About the work
Attention: The performance features text in English.
The proverb about an “old dog and new tricks” has long served as a convenient excuse, setting boundaries between age, learning capacity, and creative value. In a cultural field still dominated by the aesthetics of youth, the mature body and its experience are frequently pushed to the margins. “Old Dog New Tricks” offers a different perspective—seeking to reveal aging not as a state of marginalization, but as an ongoing creative inquiry.
Returning to the stage after a twenty-year hiatus, 74-year-old artist and long-time mentor Bush Hartshorn deliberately steps into the role of a student. The core axis of the work becomes the learning process itself, as the performer accepts challenges set by a younger generation of creators spanning contemporary circus, theater, dance, and performance.
By consciously relinquishing control and the drive for a flawless outcome, the performance brings forth an aesthetics of vulnerability, doubt, and physical limitation. The piece unfolds as a live commentary on contemporary productivity culture, making space for process, faltering, and authentic human experience.
Photos By: Ilmė Vyšniauskaitė
Instagram: @hartsorn
The festival “New Baltic Dance” is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture, the Vilnius City Municipality, the Lithuanian Culture Institute, and the EU.
Creative team
- Concept / Author of the idea
- Bush Hartshorn
- Performer
- Bush Hartshorn
- Dramaturgical consultant / Director consultant
- Vilma Raubaitė
- Scenographer and Videographer
- Oles Makukhin
- Lighting designer
- Povilas Laurinaitis
- Teachers
- Steve Paxton, Erika Vizbaraitė, Kasparas Bujanauskas, Mayfield Brooks, Lucky Lartey, Nele Tidelepp, Tom Cassani, Martyn Garside, Christos Papadopoulos, Dave Thompson, Chumbawumba.
- Production
- BE COMPANY / Agnietė Lisičkinaitė
- Co-production
- Sardegna Teatro
- Funded by
- Lithuanian Council for Culture