PREMIERE. Exploratory dance performance "Apnea"

Choreography: Erika Vizbaraitė

Music: Vladas Dieninis

Dancers: Sigita Juraškaitė, Lina Puodžiukaitė, Mykolas Jocys, Erika Vizbaraitė

Set design: Vladas Suncovas

Costumes: Marija Zalensaitė

Video directing, editing: Dagnė Gumbrevičiūtė

Author of the texts: Goda Grigolytė

Video operator: Audrius Budrys

Video projections: Domas Morkūnas

Light design: Povilas Apulis

Graphic design: Austėja Šeputė

Free diving instructor: Tadas Jurgaitis

Premiere: 2020-02-20 „Arts Printing House“, Vilnius

Duration: 55 min.

Location: Culture Factory (Bangų str. 5A)

"The first inhalation – it is me, alive. Sometimes alive, but dead. I forget to take a deeper breath. I have seizures, suffocation, lack of air. I once tried to suffocate. Do not breathe. As I held my breath, I felt how limited and boundless I was, how I was pulsing and beating. I learned not to breathe only when I wanted to. And when I breathe, I try to feel the breath. I just try to feel it. ”

Respiratory arrest (gr. apnea) – is the axis of this dance performance. Apnea in water or on land, in a state of sleep or wakefulness, conscious or suddenly occurring. The latter brings turmoil into life, and when done deliberately, on the contrary, it creates an opportunity to deviate from the acute reality. In water apnea, the body seems to be suppressed, somewhat "asleep", vital functions slow down, the circulatory system redistributes, the mind calms down: you hear your heart – the pulse, later – even this is gone. Following the silent signals of the body in the depths of the water, holding one's breath, one feels another space-time: the depths of the bodylessness and the soul. Terrestrial apnea learns from water apnea: how to keep on when you can no longer breathe, how to realize your vividness and learn to regulate breathing so that respiratory arrest is my choice, not an unexpected element. Sleep apnea is a disorder in which the human body, when it stops breathing, is constantly knocked out of a dream into a mode of reality – do not forget to breathe! And finally ... the last inhalation and eternal respiratory arrest – through the dance with the very toes of the feet touching the apnea of ​​death.

Erika Vizbaraitė – dancer, pedagogue, choreographer, member of the Contemporary Dance Association. In 2001 she graduated from the Rambert College of Classical and Contemporary Dance in London, in 2010 she obtained a master's degree in Actor-contemporary dance dancer from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater. Since 2015 Erika teaches classical and contemporary dance, stage practice at Vilnius College, and also works as a dance teacher at the National M.K. Čiurlionis Art School.

Erika Vizbaraitė creates contemporary dance performances and performs in them (recent works: dance miniature in "Water", performance "KID", research work / installation "Transparent", research dance performance "Apnea"), creates dance films and choreography for operas, musicals, various cultural and artistic projects. Periodically internships at dance and theater creative laboratories, participates in professional development seminars in Lithuania and abroad.

 

Photo: Laura Vansevičienė