Lithuanian Dance Information Centre (LDIC) started the year of 2019 overseas – the leader of LDIC, Gintarė Masteikaitė, participated in the congress of “International Society for the Performing Arts” (ISPA), which took place in New York, from 8th to 10th of January. ISPA is a global network of leaders in the performing arts, that has a mission of strengthening the performing arts globally through the advancement of leadership, the exchange of ideas, and by fostering a diverse and engaged membership. LDIC, who is a member of ISPA since 2017, participates in its’ activities and presents Lithuanian contemporary dance, searches for future partners for projects of both LDIC and the whole Lithuania dance field, strengthens country image internationally.
“Great added value is the opportunity to communicate and exchange experiences with performing arts professionals from very different parts of the world. Topic of the conference this year – “Transitions: Today’s Future for the Arts” – covered the influence that modern technologies and innovation have on the culture field as well as crucial subjects of cultural and social diversity, culture workers’ responsibility and communities” – says Gintarė Masteikaitė. According to the leader of LDIC, being a part of the organisation of this scale, which welcomed 639 participants from 51 countries this year, certainly broadens the international network of relations, helps to see your own projects with different eyes, review working directions and evaluate your organisation in the international context.
It was revealed in January which Lithuanian dance artists will be honored to represent their country’s dance in May at the Lithuanian Culture Festival “Lithuanian Story” in Israel. Initiated by cultural attaché in Israel, Elena Keidošiūtė, and organized together with Lithuanian Culture Institute, this project will present Lithuanian poetry, music, performance art, cinema and dance. LDIC has become a partner of the “Lithuanian Dance Weekend” dedicated to dance. This part of the festival will take place at Susanne Dellal centre whose director Yair Vardi has visited a showcase of selected Lithuanian performances in Vilnius, organised by LDIC. After the showcase it turned out that “Game Over” by Urban Dance Theatre Low Air, “Game Changer” by Kaunas Dance Theatre Aura, “Seasons” by Šeiko Dance Theatre and “Somaholidays” by Vilma Pitrinaitė were selected to perform in Israel.
Two Lithuanian dance performances were presented in Trutnov, Czech Republic on 27th-28th of January. Culture centre UFFO collaborating with Lithuanian Dance Information Centre was happy to add “Puzzle” by Dance Theatre Dansema and “Contemporary?” by Mantas Stabačinskas, Paulius Tamolė and Agnė Ramanauskaitė to their January programme. The Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to the Czech Republic, Edvilas Raudonikis, also visited the performances together with the audience of Trutnov.
“I am happy to have a first opportunity to perform in Czech Republic, where Lithuanian dance is not often presented. I was surprised that Trutnov has this high quality culture centre even though the population is only around 60 thousand. With the team of “Dansema” we noticed that dance for babies is not a usual form of art there, so we had a lot of charmingly surprised parents and happy children, got many compliments. We were a bit nervous for “Contemporary?” performance, because we were showing it on Monday, we also saw there might be a problem with English language but in the end everything went great, we had a very warm welcome, people stayed after the performance with no rush to leave and wanted to talk. We felt honored and happy because of the visit of the ambassador Edvilas Raudonikis and his wife.” – Mantas Stabačinskas, who is dancing in both performances, is sharing his fresh memories from the tour.
Lithuanian dance community kicked off the year with the first gathering, initiated by LDIC. After discussing plans and needs of 2019, LDIC presented information about usage of copyrighted music and the upcoming meeting with LATGA and AGATA members. The Dance community was also presented with information on the project “Creation of a Contemporary Dance Database, Collection and Analysis of Economic Indicators” and the collection of statistical data.
Association of Performing Arts Critics contributed to the joyful beginning of the year by awarding LDIC director Gintarė Masteikaitė with the “Art Key” award for the programs of contemporary dance and contemporary circus festivals, their social atmosphere and international dissemination of Lithuanian dance.
@Dmitrijus Matvejevas
The activity of Lithuanian Dance Information Centre is supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture.