Performances

Contacts

Šiltadaržio 6, LT-01124 Vilnius, Lithuania

Lithuanian Dance Scene is a project aiming to document and present Lithuanian professional contemporary dance and contemporary ballet.

Supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and
Vilnius City Municipality

© 2019 Lithuanian Dance Information Centre

Game Changer

AURA Dance Theatre

Birutė Letukaitė
Svetlana Batura Svetlana Batura Svetlana Batura Laura Vansevičienė

Choreography Birutė Letukaitė | Costumes and idea Guda Koster (Netherlands) | Music Antanas Jasenka | Lights Vladimiras Šerstabojevas | Voice Ilja Gun | Dancers Blake Seidel (USA), Chiara Corbetta (Italy), Clara Giambino (France), Erik Zarcone (Italy), Evgenii Kalachev (Russia), Jasper Narvaez (Philipins), Julija Mintautė (Lithuania), Matthew Livingston (USA), Marine Fernandez (France), Mei Chen (China) | Video Marius Paplauskas

Premiere 26 January 2018, Kaunas

Duration 60'

Oppression may seem safe, clear, and lasting, but the nature of humanity is not made for that - the more we are under pressure, the more our hidden need for freedom grows (expands, rises to the surface).

Modern dance studio founded by Birutė Letukaitė several decades ago in 1995 was established as Kaunas city dance theatre “Aura” and is still lead by her. Among the most important awards of the theatre director and choreographer Birutė Letukaitė are two "Golden Scene Crosses", the Government Culture and Art Award, and many others. On the eve of the festival, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania awarded Birutė Letukaitė for outstanding contribution and special merits to Lithuanian culture and art with the Honorary Sign "Get Your Light and Believe".

„Aura” is an international dance company with dancers from different countries. The troupe is actively developing joint projects with artists from different genres, performing all around the world. During theatre‘s existence, it created and shaped the "face" of Lithuanian contemporary dance. "Aura" and International Dance Festival are an integral part of the culture and art of both Kaunas city and the Republic of Lithuania.

Ephemeral Shades

AURA Dance Theatre

Vangelis Legakis
Miško Archyvas Indrė Pix, Prokadras Indrė Pix, Prokadras

Choreography Vangelis Legakis (Greece) | Costumes Kristina Sviderskaitė | Music Antanas Jasenka | Lights Vladimiras Šerstabojevas | Dancers Blake Seidel (USA), Chiara Corbetta (Italy), Clara Giambino (France), Erik Zarcone (Italy), Evgenii Kalachev (Russia), Jasper Narvaez (Philipins), Julija Mintautė (Lithuania), Matthew Livingston (USA), Marine Fernandez (France), Mei Chen (China)

Supported by Ministry of Culture of the Respublic of Lithuania and Lithuanian Council for Culture

Premiere 24 February 2018, Klaipėda

Duration 60'

The culture of progressive consuming is threatening not only the material but also our spiritual life. There is a problem, there‘s also already chewed-up solutions to that problem. Fast divorce, fast loans, soon enough fast marriage through internet will also be a thing of common reality. It is as much easy to divorce as to spill your cold tea, instead of reheating it. All of this we give as heritage to our children.

Choreographer Vangelis Legakis, currently living in Hong Kong, invokes the term „individuation“ of the psychiatrist Carl Yung while presenting the idea of the upcoming dance performance which describes the process of human development, during which the person consciously isolates himself from others but unites with his body, mind, spirit and emotions while understanding their interdependence. „How to harmonise the relation between people of traditional attitude and contemporary generation of youth? What to do in order to reach the development of nowadays kids not as separate individuals, but as united organism – a part of society which creates harmonious and happy families?“

Modern dance studio founded by Birutė Letukaitė several decades ago in 1995 was established as Kaunas city dance theatre “Aura” and is still lead by her. Among the most important awards of the theatre director and choreographer Birutė Letukaitė are two "Golden Scene Crosses", the Government Culture and Art Award, and many others. On the eve of the festival, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania awarded Birutė Letukaitė for outstanding contribution and special merits to Lithuanian culture and art with the Honorary Sign "Get Your Light and Believe".

„Aura” is an international dance company with dancers from different countries. The troupe is actively developing joint projects with artists from different genres, performing all around the world. During theatre‘s existence, it created and shaped the "face" of Lithuanian contemporary dance. "Aura" and International Dance Festival are an integral part of the culture and art of both Kaunas city and the Republic of Lithuania.

Internal sensations

METAMORPHOSIS OF SUOMIJA

Austėja Vilkaitytė
Andrej Vasilenko Andrej Vasilenko Gintarė Grigėnaitė

Concept, choreography Austėja Vilkaitytė | Performing, choreography Dalė Ruplėnienė

Dance performance created in the frame of an exhibition “Colleague From Another Tribe. Artist Meets Entrepreneur"

Partly supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture

Partners Employment Service under MSSL

Premiere 2018/2019, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius

Dalė Ruplėnienė recalls a not so distant past - a time when she had a clothing shop called "Suomija", from which two suits have been left today. Like many small businesses, "Suomija" had to close when the "Akropolis" shopping mall was opened in early 2000. Yet, two years before closing, Dalė opened a spa centre in the shop, during same time Dalė started her interest to holodynamic approach to life.

