For the inspiration behind this “cheerful, summery… performance,” Eftimova says that the root lies in her obsession with the music of the genius Dragan Gjakonovski – Špato over the past two or three years. She got the idea to create a choreography that would primarily rely on his brilliant body of work.
As she began researching and engaging with his memoirs and biography, she discovered who had been involved in the beginnings of what we would later call “jazz culture in Macedonia.” She adds that so far no one has created a ballet based on the music of that era—when, as she says, “everyone was enthusiasts and lived with the idea of strongly promoting Macedonian musical culture beyond the country’s borders.”
