International contemporary dance festival New Baltic Dance 25th of March-25th of May, 2022.
“We are all experiencing a very difficult and emotional period. Next to the usual activities, we are doing everything to help the people of Ukraine: we donate, keep the contact with our Ukrainian colleagues, while looking for new employment opportunities for the representatives of the dance community who are refugees of war, we work with foreign partners creating long-term support programmes, and urge the international stage art networks and organisations to condemn the aggressor’s actions and state their position clearly. Yet while our hearts are with Ukraine, we should not forget our basic responsibilities: to speak about our world and things that are happening around us through dance,” states Ms. Masteikaitė on behalf of the team of the festival. “Following specialist recommendations, we do our job and would like to remind everyone that art has the power to strengthen our spirit, stabilise emotions and develop critical thinking which is now more important than ever. We must stay in the best shape possible: this is the only way to help one another and resist against the outcomes of the machine of war.”
This year’s New Baltic Dance was running throughout the entire spring, and both its beginning and end were marked by the most prominent creators of the stage art. On March 25, the festival was opened by Dimitris Papaioannou (Greece) with one of the most anticipated stage art events in Lithuania, the premiere of “Transverse Orientation”. After two months, the festival was closed by Yoann Bourgeois (France), who is called the playwright of physics, whose works connect dance with various impressive constructions. In Vilnius, he introduced the programme of short works “Tentative Approaches to a Point of Suspension”.
The festival programme in April featured some of the most prominent dance personal from the South Korea, choreographer Eun-Me Ahn and Switzerland-based Lithuanian dance artist Anna-Marija Adomaitytė with her new work “Pas de deux” which was chosen as one of the best works of young creators last year by Aerowaves dance network.
In May, a shared work by three African choreographers “Siguifin” was introduced by Amala Dianor (France), Canadian Clara Furey invited to two shows: the existential “Dog Rising” and a solo show “When Even” inspired by the poetry of Leonard Cohen. Renae Shadler & Collaborators and Roland Walter (Australia, Germany) introduced a performance exploring human proximity “Skin”; in their performance “Close”, Hungarian choreographer Adrienn Hód with the group Hodworks and Bremen-based dance group Unusual Symptoms raised political and social questions. The festival introduced a shared work by the students from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Emilija Karosaitė, Povilas Jurgaitis, Martynas Berulis, while the environmental topics were covered in “Woods” introduced by a team of four creators: Catarina Saraiva (Portugal), Clarice Lima (Brazil), Nina Fajdiga (Slovenia), Aline Bonamin (Brazil) and Linha de Fuga (Portugal), including the members of the local community who can do the headstand.