Dalė's body is a transistor, mediating telepathic choreography of "Suomija" suits. Together with the guidance of Austėja Vilkaitytė, Dalė Ruplėnienė is searching for the dance containing the past energies, embodying the communication of the clothing and the architecture - objects, light and sound of National Gallery of Art space.

Dance performance created in the frame of an exhibition "Colleague From Another Tribe. Artist Meets Entrepreneur". Exhibition curator Eglė Mikalajūnė, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius.

Austėja Vilkaitytė (was born in 1985, Lithuania) graduated from Iceland Academy of the Arts, BA in Contemporary Dance. She studied dance at SEAD, Austria and TEAK, Finland. Now Austėja is pursuing MA in Choreography specialized on New Performative Practice at DOCH university, Sweden. Her work was shown at visual arts institutions as well as dance and theater platforms in Lithuania and abroad. A. Vilkaitytė received Young Artist Award by Ministry of Culture in Lithuania in 2016.

Austėja works in the fields of dance, choreography and performance. Her interests are new forms of dance, choreography, hybrid performativity, conquering both visual arts institutions and dance venues, creating site-specific places. She finds black box and theater as a phenomenon, a performance, a body and container of energies and history to be communicated with and researched. In her artistic practice, Austėja approaches New Eastern European identity, feminism, dance history, personal archive and memory, also today’s consumerism from perspective of the ancient, emotions, ‘expressionistic’ dance.

Banana Dream

B&B

Greta Grinevičiūtė & Agnietė Lisičkinaitė
Vismantė Ruzgaitė NONA Vismantė Ruzgaitė NONA Vismantė Ruzgaitė NONA Vismantė Ruzgaitė NONA

Idea, choreography Greta Grinevičiūtė & Agnietė Lisičkinaitė | Performance Greta Grinevičiūtė, Agnietė Lisičkinaitė, Emilija Karosaitė, Ugnė Laurinavičiūtė | Set design Renata Valčik | Music Artūras Bumšteinas | Light design Julius Kuršis | Producer “Be kompanijos” and “Atviro kodo laboratorija” | Video Marius Paplauskas

Supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture

Premiere 19 December 2018

Lithuanians love to tire themselves out, especially while looking for one’s identity. B&B saw this fruitless struggle and decided to do research on the topic from a perspective that’s less examined.

B asks, and B answers.
What are we doing here? Looking at the mirror while the image is blocked by opinions of others, values, beliefs, and so forth.
Am I creating myself without remaining a servant to anyone? Everything is owned by someone, even our dreams, goals, desires – they’re part of the same mirror.
Then, it appears that I’m only a person when I’m part of some gang supporting influencers… This is not a question.
Can I be myself without copying someone? Every identity imitates something, doesn’t it?
Can I exist without an identity? Yes.
So why would I try so hard to look for it? Identifying with someone makes people like us for our guise, not our essence.

B&B characters were born in the summertime of 2015 in Blank canvas residency Cork town, Ireland. Two Lithuanian choreographers and performers - Greta Grinevičiūtė and Agnietė Lisičkinaitė created these two characters as politically active artistic figures who reflect on environment expressing their feelings, opinions and social encounters. Moreover, they are active media figures constantly questioning the need and purpose of fame and popularity.

B&B already has visited Firkin dance centre in Ireland; Vermont Performance Lab in USA; Tanz Litauen festival in Germany; Vides Deja festival in Latvia; New Baltic dance festival in Lithuania, dance residency in מחול שלם Machol Shalem Dance House (Jerusalem, Israel).

Agnietė Lisičkinaitė is a Lithuanian contemporary choreographer, performer and teacher with a master’s degree at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. From 2016 she is a member of the Lithuanian contemporary dance association. Well known as a performer of AIROS dance theatre and urban dance theatre Low Air, she also performed in Tony Vezich’s performance Inspite Everything/All (2014). A. Lisičkinaitė made her debut as a choreographer in 2014 with piece Popular Problem. After that she created several contemporary dance miniatures like Respect to Grandmothers, City Map, -Women? and has worked as a choreographer for theatre performances. As a creator A. Lisičkinaitė is interested in combining contemporary dance with other types of art and how these combinations can help her reveal relevant social issues.

Greta Grinevičiūtė is a contemporary dance artist who is extremely interested in making moving pictures dance and in performing on stage. From 2016 she is a member of the Lithuanian contemporary dance association. Greta already has made a few dance movies. She is also taking part in many dance performances with various choreographers like the AIROS dance theatre, Simon Pederson, Tony Vezich, Andrius Katinas and others. She has made several stage dance performances – Dance for a Vacuum Cleaner and Father, The Ball, Respect to Grandmothers, etc. Greta appears on stage as an actress in the works by young Lithuanian theatre creators – Things, Unlearned Lessons and so forth. Although the interest field of Greta is mainly moving dance pictures, at the same time she’s engaged in developing the connection between stage contemporary dance, stage performance and video.

