I år firas hundraårsjubileet av Baltikums självständighetsförklaring och 3:e Våningen bjuder in till Baltisk dansfestival. Tillsammans med våra estniska kollegor Fine 5 Dance Theatre har vi valt ett program som sträcker sig över hela hösten med representanter från Estland, Lettland och Litauen.

Självständighet och frihet är vida koncept. De koreografer och danskompanier vi valt att bjuda in  är viktiga för utveckligen av nutida dans i Baltikum, med unika konstnärliga uttryck och stark integritet och känsla för konstnärlig frihet.

20 september kör vi igång med officiell invigning på 3:e Våningen. Välkommen!

20 SEPTEMBER - INVIGNING

kl 18:00 – Mingel

kl 18:30 – Birgitta Jacobsson Ekblom inviger festivalen.

Göteborgs ungdomskör under ledning av Anne Johansson framför musik av en baltisk  kompositör.

kl 19:00 – Dansprogram

Rūta Ronja Pakalne (Estland/Lettland) och Laura Kvelstein (Estland) - ”CONNEXT”

Kinetinis Teatras / Andriaus Pulkauninko (Litauen) - “Through Body”

 

21  SEPTEMBER

kl 19:00 – Dansprogram

Rūta Ronja Pakalne (Estland/Lettland) och Laura Kvelstein (Estland) - ”CONNEXT”

Kinetinis Teatras / Andriaus Pulkauninko (Litauen) - “Through Body”

 

22  SEPTEMBER

kl 14:30 – Koreografen och livskonstnären Marika Blossfeldt berättar om sitt arbete med Polli Talu  Arts Center i Estland.   i

kl 16:00 – Dansprogram

Rūta Ronja Pakalne (Estland/Lettland) och Laura Kvelstein (Estland) - ”CONNEXT”

Kinetinis Teatras / Andriaus Pulkauninko (Litauen) - “Through Body”

 

 

 

 

CONNEXT – Rūta Ronja Pakalne (Estland) och Laura Kvelstein (Estland/Lettland)

 

CONNEXT är ett samarbete mellan lettisk-estniska Rūta Ronja Pakalne och estniska Laura Kvelstein. En föreställning kring temat konektivitet, där duon undersöker vilka avstånd som krävs för att komma varandra närmare. I föreställningen pågår ett kontinuerligt inkräktande av varandras personliga sfär. Ett upprepande som blir till rituell handling och därigenom kanske tvingar till nya sätt att knyta an.

 

 “CONNEXT” is a collaboration project between Latvian and Estonian performance artists Rūta Ronja Pakalne and Laura Kvelstein. Rūta works mainly on discovering the mover’s own authentic body awareness and personal imprint, in context of their experience, based on past, present and future happenings; Laura is looking for presence and contact, for being more than doing. Both are interested in a quality of realness in dance and in life.

 

“CONNEXT” is a performance about connection and connectivity, as well as finding the right distance in order to (be)come closer.

The starting point of the dance piece is the motif of exchange of energy – this is something we engaged with during the creation of the piece as well as on stage. We explore infiltrating the borders of bodies. Creating / building something out of nothing, both in space and in our own energy fields, taking the audience along. Whilst our society is more and more disconnected, our aim / mission / interest / research deals with facilitating a feeling of connection, reinforcing the audience through an inclusive-kinetic performative act, a ritual if we may say so. Not to stop until… Continue, continue, continue, continue, continue, continue and continue until we reach ever new layers, possibilities and ways of sensing.

“CONNEXT“ won the Estonian Theatre Award 2017 in the dance pieces category.

 

Idea/direction/performance: Laura Kvelstein (EST) and Rūta Ronja Pakalne (LV/EST)

Dramaturgy: Karl Saks (EST)

Sound design: Israel Bañuelos (MX)

Scenography: Kaia Tungal (EST)

Duration: 45’

 

Laura Kvelstein has been active in the dance world for over 20 years. She began with ballet studies; at the age of 17 she switched to contemporary dance, working as a dancer in Fine5 Dance Theatre (Estonia) and participating in various projects in Estonia and abroad. From time to time Laura is invited to share her knowledge in the form of workshops or classes (contemporary dance, CI, etc) at different festivals or on other occasions. At the moment she is most interested in promoting touch as an essential but often neglected aspect in increasing our quality of life.

 

Rūta Ronja Pakalne works as an independent artist in performing arts, has graduated from a BA program in dance and choreography at the Latvian Academy of Culture (Riga, Latvia), studied at dance school P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels, Belgium.), has finished one year of MA studies in dance/theater at the Latvian Academy of Culture (Riga, Latvia) and graduated from the MA program in Arts at Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication school (Tallinn, Estonia) this spring. She has been traveling and teaching in Latvia, Estonia, Iceland, Belgium and other places in recent years. She has always been interested in how to combine dance and film arts, by looking closely into micro movements of each detail that we share. One of her recent solo works that was made in Iceland 'FALLING SLOWLY' and 'everythingishappeningsomuch' that was made in Tallinn, Estonia at the PREMIERE 17' program of STL venue.

 

Med stöd av The Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Nordic Culture Point, The State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia. The event is dedicated to the centenary of the Republic of Estonia.

