„CONTEMPORARY?“

Arts Printing House (Lithuania)  

Idea, choreography and performance:
Agnė Ramanauskaitė, Paulius Tamolė and Mantas Stabačinskas

Dramaturgy Sigita Ivaškaitė | Light design Povilas Laurinaitis
Duration 60’

“Dance is all my life. If I should say true dancing it is very important for me. It sticks together every little piece of your life. It is also work and not easy one. Sometimes it hurts, sometimes you just feel lazy but you just cannot live without dancing.”  M.Stabačinskas.
“The first visited country with the tour was Estonia. There the audience was really interesting. When we performed, they looked at us without emotions, however after the performance they came to us and wanted to talk and interact. The same happened in Berlin - half of the audience stayed to communicate with us. It was really unexpected but pleasant!“ P. Tamolė
“<…> “Contemporary?” was recognized the best performance of [Lublin] festival.” P. Tamolė
Agne Ramanauskaitė – dancer, actor and teacher who recently and very successfully tried herself as choreographer as well. Agnė received her professional degree at The Lithuanian Theatre and Music Academy (MA in acting-contemporary dance, 2009). Since graduating she has participated in various dance trainings and still improving her professional skills in different workshops.

Mantas Stabačinskas – one of the most famous Lithuanian dancers, teacher and choreographer. In almost sixteen years of his professional career Mantas created over 30 roles and collaborated with many different choreographers from all over the world. For eleven years Mantas has been a part of Aura Dance Theater (Lithuania) and now he is a freelance dancer, teacher and choreographer.
Paulius Tamolė – is a dancer and well known Lithuanian theater and television actor, recently debuted as choreographer as well. Paulius began his professional actor career at the National Drama Theater (Lithuania) in 2005. Since then Paulius has created over 10 roles in different stages and collaborated with the well known theater directors such as Jonas Vaitkus, Oskaras Korsunovas, Jana Ross and etc. In 2008 Paulius has been nominated for the theater award as the Best Young Artists of the year.
Together with his long time stage partners Mantas, Agnė and Paulius participated in the program for young artists – “Open Stage’13”, hosted by Arts Printing House and presented an ironic contemporary dance performance “Contemporary?”

* The Performance won the Golden Stage Cross as Performing Arts Phenomenon of the year (2013)

‘A gorgeous dance performance for babies’ Adrian Berry, Artistic Director, Jackson’s Lane
Si duket bota në syte e fëmijëve të vegjël? A është e rrumbullakët ose këndore, është e verdhë ose e kaltër? A është e drejtkëndëshe, e gjelbër, e uritur, apo e bute? Psikologët kanë zbuluar se në vitet e tyre të hershme fëmijët mësojnë me anë të reagimit ndaj një shumëllojshmërie të formave gjeometrike dhe ngjyrave.
Koreografia Birute Banevičiūtė me tre kërcimtare të saj të kualifikuar (Giedrė Subotinaitė, Indre Bacevičiūtė dhe Mantas Stabačinskas) përdorin format e tyre me ngjyrë si një mister per të luajtur me to. Në disa raste ata identifikohen si perime - karrota, domate, kastravec, nganjëherë ata bëhen kërpudha, fruta dhe lule. Performanca udhëton nëpër fazat e zhvillimit të fëmijës; si zvarritja foshnjave, rrëshqanorët, levizjet; si femijet dy vite te vegjël fillojnë të ecin, drejtohen dhe të duartrokasin, dhe si femijet tre vjeçare hidhen, fshihen dhe rrotullohen.

As three dancers emerge from brightly coloured onstage shapes, they begin to create the perfect playful mood for the youngest audiences.

What follows is 30 minutes of pure joy followed by a further 15 minutes where the audience are invited to interact with the soft, tactile shapes on the stage.

‘The kids adore it and so do I’ HIGHLY RECOMMENDED SHOW Fringe Review

How does the world look to small child? Is it round or angular, is it yellow or blue? Is it rectangular, green, hollow, or soft? Child psychologists have discovered that in their earliest years children learn through reacting to a variety of geometric shapes and colours
Lithuanian choreographer Birutė Banevičiūtė with her three skilled dancers (Giedrė Subotinaitė, Indrė Bacevičiūtė and Mantas Stabačinskas) use their coloured shapes as a puzzle to be played with. At times they are recognisable as vegetables – carrot, tomato, cucumber sometimes they become almost unrecognisable mushrooms, fruits and flowers. The performance travels through a child's developmental stages; as crawling babies, creeping, and bouncing; as two year olds toddlers beginning to walk, run and clap; and as three year old children – gallopping, hiding and turning.

‘The music, composed by Rasa Dikčienė, is sensitive to the demands of infants. Large, primary coloured scenery and costumes create chuckles and delight. The dancers use child-like mannerisms and gestures in their movements with repetition endearing them to their target audience. A brilliant introduction to movement and live spectacle for very young children’ Gintė Zurbaitė-Butkuvien, Lrytas (Lithuanian news service)
On its original showing PUZZLE was nominated by The Ministry of Culture as the best children performance of 2012.
 
 ‘every detail has been well thought of in this innovative, playful piece’ edinburghfestivalforkids.com ****

Choreographer Birute Banevičiūtė graduated from Vilnius University, different dance techniques, improvisation and composition, dance pedagogy studied in the United States, Great Britain, Austria, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Poland and Lithuania. Her dance performances have been shown at various international dance festivals in Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Germany, Poland, Wales, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and Netherlands. Working in Modern school center directed and created choreography for several children's operas by A. Martinaitis, L.Vilkončius music, which were shown at the National Opera and Ballet Theatre, in Klaipėda, Jonava, Panevėžys and Kaunas. Working in children's arts studio "Diemedis" has choreographed musical performances by R. Dikčienė. These musical performances were created together with 100-150 young dancers from 2 to 19 years old on stage. Curently Birutė Banevičiūtė works as assoc. prof. doctor of social sciences in Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences at Dance pedagogy study programme. She is also dance teacher and dance education scholar, giving seminars and workshops for children, dancers, choreographers, dance teachers nationally and internationally. Birutė is also an artistic director of Dansema Dance Theater.

Dansema Dance Theater is a non-governmental organization working with cultural, artistic and educational projects. One of the aims of organization is to promote contemporary dance for young audience. Since it was established in 2007 Dansema Dance Theater played across Lithuania, successfully performed in Croatia, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Palestine, US, China, UK, Ukraine. It was the first professional dance theater wich started to create dance performances for young audience in Lithuania. Choreographer Birutė Banevičiūtė has created fife performances at Dansema Dance Theater for children: „Head in the clouds“, „Creation of the world“, „Puzzle“, “Miracles” and “Colourful games”.