EEA - PROJECT (GODOS)
Panta Rei Dance Theatre and Lithuanian AURA Dance Theatre has joined together for the EEA project GODOS.
GODOS was one of 11 projects chosen by the Lithuanian Culture Ministry.
Panta Rei Dance Theatre and the Lithuanian company AURA Dance Theatre started working together in 2014 and applied to the EEA program Promotion of Diversity in Culture and Arts within European Cultural Heritage. Their application was approved, and the parties initiated the 1-year project GODOS: the international co-production of dance theatres and its dissemination in Lithuanian and Norwegian regions. GODOS was one of the 11 projects selected by the Lithuanian Culture Ministry.
Read more about GODOS here.
GODOS is a multilayered project both for its goals and prospective results. A creation of a professional dance performance is one of the main parts of the project. It will be a joint production of Lithuanian dance theatre AURA and Norwegian dance theatre “Panta Rei”. Half of the performance is created by choreographer Birutė Letukaitė in Kaunas, Lithuania, another half – by choreographers Anne Ekenes and Pia Holden in Oslo, Norway. The creative team also includes composer Antanas Jasenka, dramatist Silvija Čižaitė-Rudokienė, light designer Vladimiras Šerstabojevas and six dancers from AURA Dance Theatre.
The starting point of the coproduction was the revelation of the ancient Lithuanian and Norwegian culture through contemporary dance. The creators of the performance immersed in the intensive creative research and improvisations while exploring the old traditions of both nations as well as written and musical legacy in order to find a connection and dialogue between the past and the present, the old and the contemporary, to discover original means of expression.
Godos premiered in January 2016 in both Lithuania and Norway.
Other important elements of the project includes engaging a bigger audience to contemporary dance, especially in rural areas of Lithuania, where contemporary dance lives in the shadows of the more classical traditions. Panta Rei will share their experience with including the audience in a performance through workshops and other tools, as this will be a vital part of the GODOS project when it goes on tour.
Aura Dance Theatre:
AURA is the only one municipal theatre of contemporary dance in Lithuania and one of a very few companies of contemporary dance in Lithuania that shows the skills of the professional dance. Artistic director Birute Letukaite and the dancers of the company dedicate themselves to modern dance and its traditions, which are tightly associated with such outstanding figures as pioneers of expressive dance in Lithuania Danute Nasvytyte and her follower was a student of Kira Daujotaite in the Dance Company “Sonata”. Birute Letukaite spent ten years in the company where she learned the skills of expressive dance.
Interview / short video, press here.