Dolls 2.0

Butoh Dance Theatre OKARUKAS

Sakurako
Šarūnas Kvietkus Okarukas Modestas Šerlinskis

Concept Sakurako (Choreography) & Phil Von (Music) | Dramaturgy Sakurako & Marius Povilas Elijas Martynenko | A.I. consultant & video Karolis Tamošiūnas | Curator Andrius Pukis (Post Galerija) | Performers Kamilė Lebedytė, Ieva Tarejeva, Milda Sutkevičiūtė, Rūta Šmergelytė, Živilė Virkutytė

Premiere 2018, Kaunas

Theatrical tour – dance performance “Dolls 2.0” is a specially prepared guided tour through the chosen exhibition space, museum or any other allotted location with 5 charming ladies-guides with extendable knowledge in various fields, including architecture, art history, contemporary art and even art politics.

“Dolls 2.0” commences as a conventional tour gradually turning into a rather surrealist situation with a healthy dose of institutional critique with humor in the butoh aesthetics. The situation is finally resolved by the involvement of the A.I. scientist bringing out an unexpected sci-fi twist. This is a visually strong conceptual work where contemporary dance is enriched by butoh dance technique to create a captivating encounter with the audience leaving no one indifferent. The piece is questioning human condition through analyzing distorted relationship of artists within the art world paying special attention to a female position within our contemporary society, which keeps technologically advancing.

Okarukas is the only butoh dance theatre in the Baltics founded by Sakurako (LT/FR) & Phil Von (FR) uniting a team of young talented Lithuanian artists, actors and dancers. Sakurako is artistic director and choreographer of Re-United Now-Here in Paris and Okarukas in Vilnius.

Sakurako is a Lithuanian origin Paris based conceptual/visual artist & performer, creating works balancing at the edge of performance art, theatre and dance. After graduating from Fine Arts at Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, Sakurako intensively studied martial & Japanese traditional arts and well as contemporary dance butoh (jap. 舞踏) with various masters in Japan.

Today Sakurako is working worldwide and performing at major venues: Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), Le 104, Auditorium Saint-Germain, Le Cube, Théâtre du Temps, (Paris), OT301, Paradiso, Oostblook Theatre, Oude Kerk, (Amsterdam), Mažasis teatras, Menų Spaustuvė (Vilnius), SCCA Center for Contemporary Arts (Ljubljana), UrBANGUILD (Kyoto), etc. as well as festivals: La Nuit Blanche (Paris), Kultūros Naktis (Vilnius) Juli Dans (Amsterdam), Rappongi Art Night (Tokyo) ,City of Women (Slovenia), Modern Panic (London), Gogol Fest (Ukraine) and Venice Art Biennale’11 (Italy).

X and future X

Ema Senkuvienė & Blake Seidel

Erik Zarcone Erik Zarcone Erik Zarcone Erik Zarcone

Choreography and performance Ema Senkuvienė & Blake Seidel | Music CoH “Vivid”, Philip Glass “Six Etudes for Piano - q = 96”, Loren Connors “Blues No.4”, Phil Kaye „Camaro", Demdike Stare "Fail" | Costume design Ema Senkuvienė & Blake Seidel | Video director Saulė Bliuvaitė | Video Povilas Baltinas | Video editing Blake Seidel

Premiere 16 November 2018, Dance Exploration Platform "Bitės", Vilnius

Duration 30'

Ema Senkuvienė from an early age was training as a figure skater. From 2011 she was an apprentice and later, 2012 - 2016 she worked as a full-time dancer in AURA Dance Theatre in Lithuania. In 2016 moved to Italy to study in Start Up VII intensive dance programme in Bologna, Italy.

Ema has worked with well-known choreographers like Amos Ben-Tal, Ferenc Feher, Samuel Mathieu, BODYTALK, etc. Currently working as a freelance dancer and teacher, participating in different projects and creating her work.

At the age of 20, Blake Seidel started dancing. At the same year he began his career with Charlottesville Ballet, where he danced as an apprentice for two years. Afterward, he moved across the United States and then to Israel for one year to study with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in the Masa program. Following Israel, he was hired by AURA Dance Theatre in Kaunas, Lithuania, where he is currently employed.

Ema and Blake met in 2017, when they both danced with AURA Dance Theatre. They performed together in several company productions like “Abu2”, “GLÜCK / LAIMĖ” in Germany, Japan, Mexico, and Lithuania. In 2018 they created the piece “X and future X” for Dance Exploration Platform “Bitės” in Vilnius, Lithuania. Now still working on their first project made together and hopefully more in the future.

Dance for the Vacuum Cleaner and Father

Greta Grinevičiūtė

Vismantė Ruzgaitė NONA Vismantė Ruzgaitė NONA Vismantė Ruzgaitė NONA

Concept, choreography, performance Greta Grinevičiūtė | Director Paulius Markevičius | Dramaturgy Kristina Steiblytė | Music Vladas Dieninis | Light design Julius Kuršis | Costume design Rūta Kyguolytė | Video director Saulė Bliuvaitė | Director of photography Vismantė Ruzgaitė | Light desing for video Jurgis Matulevičius | Video Povilas Baltinas

Premiere 29 March 2018

Duration 50'

Dancer and choreographer Greta Grinevičiūtė in her solo performance “Dance for a Vacuum Cleaner and Father” invites into the personal space of a woman. Here everyday life, relationships, and dance interact, interchange, intertwine.

