Now in its eleventh year as an increasingly important regional showcase for contemporary dance, New Baltic Dance once again presents an exciting combination of well-known and upcoming performers from both eastern and western Europe.
Starting in 1997 as a sloppy, amateur festival of questionable artistic merit, today New Baltic Dance attracts a range of both young and highly experienced choreographers who specifically want to show off their new creations in the Lithuanian capital.
Of the 23 dance companies and independent choreographers presenting 27 individual performances, seven are from Lithuania. Contemporary dance has developed to such an extent in Lithuania over the last 10 years 's helped in part by the success of New Baltic Dance 's the organizers now enjoy the luxury of choice over who to invite to perform. 10 years ago, contemporary dance barely existed in the Baltic countries.
Anzelika Cholina, Lith-uania's best-known dance choreographer presents her new play "Donkey Hot," a humorous and colorful interpretation of the Cervantes novel "Don Quixote."
However, more obscure names are being given an opportunity to take part too. Aiste Kriukelyte's 10-minute "Waiting Until He Appears" was created specifically for a pregnant dancer. It is only because she was able to find a dancer who was now at the right stage of pregnancy that makes a performance at this festival possible.
Meanwhile, Canadian choreographer Barbara Bourget has worked with Kaunas Dance Theater Aura to produce "Tabula Rasa," a 30-minute study of the closeness of death and the unexpected emotions and reactions it can bring out in us.
New Baltic Dance has helped to launch names and careers in other countries too. Promoters and audiences in Western Europe discovered the Provincial Dances troupe from Yekaterinburg, Russia, for example, because it was spotted at earlier appearances at the Vilnius festival.
Provincial Dances return this year with "Post-Enlightenment, Diptych, Part II," which despite its lumbering name promises to be a highly personalized piece from award-winning choreographer Tatiana Baganova. It tries to show how individuals inevitably lose some vital part of themselves when they fall into a relationship. They are taken outside of themselves and find it impossible afterwards to recover what they have lost.
The New Baltic Dance organizers hope that the same feat of recognition can be achieved with newcomers like Margret Bjarnadottir. This Icelandic choreographer's 40-minute "Strength through Embarrassment" is a comical representation of those painful, drawn-out episodes experienced by reserved or bashful people when they have to do something unexpected, like speak or sing in front of a crowd.
Certain to draw a large, demanding crowd at this year's festival will be Sweden's eminent Cullberg Ballet, a dance company that has gained a formidable reputation over the last 40 years by developing new interpretations of traditional ballets 's setting "Giselle" in a psychiatric hospital for example.
They perform two pieces. "As If" draws on controversial ideas about the nature of mankind, while "Negro con Flores" exists in a landscape of both darkness and light and is expressed through a series of emotional levels with the aim of breaking loose from them and moving on.
Similarly lauded throughout Nordic Europe and beyond is the Tero Saarinen Company. The Finnish choreographer Saarinen's "Next of Kin" enters dark psychological realms in what he describes as a "surrealistic journey into the collective unconscious." It promises to be an almost cinematic visual experience driven by the choreographer's urge to explore how our personal traumas might somehow be intertwined.
Then, with an atmosphere that is positively Lynchian, the Spanish dance troupe Lanonima Imperial depicts a world beneath an innocent, colorful surface that is full of shadows, mystical creatures and fear. "Variations Al-leluia" seems at times to be like a child's bedtime tale that has turned into an unpredictable horror story.
A new development for the festival is Kedja, a Nordic-Baltic dance conference scheduled for May 9-12. Around 100 dance professionals from across the Nordic and Baltic countries will be taking part, together with more than 20 culture policy and dance management experts from around the European Union, Asia and the CIS, delivering lectures and moderating discussions.
New Baltic Dance takes place May 3-12, with performances at the Lithuanian National Drama Theater, Gedimino 4, and the Arts Printing House, Siltadarzio 6.
