Lithuanian dance troupe Dansema to perform in London
After receiving excellent reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe, Puzzle, a contemporary dance performance for children by Lithuanian dance troupe Dansema, visits London for the first time. The piece, aimed at children aged 0 to 3, will be shown at Jackson’s Lane creative space in North London on Sunday, 7 February 2016 (10.30 a.m. and 2.30 p.m.) and will participate in VAULT festival in The Vaults on 13 and 14 February, 2016 (10.30 a.m.).
Puzzle asks: what does the world look like to a child? Perhaps round, colourful, all sorts of wobbly, or maybe angular and hollow? It is true that a child’s first experience of the world is based in a variety of geometric shapes and colours. Famous Lithuanian choreographer Birutė Banevičiūtė and dancers Giedrė Subotinaitė, Indrė Bacevičiūtė, Mantas Stabačinskas put these coloured shapes together as a puzzle and recognisable vegetables – a carrot, tomato, and a cucumber. Sometimes unrecognizable mushrooms, fruits and flowers appear. During the performance we travel through the developmental stages of a child and are invited to crawl, creep, bounce, walk, run, clap, and, finally – gallop, hide and turn.
Dansema was founded in 2007 in Vilnius by dancers and choreographers wishing to make contemporary dance more accessible to children and young audiences. The troupe has performed in Croatia, the Netherlands, Germany, Palestine, and the USA. Last year Dansema brought Puzzle to the Edinburgh Fringe, receiving positive reviews.
This performance is an interactive experience both for the performers and the audience members. The soft and colourful costumes of the dancers create a welcoming and safe atmosphere for the children, inviting them to play and enjoy their surroundings. Puzzle is a wise and tender look at the earliest stages of childhood, posing adults to remember experiences they might have forgotten through their lives.