A woman - young, attractive, and talented – is the main focus of the performance. She is simultaneously a girl, an author, a means to bring to life somebody else’s ideas, her own boss, sex symbol, sex object, subject… a woman in search of love and unity unfortunately bound to wind up in the same old lonely place. She is also an artist torn between her own image and artistic ideals. Here, in her private space, she can be real and raw with no need to hide any of her insecurities, struggles, inner conflicts.

Autobiography, TV, cinema, literature, theatre, dance, father’s favourite music, and fantasy – are all combined in the “Dance for a Vacuum Cleaner and Father”. Real, experienced world overlaps with fiction. And in the middle of all that – a dancing woman, not necessarily still able to separate reality from fantasy.

Greta Grinevičiūtė is a contemporary dance artist who is extremely interested in making moving pictures dance and in performing on stage. From 2016 she is a member of the Lithuanian contemporary dance association. Greta already has made a few dance movies. The first piece called Faked David was selected to be a part of video dance festival “From Jaffa to Agripas” in Jerusalem. She is also taking part in many dance performances with various choreographers like the AIROS dance theatre, Simon Pederson, Tony Vezich, Andrius Katinas and others. She has made several stage dance performances – Dance for a Vacuum Cleaner and Father, The Ball, Respect to Grandmothers, etc. Greta appears on stage as an actress in the works by young Lithuanian theatre creators – Things, Unlearned Lessons and so forth. Although the interest field of Greta is mainly moving dance pictures, at the same time she’s engaged in developing the connection between stage contemporary dance, stage performance and video.

Commensurate to be with

Liza Baliasnaja

Svetlana Batura

Choreography Liza Baliasnaja (LT/BE) | Performance Liza Baliasnaja (LT/BE), Sidney Barnes (UK/BE), Amanda Barrio Charmelo (PE/BE) ir Stefan Govaart (NL/BE)

Made possible thanks to The Lithuanian Council for Culture, Kaunas Artist's House, General Representation of the Government of Flanders, UAB "Ežerėlio vaivorykštė"

Premiere November 2018, Kaunas

Duration 120'

Commensurate to be with is a choreography which functions as an exercise with a desire to understand the affect of synchronized action. Framed as an exercise, the work is focused on practice of synchronicity as a shared goal. Through out the duration of Commensurate to be with, four performers explore the variations of being with each other through a spectrum of temporal measures. The work focuses on the notion of choreography as a practice of writing dance and singing.

Liza Baliasnaja is a Lithuanian performer, dancer and choreographer currently living in Brussels. Since graduating from P.A.R.T.S in 2016, Liza has been involved as a performer in the works of Mårten Spångberg such as “Gerhard Richter, une pièce pour le théâtre“ and „Natten“, Eszter Salamon in “MONUMENT 0.4: LORES & PRAXES (a ritual of transformation)“, Ula Sickle in “Relay” and in a recent work of Eglė Budvytytė.

Liza is actively performing and developing her artistic work between Belgium and Lithuania.

Figures

Liza Baliasnaja & Sidney Barnes

MO museum

Choreography and performance Liza Baliasnaja (LT/BE) & Sidney Barnes (UK/BE) | Music Sidney Barnes/ Produced by Georgia Barnes and Sidney Barnes

Made possible thanks to Lithuanian Council for Culture, Nida Art Colony, Rosas/P.A.R.T.S, Kaunas Artists’ House and The School of Gaesbeek

Premiere 2018

Duration 45'

In Figures, we perform questionable geometries and physical relations choreographed as a sequence of illusionary events that challenge the visual experience of the observer. There are some two-dimensional figures, also known as ambiguous figures, that when viewed, can give rise to experiences which offer different phenomenal characters, these differences can be seen in sharp or even distinct ways. The switch from seeing an image in one way to seeing it in another can happen suddenly or even gradually due to certain saccadic features of our visual perception; this is known as the Gestalt shift.

Although one can have a certain autonomy over the Gestalt switching phenomenon, it often happens without your control, unrealised and perplexing. What happens when one undergoes the Gestalt switch is that one’s visual, intellectual or even emotional knowledge of an experience changes. A person has experiences of several different phenomenal characters one after the other. As a result, it evokes introspective thinking, a consideration of one’s interior state in relation to the exterior input. Figures invites the spectator to focus on his/her own trajectory of thought stimulated by a cascade of physical landscapes.

Liza Baliasnaja is a Lithuanian performer, dancer and choreographer currently living in Brussels. Since graduating from P.A.R.T.S in 2016, Liza has been involved as a performer in the works of Mårten Spångberg such as “Gerhard Richter, une pièce pour le théâtre“ and „Natten“, Eszter Salamon in “MONUMENT 0.4: LORES & PRAXES (a ritual of transformation)“, Ula Sickle in “Relay” and in a recent work of Eglė Budvytytė.

Liza is actively performing and developing her artistic work between Belgium and Lithuania.

Sidney Barnes in a dance and music artist from London. He graduated P.A.R.T.S in 2016. Ever since he has been composing music, working in the field of print making as well as choreography. As a performer, Sidney is involved in the works by Eszter Salamon and Mårten Spångberg.

