Neža Jamnikar made her first dance steps at Music School Velenje (department for Expressive Dance) and later on in Dance Studio N Velenje, Slovenia. As a dancer she has performed in different pieces and projects of Dance Theatre Velenje, and in 2009 co-created a dance piece 'Pajkovke'. With this piece and many other choreographies, she performed all over Slovenia and Croatia at different festivals (Festival ŽIVA; Festival Plesna nacionala; Festival KORPUS; Festival Lent; OPUS 1 – an international competition for young dance performers; Festival Iskre etc.).

​

2012

Created a first full-length work 'Ladies Coupe' with a fellow dancer Tina Benko  (performed at Aberdeen International Youth Festival, Scotland, and in different cities in Slovenia)

​

2013

• Created a short dance piece with Tina Benko titled 'Spacebound' (premiered at Longford Dance Festival, Ireland, and performed at other festivals in Slovenia: Festival ŽIVA, Festival KORPUS, Festival Lent)

• A dance film 'Spacebound', made with director and filmmaker Jurij Panjan during the creative process of a Spacebound project, was screened at Sans Souci Film Festival (Colorado, USA), International Dance Retreat (Udaipur, India), 22. Quinzena de Danca de Almada International Dance Festival (Lisbon, Portugal) and Festival Živa (Ljubljana, Slovenia)

• As a dancer collaborated with Paris-based choreographer Fred Lasserre to create a piece for Festival Kunigunda (Velenje, Slovenia); August

• As a dancer joined Magical Theater Serpentes (performed at various gala events in Slovenia and abroad)
   

2014

• Co-created a dance piece ‘4 v vrsto’ (4 in a row) with three other Slovenian dancers (Benko, Valdés, Podobnik); performed at different festivals and venues in Slovenia

• Choreographic residency at Shawbrook (Longford, Ireland) - she and Tina Benko choreographed a piece for Shawbrook Youth Dance Company, which was shown at the Longford Dance Festival 2014; February

• A dancer and choreographer of a semi-professional dance company Brookdance '14, based in Ireland (during a three-week residency in Ireland two longer pieces were created and later performed in Ireland and around Slovenia); August

• Finished her Bachelor's Degree at the Academy of Dance Ljubljana, in departments for jazz and contemporary dance, gaining a title Bachelor of Dance, Choreography

• Joined Slovenian dance company Kjara's Dance Project (KDP) for the dance project Triptych, where she danced in Rosana Hribar's piece ‘Temptation’ (performed in Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana, Slovenia); December

• Co-created a site-specific work ‘In Vitro’ (Collective Frankies); Ljubljana, Slovenia
   

2015

• As a dancer and choreographer, involved in the making of two dance films: ‘In Vitro’ (Collective Frankies) and ‘CIRCULAT’ (director Matjaž Mrak)
   

2016

• Finished her Master's Degree in Contemporary Dance Performance (graduated with First Class Honours) at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland, where she danced in ensemble works made by renowned choreographers, created three short solos, two short dance films, and a short site-specific piece

• Artist in residence at: ‘TRY! Residence’ in Tipperary, Ireland (May); with Tina Benko at ‘Lake Studios’ in Berlin, Germany (June)
   

2017

• Created her own site-specific dance video series, called: 'Moving Spaces' (videos can be found in the section 'Media')

• Artist in Residence at Oddstream Festival in Nijmegen, the Netherlands where she collaborated with a music producer Thijs Jacobs to create a piece ‘Frequency Perception’, which was developed through exploration of interweaving movement and technology; November
   

2018

• Co-created a site-specific work ‘DOMUS FABULA’ (Collective Frankies)Idrija, Slovenia; January

• First full-length solo ‘Saudade’, premiered at Old Bakery (Velenje, Slovenia); February

• Moved to New Zealand where she performed ‘Saudade’ in various spaces around the country:

‘Dunedin Fringe Festival’, at New Athenaeum Theatre, Dunedin, March 2018 (AWARD for Best Dance Performance)
Studio showing at Otago University, Dunedin, April 2018
'Friday Features' series at Wellesley Studios, Auckland, May 2018
Season at Basement Theatre, Auckland, Sep 4th - 8th 2018
‘Performance Arcade’, Wellington, March 2019
‘Hanging Spaces’ – a movement-visual installation based on the solo, presented at Dance Leap Symposium, Dunedin, November 2019

• Artist in Residence at HKICAROS (Hong Kong International Collective Artist in Residency for Opportunities and Sustainability) where she created a new work ‘Interspaces’ presented at the Hong Kong International Choreography Festival; June

