The first thing that comes to mind when I think of birds is the sound they make. What is interesting here is that we, humans, whether in an urban environment or in nature, mostly hear birds but do not see them. They simply drown in the sounds we hear during the day. That's what I want to put on stage and recreate in the theater. While working on Aristophanes' comedy "The Birds", I deliberately distanced myself from the action and focused on the primary connection between birds and the dance that originates from Eros, as we can find in one of the most respected analyzes of Aristophanes' Birds, by the American writer William Arrowsmith. He states that the wings can be treated as a phallus, and this mythological metaphor became the initiation for my entry into Aristophanes' story. We will try to build our own Kukunebograd, our nest of wishes or our cage of curiosity. We know that the birds built that utopia in the heights between heaven and earth. Since then, people have been trying to build as many buildings as possible to get closer to God, while overlooking the fact that the higher they rise to the heavens, the smaller they become on Earth. That human irony contains as much persistence as a woodpecker as it persistently bores into a tree in search of food. Persistent and futile.

Edward Clug

Edward Clug has completed his ballet studies in 1991 at the National ballet school in Cluj-Napoca (Romania). In the same year he was engaged as a soloist at the Slovene National Theatre (SNG) in Maribor. In 2003 he became artistic directorof the ballet with the Slovene National Theatre (SNG) in Maribor, leading the com­ pany towards new and distinctive directions. Throu­ ghout the past ten years, Clug drew attention of the international audience to himself, due to his specific choreographic style. Fie equally succeeded in putting the Maribor Ballet ensemble on the international dan­ cing map. The Ballet of the SNG Maribor participated in the largest theatre festivals throughout the world performing his choreographies: Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (USA), The Stars of the with nights festival in Mariinski theatre St.Petersburg, Festival of Firsts in Pittsburgh, Arts Festival in Singapore, Biarritz Festival in France, 0 Boticario di danza in Brazil, Dance Festival in Tel Aviv, Sintra Festival in Portugal, Festival Des Arts de Saint-Sauveur (Canada), Seoul International Dance Festival (Korea), at the Milan Teatro Piccolo and toured Netherlands, Italy, and the countries of ex-Yugoslavia.

As a choreographer Clug has developed a strong relation with Stuttgart Ballet and Zurich Ballet where he has created several works. Recently he had a successful debut with NDT2. Fie was also invited to create new works for Royal Ballet of Flanders, National Ballet in Lisbon, Station Zuid Company, Croatian National Ballet in Zagreb, Croatian National Ballet in Rijeka, National Ballet in Bucharest, Aalto Ballet Essen, Bitef Dance Company, Graz Tanz, Ukranian National Ballet Kiev, Munich Ballet am Gartner Platz and West Australian Ballet.

Fie received international awards for his choreography at dance competitions and festivals in Varna, Moscow, Flannover, Nagoya, Belgrade and Sarajevo and was nominated for the Golden Mask award in Moscow 2010. In 2014 international dance magazine Tanz ac­ knowledged him as future's hope in the field of chore­ ography. Fie received the highest Slovene prizes in cul­ ture for his work, the Award of the Prešern Foundation in 2005 and the Clazer Charter in 2008.