THE MEET(ING)

LOW AIR / Vilnius City Dance Theatre

Airida Gudaitė & Laurynas Žakevičius
Dmitrijus Matvejevas Dmitrijus Matvejevas Dainius Putinas

Production LOW AIR Vilnius city dance theatre | Concept, director Lauryna Liepaitė | Dramaturgy Kristina Savickienė | Choreography, performance, dance Airida Gudaitė, Laurynas Žakevičius | Performance Gediminas Rimeika | Composers, live music performers vocals Laura Budreckytė, double-bass Vytis Nivinskas, electronic guitar Žygimantas Bačkus, elektronica Agnė Matulevičiūtė | Light design Eugenijus Sabaliauskas | Light supervision Povilas Laurinaitis | Video Marius Paplauskas

Premiere 1 December 2018

Duration 70'

THE MEET(ing) is a ritual, inviting the audience to participate instead observing. It’s an invitation to tickle someone to death, to rock a doll like a woman, sink ships by barely glancing at them, heal others with pure spring water, let one’s hair down and let the devil loose. It’s about spotting three crucial flaws of horrid women: disbelief, self-love and an insane attraction to bodily pleasures.

It’s about finding a witch.

Seeing and seeing it through to the very end.

A SECT (latin “secta” – “school, teaching”, “sequor” – “follow”) – is a controversial term referring to a certain type of religious organizations and groups.

The dramaturgy of the show is based on three sources: first is the analysis of sexual identities and stereotypes as manifestations of the feminine and the masculine in the contemporary society. The second source is the archive of historical witch trials in Lithuania, which so far have received little public attention and yet serve as a material echoing and amplifying today’s reality. Thirdly, the performance delves into the modus operandi of a sect, revealing manipulations of power, faith and brainwashing.

People who have found themselves in extreme situations and liminal experiences give us, the creators of the show, a chance to reflect on the human history and the possibility of it repeating as well as on our innate wish to be part of a community and what consequences it may bear. In the performance, we speak of sex/ gender and balancing on the thin line between the importance and ambivalence of one’s sex. The show may be critical of the current social trends but perhaps it is based only on our artistic wish to satisfy our curiosity in order to reveal what we consider the most burning issues of social relations today. Viewers of the show can become participants of THE SECT we have started, and thus they can take part in all the pleasurable activities The MEET(ing) presents in front of them.

Airida Gudaitė and Laurynas Žakevičius are well known Lithuanian dance artists (LOW AIR) who uncovers the artistic potential of street dance meets professionals jazz musicians of CinAmono. Both collectives are well known from their previous works at number of festivals. LOW AIR has 6 dance productions which led young artist to 2 prestigious Lithuanian performing arts awards Golden Stage Cross, led to the award of Borisas Dauguvietis Earring for both the successful research and development of a new stage forms connecting urban dance and theatre and for the pedagogical work which changes a face of Lithuanian contemporary dance. In 2017 dancers and choreographers were awarded by Lithuanian contemporary dance association (Best Choreographic work of 2016). At the end of 2017 Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuanian awarded LOW AIR choreographers and dancers Airida Gudaitė and Laurynas Žakevicius with a National award given to young creators. In order to expand the visual and performing aspects of the work LOW AIR teams up again with acclaimed directing scenographer Lauryna Liepaitė who’s previous work with Lithuanian known directors: Oskaras Koršunovas, Jonas Vaitkus and others which had an impact on her creative manner.

The joint work THE MEET(ing) with the dynamic dance and free spirit of a jazz band’s CinAmono leaders Laura Budreckytė and Vytis Nivinskas take a courage dive into the unknown electronic poems by Agnė Matulevičiutė and change the form of jazz music and urban contemporary dance. Join the concert, the performance, the dance, the Rite - welcome to The MEET(ing).

Sunbathing Mole

Migle Praniauskaite dance company

Miglė Praniauskaitė
Glasses'n beard photography Glasses'n beard photography Glasses'n beard photography Glasses'n beard photography

Idea and choreography Miglė Praniauskaitė | Dance Miglė Praniauskaitė, Karolina Indrė Žvinytė, Vincenta Gurauskaitė, Paulina Garbauskaitė, Viktorija Praninskaitė | Light design Yaron Abulafia | Costume design Sandra Yushka | Video Povilas Baltinas

Premiere 2018

While living comfortably under the ground, a mole gets interested to see how the things are where it's lighter, on the surface. It’s a desire to go up and find out whether elsewhere is the same or it is better.

Even being afraid of the light, in order to understand the difference, the mole nuzzles up to the top, where searching, running away from itself, trying to separate itself from other’s influence happens. However, a mole tries to rely only on it’s own instinct, he delves and comes back to darkness. Here in the dark this mole seems to be exceptional between the others. Ordinary moles go around, sniff it, try to be like it.

This variation between both light and darkness gives an opportunity to choose where to stay, which things from both to apply and which is better to reject.

Miglė Praniauskaitė is a dancer and choreographer with dance education master degree, working as a contemporary dance teacher at The National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art, Vilnius College and as a lecturer of creative expression of dance at Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, dance studio šok/šok one of the founders. Also she is a various television projects, events, dance performances, festivals dancer and choreographer.

The first dance performance “Reconstruct” is her debut as a choreographer in Lithuania’s contemporary dance scene in 2015. After this performance she was nominated in the highest Lithuanian theatre awards – Golden Stage Cross – nomination “Young artist / Debut of the year” – for the performance and choreography of contemporary dance performance “Reconstruct”.

