MIRRAGE ABOUT THE LOST EYES, KILLING THE VICTOR AND…

PREMIERE

Lost Eyes

Choreography: Ruta Butkus
Dancers: Irena Misirlić and Konrad Szymański
Dramaturgy: Ingrida Gerbutaviciute
Music: Robert Semaskevic
Costumes: Ruta Butkus
Set design: Sigita Simkunaite
Light design: Vilius Vilutis and Bas Vissers
Duration: 30 min.
Lost Eyes is a co-production of Arts Printing House, Vilnius and Korzo productions, The Hague.

 W(o)men

Choreography: Jérôme Meyer and Isabelle Chaffaud
Dancers: Agne Ramanauskaite, Kristina Markeviciute and Barbora Guzelyte 
Music: Rita Maciliunaite
Costumes: Simona Bieksaite
Light design: Povilas Laurinaitis. 
Duration: 20 min.
„W(o)men“is a co-production of Arts Printing House,Vilnius and Korzo productions, The Hague.

 Mirage

Choreography: Loreta Juodkaite
Dancers: Loreta Juodkaite and Kenzo Kusuda
Music: Deborah Lennie-Bisson,  Patrice  Grente, and Tautvilas  Gurevicius
Light Design: Peter Lemmens 
Duration: 20 min.
Mirage is a co-production of Arts Printing House, Vilnius and Korzo productions, The Hague.

 Kill the Victor

Choreography, music and text: Amos Ben-Tal
Dancers: Gotaute Kalmataviciute, Marius Pinigis, Lana Coporda (Ema Nedobezkina, understudy)
Costumes: Amos Ben-Tal
Light Design: Amos Ben-Tal ir Peter Lemmens
Duration: 15min.
Kill the Victor is a co-production of Aura Dance Company, Kaunas and Korzo productions, The Hague.

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For many years, the dance world admired the Netherlands for the sophisticated and generous infrastructure that the Dutch created to support their choreographers and dancers. Talented artists from all over the world came to Holland to join and enrich the vibrating independent dance scene. This scene was structured around so-called production houses that are organically designed to meet the needs of the artists and to create bridges between their work and multiple audiences. This constellation is a paradise that got lost though. In a frantic reaction to the financial crisis, the Dutch government launched a massive attack on the arts, closing down all 21 production houses in 2013, including the three production houses for dance.

The oldest production house for dance in Holland is Korzo, embedded in a black box theatre in the center of The Hague. It is the home for a large number of freelance choreographers. Just before the outrageous cuts in Dutch culture, Korzo started a number of co-productions with different Lithuanian partners. The Aura International Dance Festival is able to present the results of these parallel efforts in one full-evening program. The program contains four brand new pieces by choreographers from Lithuania and the Netherlands. But rather than to juxtapose “the” Dutch dance and “the” Lithiuanian dance, which only would result in uncomfortable stereotyping, these four choreographies will focus on the principle of dynamic exchange. Existing differences between individual artists and between (dance) cultures are not neglected, but immediately brought into play as valuable contributions to the creation process.

The Aura Dance Company commissioned the Israeli choreographer Amos Ben-Tal  to create a short piece for the company. For this project, the dancers of Aura are joined by Lana Coporda, a Croatian student of the ArtEZ Dance Academy in Arnhem. It marks the start of a long-term collaboration between Aura and this well regarded academy. Both organizations are known for stimulating their dancers to be curious, open minded, and to explore their humanity. This attitude perfectly fits the work of Amos Ben-Tal, which explores the paradox of achieving freedom by creating rules, or translated into dance: to improvise and add ones personal creativity within a dense web of choreographic structures and strict rules of engagement. Amos Ben-Tal is a former dancer of the Netherlands Dance Theater (NDT) and the composer and singer/guitarist of the rock band Noblesse. He is affiliated to Korzo for a long time and lives in The Hague.

The Lithuanian choreographers Ruta Butkus and Loreta Juodkaité worked in the Korzo studios to create pieces with dancers who live in the Netherlands. Ruta Butkus’ Lost Eyes is a dance performance about the inner wanderings of a human being. An ironic look at our everyday life, at its ENTITY… There, where the human is building its own little world out of the fairness, duty and kindness, after he denied Nature (life, lust)… And what’s next?

Loreta Juodkaité created a duet with the Japanese dancer/choreographer Kenzo Kusuda that is danced by themselves. The difference between these two breathtaking performers could hardly be bigger. Juodkaité is strong and fierce, charging her explosive energy with emotional intensity. Her dance takes no prisoners. Kusuda is a master of subtle dance poetry, evoking a dreamlike imagery with slowly meandering movements, full of inventivity. Together they tell a story about the presents of Life, that are only there for the ones who open their eyes to see them.

The fourth performance of the evening is a piece that the Swiss/French choreographers duo Jérôme Meyer & Isabelle Chaffaudcreated in the Arts Printing House in Vilnius. Meyer and Chaffaud danced together for almost 20 years in companies like the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Batsheva Dance Company and NDT. Since 2002, they work as freelance choreographers, most of the time with Korzo, but also commissioned by companies like Scapino Ballet, Dance Works Rotterdam and Introdans. Characteristic for their work is a highly physical movement language with traces of many different dance styles. But more important even is their focus on the dancers they work with, in this case three wonderful Lithuanian dancers: Agne Ramanauskaité, Kristina Markevičiūté, and Barbora Guželyte. For Meyer and Chaffaud, they are the alpha and omega of a piece.