• Joined Carol Brown Dances for an ongoing, weather-conscious project 'LungSong' (choreographer/director: Dr. Carol Brown); performed throughout 2019-2020 at different locations around New Zealand

• Was part of a doctoral research project led by a Ph.D. student in Dance Studies at the University of Auckland Kerstin Kussmaul (study group exploring Myoreflex Therapy as a tool for dancers); performed at Auckland Fringe Festival, March 2019

• movement collaborator on James Riseby's video project ‘(De)Framing The Romantic Nature of Subjectivity’
   

2019

• Created a new work, a movement-visual installation ‘Mary’s Room’, performed at Auckland Fringe Festival; February

• Artist in residence at 'IDOCDE Residency', and participating at the 'Symposium on Contemporary Dance Education: ‘Tracing Forwards – intersecting (somatic) legacies and future (art) practices’ (Impulstanz, Vienna)); July

• Artist in residence at Rezi.Dance (Komařice, Czech), where she started research for a new project with James Risbey; October

​

2020/2021

• Created a new work, 'Love, instantly!'

       - an experimental movement film, 2021;

shown at: Symonds Street in Auckland (NZ), ‘God Box’ - a temporary exhibition and performance space in Dunedin (NZ), ‘Meanwhile Gallery’ in Wellington (NZ), and ‘Galerija Velenje’ (Velenje, Slovenia)

and screened at festivals: ‘Black Cat Film Festival’ (Ljubljana, SLO) – an award for the ‘Best Experimental Film’; ‘San Francisco Indie Short Festival’ (San Francisco, USA) – nominee; ‘Experimental Films Online – Kwalhia Selection’ (MEX) – official selection; ‘Nahui Ollin Film Festival’ (Durango, Mex) – official selection; ‘New York City io Film Festival’ (NY, USA) – Experimental Short 1st Place Prize Winner; ‘Pebbles Underground Film Festival’ (Montréal, CAN) – honorable mention; 'FICLAPAZ - La Paz International Film Festival' (La Paz, BOL) - official selection.

       - a live performance performed at Experimental Dance Week Aotearoa (EDWA) at Herald Theatre, Auckland; December 2020

• Performance/movement collaborator in a dance work 'Magnificent Remains' by Brittany Kohler & Dance Plant Collective, 2020-2021; performed at LOT23, Auckland; June 2021

• Performance collaborator in Janaína Moraes' PhD research project; University of Auckland, Dance Studies; 2020-2021

• Performance collaborator in Johanna Clause's PhD research project; University of Waikato, Dance Studies; 2020-2021

• Performance collaborator in Yin-Chi Lee's PhD research project; University of Auckland, Dance Studies; 2021

• Created a 'Space for Movement Exchange', an experimental format of movement sessions facilitating an exchange of movement/choreographic/pedagogic ideas and practices; Auckland Old Folks Association Hall, 2020-2021

• Performance/movement collaborator in '3R Project', a multimodal dance project that engages with recycling; created by Janaína Moraes and Joanna Cook; Auckland, Sept 2020

      

2022

• ‘Rethinking the Unthinkable World Without Me’ (a multimodal performance work), with Maryam Bagheri Nesami; performed at the Performance Arcade (Wellington, NZ)

• dancer in 'Dancing Ōtepoti: Sensuous Ecographies of Place' (an exhibition of filmed eco-somatic improvisations; conceived by Ali East)

• artist in residence at the 'Te Whare O Rukutia' (Dunedin, NZ)

​

2023

• site-specific video project 'Vivarium' with James Risbey (Central Otago, NZ)

​

Neža is a co-founder, choreographer and dancer of Collective Frankies (Tina Benko, Neža Jamnikar, Ema Križič, Urša Rupnik), which mainly creates site-specific work: ‘In Vitro’ (Ljubljana, 2014), ‘In Situ’ (idea: Ema Križič; Ljubljana, 2015), ‘DOMUS FABULA’ (Idrija, 2018).

​

Neža's teaching experience in New Zealand (2018-2021) includes:

Guest teacher at University of Otago, Dunedin

Professional Teaching Fellow (assisting Dr. Carol Brown) at the University of Auckland, Dance Studies (Choreography Course)

UNITEC, Department of Performing and Screen Arts (course: Choreographic Research and Performance)

Eco-somatic Dance Improvisation Workshop, co-organised and co-facilitated with Ali East, Whatipū Lodge (Auckland)

Teaching contemporary dance classes at Independance and Dance Studio, Auckland

Teaching at Contact Improvisation Gathering in Auckland

​

She is a certified Reiki practitioner and a masseuse.