Limitation Piece 2

Suddenly

Grėtė Šmitaitė & Hanna Kritten Tangsoo
Dieter Hartwig Dieter Hartwig Philipp Weinrich

Choreography Grėtė Šmitaitė & Hanna Kritten Tangsoo | Dance Johanna Ackva, Adrian Carlo Bibiano, Camille Chapon, Ewa Dziarnowska, Ivan Bjorn Ekemark, Forough Fami, Anna Fitoussi, Magdalena Meindl, Lyllie Rouvière, Sigrid Savi, Sunayana Shetty, Alistair Watts | Light Design Hanna Kritten Tangsoo | Music Carl Reimers “Jessy Lanza” | Consultation Jurga Jonutytė | Production Suddenly

Supported by Tanzfabrik Berlin, Kaunas Artists House, Arts Printing House Vilnius, Lithuanian Culture Institute.

Part of the residency program was completed by bröllin e.V., supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the district of Vorpommern-Greifswald.

Premiere 21, 22 July 2018, TanzFabrik Open Spaces. SommerTanz Berlin

»Limitation Piece 2« is about the lines between the possible and the not, between the attractive and the not, between the yes and the not. Dancers move because they desire to. The desire creates energy. Movements become dance and dance becomes communication. The communication invites and welcomes you into the venue. We will dance for you.

»Which exact limitations do you have in mind?« the interviewer asked us.

Grėtė Šmitaitė (LT/DE) and Hanna Kritten Tangsoo are choreographers and performers based in Berlin, graduates of BA program ‘Dance. Context. Choreography’ in Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz Berlin.

My Peter Pan

Šeiko Dance Company

Agnija Šeiko
verslofoto.lt verslofoto.lt

Production Šeiko Dance Company | Choreographer, director Agnija Šeiko | Assistants Dovilė Binkauskaitė, Gintarė Marija Ščavinskaitė | Dancers Mantas Černeckas, Inga Kuznecova, Gintarė Marija Ščavinskaitė, Erikas Žilaitis, Marija Ivaškevičiūtė, Julius Jurevičius, Oksana Griaznova, Niels Claes | Musicians Mindaugas Bačkus, Gleb Pyšniak, Jurgis Karbauskas, Karolis Vaičiulis | Composer Sven Helbig (Germany) | Scenography and costume design Artūras Šimonis | Video artist Tomas Jurginas | Light design Stasys Jamantas | Video Marius Paplauskas

Premiere 7 March 2018

Duration 50'

Recommended 12+

It's a 21st century Peter Pan story about a new generation youngsters’ journey to a world of the grown-ups. About young person’s attempts and (un)willingness to grow up, their immaturity. Does it happen when you find your place among the chosen ones or when you are able to unconditionally accept yourself and the others? Five professional dancers together with Julius (who has Down syndrome) are taking you on a journey to an unexpected Neverland created by harmonious syntheses of dance, music, minimalistic scenography, video projections and light effects. Exceptionally dynamic, physical at the same time a delicate and daring production choreographed by Agnija Seiko. Electronic and 4 live cello music composed by Sven Helbig.

Šeiko Dance company unites theater professionals working in the contemporary dance field creating dance and music performances, immersive theater, site-specific performances, promenade performances, dance education projects and theater laboratories. The highest professional theater scene awards winners, who have been working as a company in Klaipėda for six years expanded their geography to many countries abroad. We speak the universal language of dance, unrestricted by any censorship or political, cultural, ethnic, religious or social boundaries.

An award - winning in Lithuania and well known in Europe contemporary dance choreographer Agnija Šeiko is recognizable for her interdisciplinary approach, distinctive esthetics, sensitive social topics and the variety of forms.

Check to Prussia. Louise in Memel

Šeiko Dance Company

Agnija Šeiko
Vytautas Petrikas Vytautas Petrikas Dmitrijus Matvejevas

Production Šeiko Dance Company, Klaipėda Rotary club ‘Karalienė Luizė’ | Idea Klaipėda Rotary club ‘Karalienė Luizė’| Choreographer, director Agnija Šeiko | Dancers Aušra Krasauskaitė, Oksana Griaznova, Inga Kuznecova, Gintarė Marija Ščavinskaitė, Eiva Dobilaitė, Dovilė Binkauskaitė, Kristina Švenčionytė and students of Contemporary dance studio of Šeiko Dance Company | Music Kristijonas Lučinskas | Text, dramaturgy Sondra Simana | Historical consulting   Jovita Saulėnienė | Producer Vilija Bartašiūtė

Dance performance – history tour

Premiere 20 April 2018

Duration 75'

Recommended 5+

This is a dance performance and a history tour around Klaipėda’s places that were visited by Queen Louise and her royal Prussian entourage while running away from Napoleon’s army in Berlin.

History- and fiction-styled texts are heard from the earphones, alongside the appropriate music of those days being deconstructed in a contemporary manner, while the sounds of the city welcome five female dancers who embody the queen. All this makes the spectator feel like a hero in a historical movie that combines the pulse of modern Klaipėda and rhythm of the old Memel.

The spectator hears excerpts from letters and diaries written by the queen and her courtiers, becoming part of this environment, and experiencing the cello music that Louise herself loved so much while making laconic movements in city spaces to create a magical atmosphere.

This dance play/history tour is created for people looking for poetic, personal, and unconventional art expressions, and those interested in the history of Klaipėda.

