Brīniņš Family | "Three Birds in the Forest" | Latvia
Authors and performers: Marta, Pēteris and Kristīne Brīniņš, sound artist Martin Wheeler
Through interaction with nature, every day is a little different. Our everyday life is certainly not an example of an orderly routine. Every day comes with changes, discoveries, smaller and bigger adventures, emotions. We live together. We meet each other. We mirror each other – one proposes, one accepts, one echo. One of us is born on the stage, one of us is born for the stage and one of us is the stage. Dance has united us since the first day. We are birds.
- I have always wanted to be a musician.
- But I wanted to be a policeman, so I can defeat the bad ones.
- I wanted to be a special friend of aliens.
- Shall we dance?
- I will dance. I plan to sing too.
- I'll dance, too.
- I'll dance, too. But I won't sing. I'm just a child.
Martin Wheeler is a film music composer who received the prestigious César Award (the French Oscar) in 2014 for the soundtrack to the film Michael Kohlhaas. Wheeler was born in 1956 in the UK and has lived and worked in Paris since the late 1980s.
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Yukio Suzuki & Nao
Ashimine & Dance Group
| “With the Scenery”
| Japan
Yukio Suzuki was born in 1972 in Japan. He studied butoh at the Asbestos-kan (Asbestos House) from 1997 and danced in the works of Ko Murobushi and other artists. In 2000 he started the group YUKIO SUZUKI projects in which his wife Nao Ashimine also dances. He gained attention in the dance world for his documentary-like style of directing and choreography that uses compelling placement of dancers with a strong emphasis on their physical presence. He’s been to more than 50 cities in the world, and his strong physicality and dance performance that is flexible, sensitive, and sticking out of spaces, attracts local audience. He is also active in choreography for classical ballet dancers and children, performance in music videos, model activities, collaboration with musicians. He also conducts workshops based on butoh methodology. With a highly sensitive consciousness of the body, he conducts programs around the country aimed at creating dancer-specific works. In 2003 he won the ST Spot Lab Award. In 2004 he participated in the final Next-Next program of the Saison Foundation. In 2005 he was the Session House resident artist. In 2007 he was nominated for the Kyoto Arts Center Performing Arts Award 2007. In the Toyota Choreography Awards he was winner of the Audience Award in 2005 and the Choreographer of the Next Generation (grand prize) award in 2008. In 2012 he took part in Danse Elargie 2012 at the Theatre de la Ville in Paris, where he placed among the top ten.
“With the Scenery”
The landscape always seems to be there in the same way, but it is
ever-changing with time, seasons, events, and living creatures. This is a
dance project to rediscover the expanding landscape by placing our
bodies in the free and serene scenery of the town and adjusting our
bodies to the time of the landscape.
This piece will be open to the public for performers. At the last scene, audience joined our
performance! Together we will create a much
nicer “the Scenery”.
Yukio, Nao and their daughter SORA as well as dancers of the
YUKIO SUZUKI projects will participate in this work!
Supported by:
The artists' participation in the festival in Riga is possible thanks to the Japan Foundation.
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Külli
Roosna & Kenneth Flak | “... and the Little One Said” | Estonia/Norway
Over the last 15 years Roosna & Flak have developed a wide range of
tools and technologies for creating interactive performance ecologies.
Now they want their 8-year old daughter to teach them what to do with
these.
The performance "... and the little one said" is a playful exploration
of trust, intergenerational knowledge transfer and the art of living
together.
Internationally active choreographers, dancers and digital artists Külli
Roosna (Estonia) and Kenneth Flak (Norway) have been collaborating
since 2008. Whether they are creating their own choreographies or
collaborating with others, their work deals with the narratives and
technologies of the body. They have explored a wide range of themes,
including deep ecology, Viking mythology, totalitarianism and internet
culture. The core of their work is human experience in interconnected
realities. This is often explored through the dancing body’s
possibilities and limitations, in a constant dialogue with the digital
technologies and discourses that extend and counterpoint it. In 2016
their daughter Aliina made her grand appearance, and has been a major
influence on everything they have done since.
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Artist Panel Discussion “Dance as a Lifestyle”
At 20:00, the contemporary dance festival "Laiks dejot" will host a public panel discussion titled “Dance as a Lifestyle”, bringing together local and international artists featured in the festival’s program.
The discussion will take place at NOASS, between the evening performances.
In dialogue with this year’s festival theme – “Family. Dance through Generations” – the panel will explore how dance extends beyond the stage and studio into everyday life. The conversation will touch on how dance shapes relationships, identities, and family structures, and how movement can act as a bridge across generations and cultures.
