”Double points: HELL”. Photo by Floriaan Ganzevoort

The biggest contemporary dance festival in the Baltic countries New Baltic Dance'10 welcomed its viewers on May 4-9. This year the event organised by the Lithuanian Dance Information Centre together with the company Vilnius Festivals presented dance companies and independent choreographers from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and a joint German-French project. The 14^th New Baltic Dance took place at the Arts Printing House, the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, and on the stage of the Dance Theatre of the National Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis School of Art.

The audience had the possibility to see the hip-hop dance by Sébastien Ramirez from France and Raphael Hillebrand from Germany, the performance Mute Comp by the Danish representatives of physical theatre, and the dance performance Pacing in Vaudeville by the Swedish theatre company Andersson Nance. Also, the 14^th New Baltic Dance presented Norwegian choreographer Jo Strømgren with his performance The Experiment, and the dance company of Emio Greco, the dance star from the Netherlands.

This year, the festival offered a broad programme of Lithuanian choreographers. Young creators had a chance to reveal their talents next to the already familiar dance performances by choreographers Aira Naginevičiūtė, Loreta Juodkaitė and Agnija Šeiko.

A part of the Lithuanian festival programme could be referred to as the "comebacks" as, following a long break, the viewers had the opportunity to see the dance performance by choreographer Rasa Alksnytė currently living in Belgium. The festival presented her evening of miniatures Lost Souls (Lith. Prarastos sielos) created for the ballet company of the Klaipėda State Musical Theatre. The work Set up for a Portrait of a Young Woman / Farewell, Anna Karenina (Lith. Prielaidos jaunos moters portretui / Sudie, Ana Karenina) choreographed by dancer and choreographer Andrius Katinas, who arrived from Finland, and performed together with Maria Saivosalmi was also shown during the festival. Finally, a young company of dancers Collaborative Dance Experience from the United Kingdom presented the creation Remote Within (Lith. Toli viduje) by choreographer Deimantė Prišmantaitė, who studied choreography in England, however, her works had never been shown in Lithuania before.

Arts Factory information