Šeiko Dance company unites theater professionals working in the contemporary dance field creating dance and music performances, immersive theater, site-specific performances, promenade performances, dance education projects and theater laboratories. The highest professional theater scene awards winners, who have been working as a company in Klaipėda for six years expanded their geography to many countries abroad. We speak the universal language of dance, unrestricted by any censorship or political, cultural, ethnic, religious or social boundaries.

An award - winning in Lithuania and well known in Europe contemporary dance choreographer Agnija Šeiko is recognizable for her interdisciplinary approach, distinctive esthetics, sensitive social topics and the variety of forms.

Declare - Brandir

Šeiko Dance Company & Le Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen en Normandie

Agnija Šeiko & Alban Richard
Dmitrijus Matvejevas Dmitrijus Matvejevas Dmitrijus Matvejevas Dmitrijus Matvejevas

Production Centre chorégraphique national de Caen en Normandie and Šeiko Dance Company | Idea and choreography Alban Richard together with Agnija Šeiko | Performers Camille Cau, Mélanie Cholet, Niels Claes, Mantas Černeckas, Inga Kuznecova, Alban Richard, Gintarė Marija Ščavinskaitė, Jurga Šeduikytė, Agnija Šeiko, Marius Pinigis | Light design Povilas Laurinaitis | Video RGB Pictures

Project presented by Embassy of France in Lithuania, French Institute in Lithuania, Klaipėda City Municipality, Lithuanian Council for Culture, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, Klaipėda University

Premiere 13 June 2018

To stand up and declare “look this is who I am” requires courage and free spirit and watching such manifesto of a person, a community, a nation is always touching and inspiring. In this dance performance the audience has an opportunity to very closely observe individual’s and a nation’s will to be unconditionally true to one’s self. What it takes to stand free and unique, not bounded by any restrictions – social, political, ethical, religious?

“Declare – Brandir” is a dance performance choreographed by famous French contemporary dance choreographer Alban Richard together with French and Lithuanian dancers and dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Restoration of the Lithuanian State.

Šeiko Dance company unites theater professionals working in the contemporary dance field creating dance and music performances, immersive theater, site-specific performances, promenade performances, dance education projects and theater laboratories. The highest professional theater scene awards winners, who have been working as a company in Klaipėda for six years expanded their geography to many countries abroad. We speak the universal language of dance, unrestricted by any censorship or political, cultural, ethnic, religious or social boundaries.

An award - winning in Lithuania and well known in Europe contemporary dance choreographer Agnija Šeiko is recognizable for her interdisciplinary approach, distinctive esthetics, sensitive social topics and the variety of forms.

Duet that happened

Ula & Bartė Liagaitės

Lukas Mykolaitis Lukas Mykolaitis Lukas Mykolaitis Lukas Mykolaitis

Idea and performance Ula Liagaitė | Idea, scenography and lights Barte Liagaite | Sound author and performance Mikas Zabulionis

Premiere 12 May 2018, New Baltic Dance Festival, Vilnius

Duration 40'

‚Duet that happened‘ is a dance/theatre performance, where the dialogue happens between the dancer (Ula Liagaitė) and the object (scenography created by Bartė Liagaitė). Within the performative space - both bodies look for ways of co-existing, which seems like the most honest and clever thing to do. It might not work... But it is worth to try.

The relationship between the scenography and the performer is what interest us within this work. Having created a playground, functional and dynamic object, we speak about listening. In other words – in order to speak - one has to learn to listen, in other to move - one needs to learn stillness.

Born in 2016, ‘Duet that happened’ is part of a project called Movement to Movement. The focus of the project was to bring unique dance and physical training seminars, based on Iasparra Technique and LEM training method to the young actors and dancers in Lithuania. The second part of the project was focused on creating ‘Duet that happened’.

Ula Liagaitė, born in Lithuania, in 1991, is a 26-year-old dancer, actress and performer. She received her bachelor’s degree as a contemporary dancer at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. Since 2014 Ula has been training as a performer at a space dedicated to the promotion and development of moving and performing arts called LEM in Buenos Aires, Argentina. And since 2017 she’s part of the La Otra dance company, directed by Viviana Iasparra who is one of the founders of LEM. She started working with her sister Bartė Liagaitė and Video-audio artist Mikas Zabulionis in 2015, for a project Movement to Movement, during which seminars of movement and physical training techniques for actors and dancers were presented as well as a work-in-progress of a performance then named Duet.

Bartė Liagaitė was born in 1992; she’s a performing arts manager and set designer. Bartė received her bachelor’s degree at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. B. Liagaitė mostly works in managing different performing arts projects, but her interests are shifting towards more creative endeavours. Currently Bartė is working at Oskaras Korshunovas Theater with props and costumes. The scenography for the performance Duet is one of her first attempts in realising her ides as a scenographer.

Mikas Zabulionis is a video-audio artist, born in Kaunas, in 1993. He has created sound for various performances by Ula Liagaitė and other Lithuanian theatre performers, performances and projects. Under the nickname Nobuma, Mikas has been developing his musical work for several years now. He studied animation at Middlesex University in London, England and works as a freelance video creator as well.

