THIS BLAME WAS NEVER MEANT FOR ME

Men are taught to be strong,
invulnerable, but what happens
when that strength is turned against ourselves?
When our bodies betray us and leave us
questioning our worth, our identity.

“this blame was never meant for me” is a sensitive and visual narrative about lived traumatic experiences, imposed guilt, and the memory of the body. Through the language of movement, the work reveals how experiences of violence become inscribed in our bodies and shape our relationship with ourselves and the world around us.

The piece tells the story of a person seeking to break free from an environment dominated by aggression and violence. Yet in fleeing, he is confronted with the question of what remains when inherited behavioral patterns are abandoned. Here, he encounters the notion of masculinity and new can masculinity be separated from aggression and destructive modes of behavior?

In this work, healing begins with acknowledgement and the decision to no longer remain silent from the moment one realizes that the guilt they carry does not belong to them, and that past events do not have to define their identity.

The dance performance speaks through a personal yet universal experience of masculinity, vulnerability, and liberation. On stage, the body becomes not only the center of the narrative but also an archive, holding both the wounds of the past and the process of freeing oneself from them.

Premiere: June 2026, Lithuania

Photos by: Francesco Rufini, Guoda Terleckytė, Lukas Mykolaitis, Laima Stasiulionytė

Instagram: @a.carlocarloo

Facebook: @Adrian Carlo Bibiano

The festival “New Baltic Dance” is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture, the Vilnius City Municipality, the Lithuanian Culture Institute, and the EU.