Kaunas troupe dances to the future

  • 2006-03-15

BEAT GOES ON: AURA, an experimental modern dance company based in Kaunas, is considered the best of its kind in Lithuania.

AURA, the Kaunas-based dance company, recently performed "Extremum Mobile" and "Aseptic Zone" in Vilnius. The works expressed the past and present struggles with Soviet oppression in Lithuania and the search for freedom and a new identity. Birute Letukaite is the artistic director of AURA.

How do you work with your dancers? Do you choose any specific themes for choreography?
It's always the same topics about people, society, relationships - the themes that never get exhausted.

How many dancers are in the company?
Five to 30 dancers, as we've got permanent workers, freelance dancers and studio members.

How would you describe their background?
They get their most important background here in our system at the theatre. Sometimes AURA collaborates with guest dancers from abroad or other companies.

How long have they been running together? Do you often rework the team?
Some of them have been dancing for more than 15 years, and some for only two years. It's one of the biggest problems. It would be ideal if there wasn't any dancer (those that are fully prepared by AURA) turnover. It would also be nice if there were only professional dancers. Anyhow, that is only in the distant future. At the moment, more contemporary dancers are being prepared at AURA than they are anywhere else in Lithuania.

How old are your dancers? Are they all Lithuanian?
The dancers are 16 to 35. Normally yes, all are Lithuanian, except those cases when a foreign performer joins the company for a limited period of time for a specific production.

How would you describe the characteristics of someone who is part of AURA?
A huge self-motivated devotion to dance and hard work, fantasy, creativity, emotionality, technique and proper body preparation.

Are you planning a dance tour?
Yes. For the first time in Lithuania's modern dance history, AURA Dance Theatre leaves for a tour of Germany in May, visiting three cities (Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt) with five performances. Then in June we will perform in Bielefeld.

What do you think about contemporary society?
Superficiality. Everything's to be done fast, nicely. Everyone wants a quick easy pleasure.

Does AURA express what we are going through?
Yes, hopefully. With our artistic choices, ideas, music.

Are there any political, social issues that you are trying to express through choreography?
As I mentioned earlier, my recent pieces of choreography are multi-layered and refer to a complex array of social and political issues.

I have heard that this is the best dance company in Lithuania. What makes AURA different from other dance companies?
Maybe the power we produce during performances, when artists breath together and create tremendous energy to scatter around and which everyone in the hall feels.

What are the future plans for your company?
We have one very urgent plan for a new floor for the AURA studio, as we've been dancing on concrete for eight years! Maybe that's where "Extremum mobile" (the company's recent number) comes from.
Then we have New Baltic Dance in Vilnius with AURA's premiere, our tour in Germany, a summer school with a very promising Israeli choreographer Yossi Berg and the International Modern Dance Festival in Kaunas from October 5 to 10.
In short, to have a team of professional dancers and show our art to the people.
And also, to stay healthy. And to have comrades to help move forward with common ideas.