Somaholidays

WE Company

Vilma Pitrinaitė
Dainius Putinas Dmitrijus Matvejevas Dmitrijus Matvejevas

Concept Vilma Pitrinaitė | Choreographed and performed by Mantas Stabačinskas, Darius Algis Stankevičius, Vilma Pitrinaitė | Music Arūnas Periokas, "Dubstep" from bensound.com, "Sad Pop Ballad" from FOXYAudio | Dramaturgy and costumes Rūta Junevičiūtė | Lighting design and video projections Vladimiras Šerstobojevas | Outside eye Thomas Pondevie, Dovilė Petkunaitė | Video Marius Paplauskas, Zoilly Molnar & co

Coproduction Charleroi danse Centre Chorégraphique de la Fédération WallonieBruxelles, DRAC Languedoc – Roussillon – Midi-Pyrénées, Lithuanian Council for Culture and Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, Agence Culturelle d’Alsace

Supported by New Baltic Dance, Foyer à Marminiac, Kaunas Artists’ House, Kaunas Chamber Theatre, La Pépinière d’artistes Ville de Strasbourg, Tanzhaus Zürich, Garage29

Premiere 11, 12 May 2018, at New Baltic Dance Festival, Vilnius

Duration 50'

And if ever, anything unpleasant should somehow happen – why, there is always soma to give us a holiday from the facts. (Aldous Huxley “Brave New World”)

On an assembly line on 120 beats per minute, three dancers from different generations examine the theme of escapism. The home-made movies from touristic trips are mixed with dance club rituals in search for means to enter a state of somaholidays as described in the dystopian novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – an artificially induced catharsis, a threshold to more real reality without guilt, shame or civic accountability.

Vilma Pitrinaitė (LT/BE) is a Brussels-based dancer, performer and choreographer, a co-founder and art director of independent dance and theatre company "WE Company". She has started her dancing career in Kaunas dance theatre Aura, and has studied choreography at CDC Toulouse and Ex.e.r.ce at CCN Montpellier, also theatre directing at École de Théâtre National de Strasbourg.

The first project by "We Company" is staged at festival JT14, Théâtre de la Cité Internationale, Paris and festival Premières, Maillon, Strasbourg. Her solo Miss Lithuania premiered in New Baltic Dance Festival 2014 and was presented in Aerowaves Spring Forward festival among others, nominated as the best act of the season in Confluences theatre, Paris. In 2016 she returned to Aura as a choreographer of the dance piece Pandora. Recently, she has been working on a duo performance Match together with American choreographer Emily Gastineau (part of Fillimit and Atlas/Impulstanz young choreographers’ networks). Vilma is now mostly interested in the topics of identity, anxiety, Internet as folk art and the meme culture.

Mantas Stabačinskas (LT) is an award-winning dancer and choreographer who has been nominated for the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts in 2017. Former long-time member of Kaunas dance theatre Aura, an alumni of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Mantas has been working with many famous choreographers and theatre directors from Lithuania and abroad, such as Birutė Banevičiūtė, Lora Juodkaitė, Birutė Letukaitė, Aira Naginevičiūtė, Johannes Wieland, Annie Vignier and Franckas Apartet, Artūras Areima, Jonas Vaitkus among others. He has collaborated with choreographers from the US, Germany, England, Israel, Canada, Finland and Austria. As a visiting lecturer, he has been teaching at Middlesex University, London. M. Stabačinskas was awarded the most prestigious Lithuanian Theatre award – the Golden Sctage Cross – as the best dancer in 2013, whilst the dance piece Contemporary?, created by him together with a collective Stage Strangers has won in the category of a Phenomenon of a Year in 2014. His contemporary dance duo with Marius Pinigis – ID: D&G – has been awarded the Kaunas city theatre prize in 2016.

Darius Algis Stankevičius is a London-based dancer and choreographer. He performed within the Aura dance company from 1991 to 2004, representing Lithuania’s contemporary dance in 27 foreign countries (Austria, UK, Greece, Canada, France, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Germany and so forth), during more than 162 festivals. In 2000 and 2001, he worked for international projects Rose ist eine Rose and Soung, Tanz Braunschweig and Une Reine, Reste Une Reine, Mafada, Zurich. In 2004, he created the piece Thief ‘s Journal for Aura and retired from his dancing career. He returned only recently, with a solo He Lived Next Door made for him by Ieva Kuniskis in London.

"WE Company", based on collective work ideas, is created inside the Strasbourg National Theatre corridors, where Vilma Pitrinaitė is studying theatre directing and Thomas Pondevie – dramaturgy. Together they iniciate "We company", which balances between theatre, dance and documentary. "Miss Lithuania", one of the first company projects, wins the opportunity to appear on the European dance platform Aerowaves and is still touring in Europe and USA. "With this proposal, we feel that we are dealing with high-quality aesthetic and dramaturgical research," writes Estelle Moulard-Delhaye after a performance in Paris, at "Confluences" theatre, where "Miss Lithuania" is nominated for the best performance of the season. In 2019, "We company" moves to Lithuania and does not abandon the ambition to be a collective where the dancers are both authors and performers, the author of the music can influence dramaturgy while the dramaturge takes care of costumes and visual design. The two new projects - "Somaholidays" and "MATCH" - are both conceptual and radical, proposes unexpected choreographical materials and is based on research-based and intersectoral approaches.