On April 28, the festival "The new Baltic dance" in the program, the audience is waiting for an exclusive Lithuanian premiere - the contemporary dance performance "Kur krantas" by choreographer Lukas Karvelis and dancer Dominyka Markevičiūtė. The joint work of L. Karvelis, who creates in the Netherlands, and D. Markevičiūtė, one of the most promising dancers of the young generation of Lithuania, is a solo performance that interprets Lithuanian mythology in a modern way and surprises with complex choreography that challenges the body's capabilities.
The dance performance "Kur krantas" looks at Lithuanian folklore against the background of the experiences of today's people and explores the relationship between two worlds: the physical, based on logic, and the spiritual, created by faith and imagination. The starting point of the play is the legend of Jūratė and Kastytis. The creators offer a new interpretation of it, focusing not on the love story, but on the experiences of one individual after its end.
"After starting work on this play, a very clear picture emerged - Jūratė, chained to an amber castle at the bottom of the Baltic Sea as a punishment. I was inspired by the story of how, as she tries to break free, storms arise, causing amber to be washed ashore at dawn. Since both the image itself and the action are extremely sensual, we wanted to explore them through dance in space. The movement becomes a dialogue between the imaginary experience of Jūratė and the individual experiences of each of us", ponders L. Karvelis.
"Kur krantas" seeks to reveal the transformation of an individual experiencing loneliness by balancing between freedom and restraint, the limitations of the body and the flow of imagination. A special means of movement expression was chosen for this - the dancer D. Markevičiūtė keeps her hands in her pockets throughout the performance, as the meditative movements become more and more complex, and the body tries to maintain balance.
"The idea of hands in pockets came first in our creative process. It was a physical exploration from which we moved on to themes of restraint and searches. Such a decision opened up a lot of unexpected possibilities of movement without hands, because in modern dance hands are used especially abundantly, especially when dancing on the ground", says D. Markevičiūtė.
The dancer says that the solo work "Kur krantas" in movement tells about the flow of life, which involves and ceaselessly turns, at the same time allowing to experience constant transformation. Life is interpreted here as a spiral in which everything moves in a circle and repeats itself, and the individual lost in the constant movement experiences the beauty of this loss.
"It was interesting to explore freefall and the feel of it through movement, so one of our tasks was to put our hands in our pockets - we all know that falling down or getting up without using your hands is difficult enough." At the same time, I was interested in finding a movement that does not have a defined beginning and end, constantly renewing itself and intertwining.
The ideas of warp, spiral, growth and endless movement led to a really complex choreography, which the dancers coordinated - a considerable challenge, requiring not only strength, experience, but also excellent coordination. Dominyka's main task in the performance is to remain as stable as possible, so during it we examine both practically and metaphorically how we can still find control in movement after losing stability", L. Karvelis reveals the idea.
The sketch of the play, created for two years between the Netherlands and Lithuania, will be shown in The Hague on April 18, at the "Korzo" theater, and on April 28. its premiere will take place at the "New Baltic Dance" festival in Vilnius, Arts Press. The dance piece will continue its life both in Lithuania and abroad - in September "Kur krantas" will represent our country during the Lithuanian season in France.
