More about Goran

As a kid, when I was still in school, I did gymnastics and then ballet. 

My father asked me: “What are you going to do in your life?” 

I answered: “I’ll dance!” 

“Okay, but how will you earn money?” he asked again.

“By dancing!” was clear to me.

And that’s what I did. 

I’ve danced professionally for more than seventy different choreographers and directors in the field of performing arts – classical ballet, physical theatre, contemporary dance, film, and video. For over 10 years I was dancing for the Slovene National Ballet Company, from corp de ballet to principal roles (Youri Vámos, John Cranko, Milko Šparemblek, Jeremy Leslie-Spinks, Vlasto Dedivič, Pina & Pio Mlakar, Kurt joss, Istvan Hertzog, Julio Lopez, Peter Breuer, Toer Van Shayk, Irina Lukashova, Ib Anderson, Ronald Hynd​...) and at the same time parallelly enjoyed a rich and versatile career of a freelance artist that brought me to work with many theatre artists and contemporary choreographers from the Slovenian and European art scene (Matjaž Pograjc & Betontanc, Dragan Živadinov, Milko Šparamblek, Francois Michele Pesenti, Ema Kugler, Janes Janša, Howard Katz Fireheart, Micheal Clark...) among many others. I also took part of research projects with Emio Greco, Josef Nadj, David Zambrano, Andrew L.Harwood ... to mention just some of them.

Goran Bogdanovski

Eventually, after ten years of a super-fast tempo having on average 7 projects per year, I had a major crisis and also problems with injuries… I looked inside… There were too many techniques and roles there and no more space for new choreography, a new role… 

And so I collapsed, I stopped dancing. 

I looked for motives to dance and ways to continue.

Eventually, I started going to the studio again. I did this every morning, alone, for half a year, throwing out everything that was not mine in my body, mind, and emotions, until I finally felt the emptiness and peace.

...

In this space, I realized that I wanted freedom in my dance in the sense that I no longer wanted to learn other steps, moves, and choreographies, which mostly have no meaning connected to movement. I promised myself that I would master improvisation; learn the tools, techniques, and ways of expressing myself freely through dance, learn to understand how to choreograph through improvisation and develop my performing skills by studying acting and improvisation techniques, learn how to incorporate martial arts and Eastern meditation practices into my daily practice and teach dance without showing the moves, steps, and choreographies for participants to copy and learn from.

Goran Bogdanovski coaching

And I noticed a sparkle of creation, which I started to ride, and then I realized that I was already improvising, choreographing, and teaching other dancers my insights! 

But I didn’t know how to continue. I was tied up in the company repertoire and other projects and I was afraid of leaving this financial security to chase my dreams. How will I make a living if I will travel around the world spending money and looking for knowledge to master improvisation? 

In 2000 finally, I took a leap of faith and I left academic and institutional frames of dance and started to implement improvisation into everything I was doing and learning along the way.

Goran Bogdanovski

Then came seven years of creating and extensively touring (Slovenia, UK, Russia, USA, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Czech republic, Italy, Austria, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Albania ...) with my own Dance company Fičo Balet, in which I was also the choreographer, dancer, manager, producer, touring agent, administrator…  Rock’n’Roll! …Sky Diving! …  Awards!

 ... among others.

In my free time, I chased workshops and teachers around the world that could teach me more about  the art of improvisation. I studied martial arts and meditation and was giving my first classes and workshops on dance improvisation where I learned that I learn the most from the teaching.

On the way, I helped others.

I transformed a big old cinema - Kino Šiška into a huge dance studio, rehearsal space & production of contemporary dance and theatre which I ran for six years.

I launched with partners the first Slovene contemporary dance platform  Gibanica.

I co-established the Nomad Dance Academy with partners in six Balkan countries where I was the co-director of educational and artistic research programs.

I co-established the CoFestival International Festival of Contemporary Dance which has been emerging through the process of collective curating for many years now. 

