The fourth and final Digital Leap learning module is approaching! Before the participants – both artists and producers working with circus and dance – head to Marseille, we want to introduce them properly. Now it’s time to get to know the four participants from Lithuania.
Aino Mäkipää studied circus in Finland for three years and after graduation she founded her own contemporary circus group Kanta Company with two of her classmates. They have created one full length show “Clothes and Us”, which they have been performing with in Europe for over a year and are now in the creation process of their second show “107 Ways to Deal with Pressure” which will premier in summer 2023. Besides Kanta, Aino works in Cirko Sapiens, Lithuanian contemporary circus center, which offers circus classes for kids and adults, and residencies for artists. Aino also works on her solo pieces and likes to collaborate with artists, directors and with almost anyone who’s passionate about circus.
Aino took part in the third learning module in Terrassa. She wants to learn how to make digital tools an advantage instead of a difficult must as she sometimes feels like: “I see all the potential in using digital tools more but I’m just not sure how”.
Eglė Nešukaitytė is a performing artist and creator who is interested in interdisciplinarity (un-disciplinarity). She started her artistic exploration after the “Animato” dance program in Israel (“Nadine Bommer Dance Company”) and an educational interdisciplinary program for creators “Anfibia”. Eglė is creating digital projects, performances for stage, and taking part in dance, performance art, and interdisciplinary projects.
As her first personal project “Magic Carpet” was created for digital space, she is eager to expand her perception of digital possibilities: “It’s not easy for me to accept digitality as an inevitability and that is the exact reason I want to explore more. I wasn’t planning that my first personal creation will be digital, but it was and I really love it. So my goal is to not reject, but to get to know more and transform that knowledge for my creative goals”.
Laurynas Žakevičius is a Lithuanian dance artist representing LOW AIR dance company. Laurynas researches the artistic and social potential of street dance language and movement in general. With a number of co-created performances selected for the major programs of International festivals in Europe and Asia in his artistic and production CV, Laurynas takes great courage to deepen his knowledge in audience development strategies and is willing to learn how reaching and engaging with audiences through digital means could benefit to the field of dance social cohesion. Laurynas and the LOW AIR dance company have received multiple awards in Lithuania.
Laurynas expects to explore new aspects of digital tools: “We live in a hectic and digitalized era which sometimes forces us to spend more time in a digital reality than in a real physical connection. I am looking for ways how reaching and engaging with audiences through digital means could foster the physical meeting of the artist and the audience in order to expand our bodily experience”.
Denisas Kolomyckis is a dancer, actor and interdisciplinary artist, one of the performers who contributed to the revival of “site-specific” and “performance art” performances in Lithuania. Denisas studied at the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Arts (Ballet department), continued his studies at the Conservatoire for Dance & Drama, London (UK), and is currently studying at the Sculpture Department of the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Denisas combines performance art, contemporary dance, theater and visual art. Over the past year, Denisas has created photography exhibitions, performances, paintings and installations related to human rights topics. His works of art have been exhibited at the Contemporary Art Center, Serpentine gallery (London), Microscope gallery (New York) and elsewhere, the works of the project “Ona, Ona raise your skirt” have also been presented in The Guardian and other periodical cultural media channels.
Denisas is fascinated about distribution of performances by using digital tools, connecting with audiences digitally: “It is important for my personal artistic career to use the possibility to share my practices and gain knowledge from different experts and mentors; learn how to employ digital tools in a way that best suits my own artistic practice”.
