Dance
On this page you can discover the three semi-finalists selected for the Dance discipline in the Yellow Area (Northern Europe) voted by the public and by the professional jury composed of experts and artists.
The 16 MArteLive Europe Artistic Disciplines are evaluated by a professional jury, made of experts and artists, and the audience.
The three winners of each discipline will fly to the semi-finals in Vilnius, Lithuania and will have the opportunity to participate in Art residencies and to join the final in Rome, Italy, in December 2021.
Discover also the other artists selected but not admitted to the semifinals. Their talent is no less!
Copenaghen, Denmark
Annika is currently enrolled in the MfA “Performing Arts” at The Danish National School of Performing Arts in Copenhagen, 2019-2021; including masterclasses by Falk Richter, Runar Hodne and others. Beside that she works as a professional and international dance artist, choreographer and teacher.
Annika was born in Germany, but has been based based in Copenhagen, Denmark since 2015. Her artistic work focuses on the diversity and possibilities which lie in dance; by collaborating cross-disciplinary to create durational works, staging experimental explorations, site specific performances and reinterpreting traditions. She uses different choreographical methods and improvisational tools as inspiration and guidance for the dance.
She received arts council funding in the UK as well as from the Danish National Fund to produce and present her work. As a dancer and performer she works with Gintersdorfer/ Klaßen, Oriantheatre, Sisters Hope, Reckless Sleepers, Glimt Danseteater, Gazart Danseteater and others.
Annika graduated with a first honoured BPA degree from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, UK in 2014. Her previous degree at the Erika Klütz School Hamburg, Germany has qualified her as a teacher in dance and education and she has been employed as a regular guest teacher and choreographer to the students there since 2011.
TREFFPUNKT SPEECH(LESS) @ MArte Live
A Methodology and Artistic Research by Annika KompArt
Jesper Haller
Does language also live in the body?
Is speaking a language also creating (/ experiencing) common resonance on a sensory level of rhythms and tones?
“The project clarifies this dimension in an embodiment by the rhythm and tonal movements of different languages.”
Tora Balslev Jespersen
In Speech(less), German dancer and choreographer Annika moves to the rhythm of different political speeches to play with the different dynamics of language with the body. Speech(less) is not just an autobiographical attempt to give corporeality and plasticity to the language, but also to give spaciousness and care to my own and other languages to try to communicate dance and art. The project is aimed at anyone who can speak a language and is fascinated by the context of the moving body, rhythm and language. The starting point was the question, “how does my own language sound like if I could not understand it?”
Project Speech(less) has been through a first draft of Loona Nights in Dansehallerne in 2015, a screening during CPH Stage and a 2 week trial at Forsøgsstationen in 2018, before we were invited to Bådteatret in 2019, to Teater Momentum 2020 and Probebühne Tanzplan Hamburg 2020.
Here is a Trailer of the staged experiment, where Annika invited dancers with another mother tongue to dance to Angela Merkels new years speech and in return, they offered their national speech. The question was, if the mother tongue lives in your body!? https://vimeo.com/320340253
The review is in Danish, but google translate works okay
In the end of it is a silent video. The drawings are made by a French graphic designer Yukao Nagemi. He did instant drawing, while watching the performance. The video got shown to the audience, after the performance.
http://sceneblog.dk/treffpunkt-speechless-annika-kompart-paa-ubaaden-baadteatret/
Artistic Statement:
DANCE IS NOT JUST DANCE!
“Growing up in a society, where the highest goal is to be perfect, to be disciplined and to not fail, I want to open up to rethink social values with my art. My interest lies in the imperfection of the human being, seeing failure as a gift to discover something new. Welcoming the different! Drawing on the sensible, intelligent human being in motion. Making the invisible, visible, by stimulating our senses, reusing the given, to open up for transformation and otherness. By embracing, allowing curiosity and playfulness.”
Artistic Research as part of my MfA studies at DDSKS
https://vimeo.com/411333416
Password: ArtisticResearchKompArt
DISCONTRL a collab. with singer Thea Soti:
https://vimeo.com/459894323
Vilnius, Lithuania
Austėja Žalalytė is a solo jazz, solo blues and lindy hop dancer, teacher and performer based in Lithuania. She is a passionate jazz dancer who focuses on the connection between a dancer and jazz music. For performances Austėja mostly works with live music and the power of improvisation – as jazz music itself. She loves to make experimental performances with ideas based on conversation that can happen between different instruments and a dancer. For her – improvised dance to live music is like a little story of romance between musician and a dancer.
„The Snake Whisperer“ is one of the many performances where Austeja works with different musicians and instruments. The main idea is to search for the pure connection between a body of a dancer and the sound of an instrument. This time, the sound is presented by the clarinet player Vytautas Zemaitis. Everything is based on improvisation of the sound and the dance. The performers imitate a sleeping snake being woken up by her master – the sound. The sound not only wakes her up but also guides her on how to move and what kind of energy to pursue. Austeja finds her movement threw African American vernacular jazz dances and adapts them to different sounds of the clarinet. With this performance Austeja researches the importance on how the live sound of a music changes the dancers body, what flavour it gives to the improvisation and how the dance itself changes the music player.
Stockholm, Sweden
Cassandra Arnmark is a dancer and choreographer currently living in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2019, she graduated from Codarts University of the Arts (NL). She has previously danced with Skånes Dansteater, Antonin Comestaz and collaborated with Alberto Granados Reguilón.
