ⓒPhoto by Marta Tiberiu
ⓒPhoto by Marta Tiberiu
When enrolling at the
National ballet school in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) in 1983, the child of 10 years
of age saw a way out from the repressive dictatorship of Ceausescu. After very
harsh years during schooling, the communism regime collapses in 1989. Two years
after in 1991 he completes his study and in September the same year he tries
his chance at the Slovene National Theatre in Maribor. He gets his first
engagement and starts his career in Maribor as Slovenia makes its first steps
as a newborn country after exiting Yugoslavia.
Here he meets famous Slovene
theatre director Tomaž Pandur, with whom he starts to collaborate as a dancer
in his avant-garde productions. Noticing his creative potential Pandur asks him
to create the choreography for the performance Babylon, which premiered in
1996.
After his first choreographic
experience, Clug embarks on a new artistic journey and in 1998 he creates his
first independent project Tango, together with costume designer Leo Kulaš and set
designer Marko Japelj, who became his constant creative team. Later in 2008
composer Milko Lazar joins the team in the project Pret-a-Porter and they continue
to collaborate intensively ever since.
In 2003 the newly appointed general
director of SNT, Danilo Rošker assign him as artistic director of the ballet
and Clug starts to lead the company towards new and distinctive directions. In
2005 he creates Radio & Juliet on the music of Radiohead, which became an
international hit and drew the international attention to himself, due to his
specific choreographic style. He starts to collaborate with other ballet
companies around the world and equally succeeds in putting the Maribor Ballet
ensemble on the international dancing 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, O 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, Dance Open Festival in St Petersburg and toured
Netherlands, Italy, and the countries of ex-Yugoslavia.
Trough out the years Clug has
developed a strong relation with prestigious Stuttgart Ballet and Zurich Ballet
where he created in 2018 the much-acclaimed full-length ballet Faust.
In the last years he also
started a successful collaboration with the Netherlands Dance Theatre where he
created several projects for NDT2 and NDT1. The most recent Aperture for NDT1, received rave
reactions from both critics and public. He was also invited to create new works
for Bolshoi Ballet Moscow, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Vienna State Ballet, National
Ballet in Lisbon, Grand Ballets Canadians Montreal, Station Zuid Company,
Croatian National Ballet in Zagreb, Croatian National Ballet in Rijeka,
National Ballet in Bucharest, Aalto Ballett Essen, Bitef Dance Company Belgrade,
Graz Tanz, Ukranian National Ballet Kiev, StaatsBallett am Gartner Platz Munich,
Augsburg Ballet, Hessisches Staatsballett Wiesbaden, West Australian Ballet in
Perth, Novosibirsk State Ballet and Dortmund Ballet.
In 2021 he created the full-length ballet for Bolshoi Ballet, based on Bulgakov’s masterpiece Master and Margarita. Premiere took place on the 1st of December and was received with great acclaim.