Nemanja Maras’s monograph provides not only a visual satisfaction, but also a challenging contemplation of professional responsibility and commitment to art. Each time an artist searches for a perfect movement, the ancient Terpsichore’s “delight in dancing” becomes preserved in all its beauty and art, and starts growing, to the delight of those devoted to her.