I led the process of establishing the first public institution for contemporary dance in Slovenia - the Centre of Contemporary Dance Arts with a common effort of the whole contemporary dance scene. Due to the rapid change of government and political foolishness of the right-wing party on behalf of the recession, the Centre of Contemporary Dance Arts Slovenia became collateral damage and was in 2012 without dialog and reason unfortunately discontinued.

Then another breakdown… 

I realized that I no longer enjoyed traveling around the world, going from the airplane to the hotel room to the theatre and then back to the hotel room and the airplane… 

And I realized that I worked on all the big projects – the Studio, the Platform, and the Academy – for practically no money because it was in my nature to help others and not think of myself. 

And to make things worse, the financial crisis hit the art production in my country hard. The funds for the dance productions I wanted to work on were gone.

There were only small budgets, which means a lot of compromises in creating art and a lot of underpaid collaborators. So I decided to stop and do nothing, artistically.

Goran Bogdanovski
Goran Bogdanovski

I became broke overnight and had to work all kinds of jobs to break even. I was driving trucks, was a librarian, and even took a project in tunnel construction work. 

It was a great challenge and learning experience but at the same time, it was like a holiday for me, doing simple work and having a boss telling me what to do:) 

I got my first child and started searching for a deeper meaning and a purpose… Yeah, right… 

A normal process for a man my age :) 

I did this through all kinds of dynamic processes: Dynamic & Kundalini meditation, Enlightenment Intensives, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, Dervish whirling, Gurdjieff dances, Shamanism, Dancing on fire ... 

And then I realized that I had to share my gifts and talents in a different way. 

I decided to open up and share what I had learned in dance to that point and so I offered a unique style of dance classes and workshops incorporating Eastern and Western knowledge and providing students with a safe dance improvisation practice that is dynamic, meditative, playful, and creative and the improvisation tools that can be transferred to daily situations. It was called Fico Training.

In no time, all the training sessions and workshops were full without me spending a single cent on their promotion!

I even had to engage other teachers to take the load off.

Ficho training

Just like an alchemist, I played with different methods, principles, techniques, learning from my mistakes, trying new approaches, purifying the essence of dance to the point,

that now more than 100 modalities, exercises, game tools, and principles 

function clearly for ANY BODY regardless of dance background, experience, or level of understanding dance and can also be transferred to daily situations, relations, work ... 

Tools that can be used in creation, classes, workshops, sessions, retreats, therapy, coaching, leadership, personal growth, and more.

And for the past 17 years, my focus mainly shifted toward teaching, coaching, and mentoring.

I had the opportunity to pass my knowledge and my understanding of dance improvisation and alchemy in 23 different countries to various groups of people, 

I did this in the form of trainings, classes, master classes, workshops, events, research projects, coaching, mentoring, retreats and journeys. 

And I could observe deep transformations that took place in the people I worked with and also deep transformations within myself. 

For people, what I offered were not just dance classes or workshops, but an artistic experience, improvisational dance practice, the training of the Body-Mind-Spirit through dance, therapy, healing, personal growth, spiritual practice, fun. 

They could extract the tools and principles that they could use in their dancing, teaching & facilitating, daily lives, relationships, and work.

The modalities, tools, and principles can be applied to any kind of teaching or facilitating situations and to any students & clients and their level of understanding of dance.

During the process, I learned that I love working on the following topics: dance improvisation, contact improvisation, artistic creation, being fully present, group consciousness, body-mind-spirit, group dynamics, therapy, leadership skills, team building, synergy, alchemy, personal and professional growth.



I’ve devoted my life to bring embodiment, dance, improvisation, creation, transformation, empowerment, healing, and freedom, helping people to become that 2.0 version of themselves.


I thus created the Ficho Institute! 

Goran Bogdanovski

“Before my first inhale and after my last exhale 

everything already exists.

I only have to be. 

To move from point A to point B 

with acceptance, 

understanding, 

and sincerity.”