Participants in the discussion include artists from the June 10th program ( or the artists from the June 11th program who are present).
The panel will be held in English moderated by dramaturge Tatjana Meļehova and is open to all festival visitors. Duration: ~ 60 minutes.
Anne Katrine & Liv Hanne Haugen | “Sisters Forever” | Norway
"Sisters Forever" aims to love the differences, and to tolerate both tact and non-tact. We want a deeper understanding of where I end and you begin, something we think is transferable to all types of relationships where something is at stake. In this way we can possibly be prepared from the inside out, in a time where the only sure thing is a future unpredictable and in constant negotiation and change.
"Sisters Forever" (2025) is the last part of a trilogy by and with the sisters and dance artists Anne Katrine and Liv Hanne Haugen. The performances Sisters (2003) and Sisters 11 Years (2014) have been the previous ones, and now 22 years later we are ready for the last and concluding part of this trilogy that spans three decades. Our last aunt, Nunna died in February 2024. She was the youngest of our mother’s 7 sisters who all participated on film. Now only their little brother and our uncle Nils, 93, who is still alive. We are the oldest and are now carrying on the legacy. But what is that? And what to carry on and what to leave behind?
In the previous performances we have thematized childhood, early adulthood, midlife, old age and death. In Sisters Forever, and without the company of aunts and mother, we will continue to delve into our own sisterhood, but also ponder one of the truly great mysteries: Life beyond this one.
This is a work in progress and Laiks Dejot in Riga will be our first public meeting with the audience. The premiere is planned for DanseFestival Barents in Hammerfest (NO) in November this year.
Credits: Concept, idea, performance, text and choreography: Anne Katrine and Liv Hanne Haugen | Music: Svein Schultz (not yet realized, and so far we use music by Liv Hanne Haugen and Phil Collins | Scenography: Lawrence Malstaf (not yet realized | Film: Rachel Gomez Andersen (not yet realized) | Process leader: Ørjan Hattrem
Supported by: Fond for
Lyd og Bilde, Nordic Culture Point, Tromsø Kulturskole / Tromsø kommune
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Agate Bankava | “In the Mycelium Network” | Latvia
They have no borders. They are all around us—and within us. While someone is reading these words, they continue to grow and transform, just as they have done for over a million years. New discoveries about the ever-present kingdom of fungi offer new ways of seeing collaboration and possibilities for existence. They are among the brightest gems of the Baltic forests. Fungi, the root-like mycelium system, and their way of life provide excellent lessons for humanity in thinking about how to shape the society of the future.
Elīna Valdmane, the concept author and scenographer, says about the performance:
“Looking
at the troubling times around us, sometimes one simply wants to look
away for a moment. Most often, it is nature that offers refreshing
strength and energy. Sometimes, almost unconsciously, a desire arises to
draw back the curtain and peek into another world—a world with its own
patterns and forms, where everything follows different rules. I believe
the performance ‘In the Mycelium Network’ offers the viewer a chance to
immerse themselves, to observe and personify with the movement artists,
creating a shared space in which to become aware of our
interconnectedness. Only in harmonious interaction can we develop not
the urge to retreat, but rather to move closer—to truly see and touch
one another.”
Choreographer Agate Bankava shares about the performance and its creative process:
“‘In
the Mycelium Network’ is about entering a different rhythm and world.
The performance is like a disturbed sample of forest soil, revealing the
kingdom of mycelium—the interactions and collisions between humans and
fungi. During the creative process, we got to know mushroom enthusiasts,
mycologists, mushroom cultivation labs; we learned what bodily
sensations arise when using various types of fungal fruiting bodies; we
ventured into the forest and became mushrooms ourselves. It was like a
journey to another galaxy. The fungal kingdom has lived alongside us for
centuries and, perhaps, has long been signaling: hey, human, look
closer—there’s much you can learn!”
Choreographer: Agate Bankava
Concept Author, Set and Costume Designer: Elīna Valdmane
Music Composer: Rinalds Maksimovs
Performers and Co-creators: Dancers - Agnese Bordjukova, Mārtiņš Aržanovskis, Musician and Drummer Rinalds Maksimovs
Producer: Laukku
Premiere 22.02.2025. This performance is organized by the festival “Laiks Dejot” in collaboration with the Laukku Association.
Supported by: the State Culture Capital Foundation, Laukku, the Choreographers Association, and the Latvian Dance Information Center.
TICKETS
Image from the premiere by Aleksejs Beļeckis