 

 

 

 

THROUGH BODY– Andrius Pulkauninkas / Kinetinis Teatras (Litauen)

 

Koreograf och regissör Andrius Pulkauninkas bjuder tillsammans med sitt Kinetinis Teatras på rörelsespektaklet Through Body. En föreställning om en kvinna som lever i en värld där berättelsen om våld dominerar. En dystopisk historia där dominanta ritualer präglar och styr samhället och dess innevånare.

 

Andrius Pulkauninkas Kinetinis Teatras grundades i Vilnius 1999. En dynamisk ensemble vars namn och medlemmar konstant skiftat, men alltid varit trogen den fysiska, visuella, icke-verbala teatertraditionen och strävat efter att desorientera publiken med absurda, sceniska experiment.

 

Director and choreographer Andrius Pulkauninkas kinetic theatre troupe was established in Vilnius, 1999. It has always been dynamic – the official name and members are to this day constantly shifting and changing. However, it has remained faithful to physical, visual-nonverbal theatre traditions, striving to disorient the audience’s consciousness with absurd scenic experiments.

 

The only acceptable theatre model is which that doesn’t exist. The one true expression of our existence – fluidity. If someone can observe any kind of form then that form is already perished. This troupe promotes authentic improvisations, the use of natural effects, elements (fire, clay, peat, sand, etc.) and risk factors (dangerous tools, sharp objects) as a way to wake the average audience member, causing distress and shock. Performances are held both in indoor and outdoor venues, often leaving behind a strong sense of abnormality and threat (two members are working as stuntmen in a film studio). All of this creates a combination of ironic grotesque and absurdity, a feeling of meaninglessness and emptiness of our modern consumer society in addition tackling questions which relate to individuality, self-expression, loneliness and conflicts with society.

 

Our theatre troupe participates in nontraditional events, art exhibitions, concerts, film (video) projects, and dance/theatre festivals. We keep in touch with the Lithuanian as well as the worldwide professional contemporary dance, theatre and pantomime scene. Noting that “there is no line between a professional and amateur, there is only a line between a good and a bad performance “, VU kinetic theatre organizes an alternative interdisciplinary arts festival “Atvira” (engl. “Genuine”) along with creative workshops to which people, regardless of what team they play for: theatre or dance, professional or amateur, are invited.

 

A . Pulkauninkas kinetic troupe has performed and gained recognition in various international festivals, starting with Europe (Lithuania, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Croatia, etc.), Asia (South Korea, Georgia) and ending with South and North America (Columbia, Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, U.S.A, and Canada).

 

“Through Body” is a motion performance spectacle which premiered on April 2017. It tells a story of a woman in today’s society, where violence is taught to generations on end, and the fairytale of a “normal childhood” is shattered, following a forced death. The absurdity of relationships intertwined with never ending mating rituals metaphorically create new entities. A little girl loses her virginity through a special ritual that connects her archetype with the female gender: all precedent and future women. The never ending, barbaric human mating, procreation and the removal of men by default is a firsthand reason that cannot be stopped. The man archetype – emotional disability and stereotypes, turning existence to an instinct. Passed down violence and its inevitability is the story’s axis, where feelings and dreams are lost, leaving behind the last pieces of a primitive life. Our body – our playground, where we experience spiritual suffering, yet we are unable to find solutions, due to the importance of reproduction. It drives our society forward, not taking in consideration how traumatic or conditionally content are the “mating game” participants.

 

Director A. Pulkauninkas is also the author of this piece, that’s why the spectacle has had quite a few changes and mutations since its release. Bearing in mind that “Through Body” premiered both in Argentina and Uruguay, some corrections were made in order for it to be more understandable for Latin Americans. Hypermasculinity and overall manly culture has had a great impact. Additionally, the performance was seen by a lot of Argentinian-Lithuanians, to whom Lithuania is a delicious cinnamon roll, instead of a sour sociological reality. That is why some ideas of the spectacle were rejected, because it didn’t meet their idyllic standard of Lithuania, on the contrast - it broke stereotypes and showed a realistic depiction. This was actually the director intention. Moving on, in South Korea the performance once again took another turn in interpretation: it was more associated with humanistic values (blood stains symbolically turned into the flag of Japan, and the actors were perceived as victims of human trafficking and violence in general). That’s how the story of domestic violence developed into the spectacle we want to present to the Czech audience. Since A. Pulkauninkas is a famous social agitator, who actively criticizes contemporary Lithuanian culture, this spectacle has become an even bigger form of critic in addition becoming a reflection of both Lithuania, and world as a whole.

Motivation

 

Each actor in this performance has contributed a part of their personal story, which perfectly correlated with the director’s vision. Different experiences– both the director’s and actors’ - were combined to express the topic of the spectacle.

It is not only about relationships, but also about personal experiences with bullying. It expresses movement not solely as a form of dance, but also as a form of psychological stress, felt throughout the whole spectacle.

Our performers carry each their own baggage of backgrounds and perceptions of what should/shouldn’t be criticized, how emotions coordinate with instincts. Where is the line between humans, as humans and humans - as animals, who act driven by their instincts?

 

Video of performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVRrIRiueU4

Short version video

https://www.facebook.com/vuphysicaltheatre/videos/10154529753552957/