Steadfast Toward Our Goals is a dance group operating within the Vocational and Occupational Centre Zasavje since 2015. Throughout the years, we have been exploring elements of contemporary expressive dance, driven by creativity, imagination, and a deep love for dance. Our gatherings also include elements of art therapy, and we often feel that dance opens a space for relaxation, emotional expression, self-affirmation, exploration, and much more.

We love participating in various events and are always happy for opportunities to perform. We greatly value performances where we can reach broader audiences, as these experiences bring us closer to true inclusion in both local and broader communities, and closer to real acceptance. Every year, we perform at the Regional Dance Review organized by the Public Fund for Cultural Activities (JSKD). We’ve been selected multiple times to present at the regional and even national dance reviews in Ljubljana and Velenje.

Each year, we also take part in the event Word, Dance, Music, which we co-organize in Trbovlje with the Trbovlje Music School and Tone Seliškar Library. A special moment for us was performing at Cankarjev dom for the 60th anniversary of the Sožitje Association.

We are always grateful for new invitations and collaborations. We are ready for new challenges and joyfully and lovingly do what means so much to us – we dance.

Artist’s Statement:
Contemporary dance has been a part of my life since childhood, and I have experienced and understood it differently throughout various stages of life. I am fascinated by everything dance can offer and how art can bring joy to individuals. This is my 13th year teaching children at the Trbovlje Music School, and since 2015 I have been employed at VDC Zasavje, where I lead the dance group Steadfast Toward Our Goals.

Dance is for me a form of expression, relaxation, and therapy – and I love sharing that with others. Moreover, dance opens doors for social inclusion for people with special needs, which is immensely important. I strongly believe in the creative power of people and often follow the thought of Pina Bausch, who said she is interested not in how people move, but in what moves them.

Dancers’ Statements:
Ernest Mešić: I love dancing because it relaxes me. I also enjoy musicals and get a lot of inspiration and ideas for dancing from them. I want to learn more complex dance steps.
Peter Lipovšek: I really enjoy performing. I love the audience and the applause. I like to show what I can do.
Samira Salihović: What I love about dance is how it connects us dancers and how we support one another. I often dance with Miran, who is blind and needs assistance navigating the space. It brings me joy to dance with him.
Aleš Šifrar: I like when we all come together and hang out. Dancing relaxes me. 

About the dance number  Turn Off the Lights, Turn On the Stars

In cities, the night is drowned in a sea of artificial light. Stars have become faint memories, trapped in the glow of urban shine. Artificial light dances through our streets, its ballroom stretching far beyond our homes. Like an invisible spider, it weaves a web that ensnares nocturnal moths, migratory birds, even our own health. Insects – tiny navigators of the night – lose their way in its maze, their wings caught in the eternal orbit around streetlights. Birds, once guided by stars, are now confused and lost. And we humans lose touch with the magic of night.

Night is no longer a realm of mystery, but a pale shadow of the day. Yet perhaps, if we just turned off a few lights, we could rediscover the beauty of the night. We might see the stars again, hear the symphony of nocturnal creatures, and remember that we are part of something greater – something that transcends the limits of our thoughts.

Turn Off the Lights, Turn On the Stars – a work of movement and music that speaks about light pollution on Earth – is a project by the dancers of Vocational and Occupational Centre Zasavje. With great love for art, we genuinely enjoy creating and performing at public events. In doing so, we participate in shaping our broader community. There is a lot of light within us, and we want to share it with others – knowing that with our own light, we can always illuminate each other.