Dance performance „Together Alone“ / Low Air (Lithuania)

Idea, concept author: Airida Gudaitė

Choreography: Laurynas Žakevičius, Rokas Šaltenis, Airida Gudaitė

Performers: Laurynas Žakevičius, Rokas Šaltenis

Composers: Agnés M, Marta Finkelštein

Lighting designer: Eugenijus Sabaliauskas

Lighting operator: Edgaras Varkulevičius

Costume designer: Rūta Kyguolytė

Costume designer’s assistant: Asami Imanishi

Premiere: 2024

Duration: 45 min.

Location: @Šilutė Culture and Leisure Center (Lietuvininkų str. 6) 

N-14

  RECOMMENDED for those who are not afraid of an open look

Nominated for the Golden Stage Cross award (Best Dancer of the Year, 2024),
Nominated for the Golden Stage Cross award (Choreography of the Year, 2024)

“Together Alone” – a duet of two dancers stunning in their nakedness, openness and commitment to vulnerability. It seems as if all the norms of the contemporary world dissolve between the dancers as soon as they step on the dance floor – walking in a circle in front of each other, they start the dance with an open gaze, the beginnings of a real connection. The dancers move like mirror reflections of each other, holding hands, doing breakdance and sometimes even folk dance steps, not shying away from smiling if dancing together is simply good. 

Aistė Šivytė, Menų faktūra, 2023-07-10

The dance performance by two B-Boys Laurynas Zakevicius (Lau) and Rokas Saltenis (Rukus) is constructed as a dialogue with another, but in essence with oneself. While studying the movements and flow of Breaking, juxtaposing them with the Lithuanian folk dance, a physical, tangible form is sought for the spreading of the male or a dancer’s identity. By becoming each other’s mirror images, in today’s bustle of norms, prejudices, and stereotypes, one tries to turn back to oneself, firmness in sensitivity, sense of self in alteration or other, in a duality.

“Together Alone” is artistic research of the canons of identity in hip-hop dance, inviting artists and audiences to explore breaking as a performing art form. The performance is an opportunity to reflect on the concept of a world without borders, using the links between cultures to rethink topics of migration in art and cultural forms. The Western masculinist dance, Breaking, is juxtaposed and connected with the movement codes of the pair dance existing in the Lithuanian folk-dance heritage. Artists ask: what kind of men are we, what does this dance talk about when we go on stage and what is it like when we participate in dance battles, and sports competitions, such as the Olympics?

Discourses of appropriation and homogeneity are raised, which also touch on the ethical issues of the use of images. Creative explorations of this field of art and the stories of its origin invite mutual dialogue beyond the performance.

Vilnius dance theatre Low Air is the first independent urban dance company in Lithuania which since 2012 has the official Theatre status. The creative team of the company – is well known Lithuanian dancers and choreographers Airida Gudaitė and Laurynas Žakevičius, who accelerates the new forms of expanded urban dances in the country. Whilst experimenting and combining different dance styles and movement forms, expanding them with physical theatre, performance and live music, choosing themes for the performances, curating and educating young dancers on stage, Low Air both develops and gathers a professional community around it, by building interdisciplinary bridges implements audience development strategies.

The company has represented Lithuanian dance culture at various international festivals and culture fairs such as Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Internationale “tanzmesse nrw”, Dance International Glasgow, etc. The works were presented in Israel, France, Germany, USA, Sweden, Iceland, Scotland, UK, Poland, Ukraine, Italy, Greenland, Bulgaria, Austria, China, Georgia, South Korea, throughout Lithuania.

Low Air has been awarded three times with the Golden Stage Cross Award, the Boris Dauguvietis Earring for both the successful research and development of a new stage forms connecting urban dance and theatre and for the pedagogical work, which changes a face of Lithuanian contemporary dance, the Prize of the Lithuanian Contemporary Dance Association. Having received the attention of foreign critics and professionals on tours Low Air has received the title of Vilnius City Dance Theatre in 2017. 

 

Photo: from the company archive