The programme of the 23rd international contemporary dance festival New Baltic Dance featured 20 performances and guests from Cape Verde, Australia, Canada, Lebanon, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Germany and from the neighbouring Latvia and Estonia.
After two years of negotiations, the festival welcomed a dance performance Origami by French creators Satchie Noro and Silvain Ohl, which was performed in open urban spaces (in Vilnius, Kaunas, Šiauliai, Panevėžys and Anykščiai) on an impressive metal construction.
Marlene Monteiro Freitas, an artist from the Cape Verde, who is an exceptional creator and winner of many prestigious awards, introduced her performance “Of ivory and flesh – statues also suffer” in the Arts Printing House based in Vilnius.
Choreographer Euripides Laskaridis introduced his work Titans in the Lithuanian National Theatre of Drama.
The festival welcomed a Canadian Manuel Roque for the second time with his piece “bang bang” and Emile Pineault and his work Normal Desires. Australian James Batchelor introduced to the audience his performance “Hyperspace”.
French dance company Nach Van Van introduced a performance “Cellule”, Belgian Sabina Scarlet introduced “Uniform”, while Annamaria Ajmone introduced “Trigger”. Guests from the Netherlands Guilherme Miotto and Corpo Maquina introduced “Even worse”, while German dance company CocoonDance presented “Momentum”; Lebanese Bassam Abou Diab introduced a very personal work “Under the Flesh”.
For the first time, the programme of the festival featured the Baltic Dance Platform, which was organised with the Lithuanian Culture Institute, Latvian Dance Information Centre and Estonian theatre and contemporary dance platform Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava.
The audience of the festival saw three Lithuanian premieres: Šeiko Dance Group and Danish dance group Granhøj Dans created “Boléro”, Kaunas Dance Theatre Aura introduced its performance “Kaunas Zoo” and a solo performance by Lukas Karvelis, “Blank Spots” was presented as well. Latvian Sintija Siliņa presented her work “Rock bottom”, while Agatė Bankava and Andris Kačanovskis introduced “Future Freak”. Estonians W A U H A U S brought the performance “Fluids”, while Sigrid Savi brought “Imagine there’s a Fish”.