Cassandra choreographed and performed two works, “Thoughts of Things That’s Been” (choreographer together with Lucrezia Nardone, premiered in Malmö 2019) and “Simply Something Somewhere Else”, a solo which received two awards at the 24th International Solo Dance Theatre Festival in Stuttgart (2020). Besides dance, she makes music and her latest collaboration was with Skånes Dansteater and Janssen Herr.
“Around and around I go. Never stopping but always looking back. What’s left when I’ve exhausted all my options? If I try to balance, I fall. If I fall, new possibilities will occur. If I am lost, can I find my way back?”
Vilnius, Lithuania
In 2018 I have finished National M.K.Čiurlionis School of Arts with specialisation in contemporary dance (during studies I have danced at Euroscene Leipzig, Gdansk Solo dance festival, Vitbesk IFMC, “Aura” festival in Kaunas, “New Baltic Dance festival” and “Kedja” in Vilnius and others).
Then I have spent one season at CNDC in Angers, France (there I have danced with Robert Swinston, Thierry de Mey, Herve Robbe and others). Two years I have travelled in EU and participated in diferrent workshops, auditions, worked as a club dancer. When I came back I have succesfully reached finals in a project Dance Revolution on national TV, afterwards I was invited to teach at Low Air dance school and Pole Dance Vilnius studio. In Lithuania I have danced in music festivals like Devilstone, YAGA, Kilkim Žaibu and also participated in “Sirenos” theatre festival as well as in several commercial projects (for example Justinas Jarutis music video “Anymore”, Agnė Jagelavičiūtė fashion show, dancing in few Netflix series and others). Currently I am developing my physical solo performance which combines dance acrobatics on fetish heels (20cm) and contemporary floorwork. I am also very interested in aerial circus acrobatics.
“LERA VERA LENA”
Music: Domantas Pūras
Dance and idea: Valerija Gneuševa
This autobiographic performance combines contemporary floorwork, theatre and fetish high heels.
“I don’t see them – I look through them.
Just don’t touch me. They’re paying me to do so. Stay close. Listen, but do not judge. Don’t give advices if you’re not asked to do so. I do not desire sex, I do not want relationships. It has become deterrent, I feel nothing. It seems pointless, wrong. I have killed the dance in me. Her life has stopped. My heart is still shaking when I say her name out loud. She’s hidden deep inside. What if I will never be able to find her? I’m scared and alone, ashamed of my weakness. Artificial. Nobody helps me and nobody will until I ask for it. I’m the one to blame. People are hurt anyway.
It is easy for me to undress, it’s easy to “play sex”, and it’s easy to make them desire me, to convince them that I want the same.
I get paid for my make-up, my smiles and lies. I feel ugly.
Vilnius, Lithuania
Eglė Ukanytė is a dance teacher, choreographer, creator and performer of contemporary dance. In 2017, she graduated from the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences with a bachelor’s degree in dance pedagogy.
In 2016, Eglė also studied in the Erasmus exchange program at the National Dance Academy in Rome, where she explored the basics of contemporary dance, composition and ballet.
In 2017, she did an internship at the Milan Contemporary Dance School.
In 2019, she presented her creative dance composition at the National Arts Awards 2019, organized by the Silvio d’Amico National Academy of Theater and Art in Rome, Italy.
In 2020, she graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater, where she obtained a Master of Arts degree in theater.
In the same year, she created a contemporary dance performance “Taming Loneliness”, which premiered on 5th June in the yard of the art printing house.
Currently, Eglė works as a dance teacher, improves in her creative work and attends various seminars, where she continuously boosts her knowledge in the field as a dancer and a performer. Last, but not least, since 2016, Eglė has been a dancer in the play “Othello” at the ACH Dance Theater.
Author: Egle Ukanyte
Performers: 4 dancers
Music: A. Sapiega
Duration: 40mins
Contemporary dance performance „Taming Loneliness“ is an artistic research work about a relevant topic – solitude. Dancers embodied aspects about solitude that they found during the research process. And expressed them through movements and emotions in an open dramaturgy performance with live gong music. During the process dancers had to get used to changing circumstances, new ending every time, undefined music, each other and the solitude theme.
Espoo, Finland
Emilia Kumpulainen is a dancer & choreographer from Espoo, Finland. She started her classical dance training at Espoon tanssiopisto in 2000, continued to Helsinki Ballet Academy in 2014, and finally completed her Bachelor of Arts at Hungarian Dance Academy, Budapest, in 2018.
After graduation, she danced in several projects and company productions in Spain, Hungary, and the UK. In addition to classical ballet and contemporary dance, she has been trained in Jazz, Graham, Horton, folk dances (Hungarian, Russian, Spanish), and Hip-hop; currently focused on neo-classical and contemporary styles.
Forced by the Covid-19 travel restriction, she found her base in Trieste, Italy supported by Corrado Canulli of Arteffetto Danza. While unable to travel, she began to explore her own choreographic language inspired by intuitive, improvisation-, and mindfulness-based approaches, while expanding her understanding of the body-mind connection and finishing her MSc in Sports & Exercise Psychology at Staffordshire University. She is currently working on multidisciplinary art projects collaborating with international artists from different backgrounds.
“I like to constantly challenge and examine my motives towards movement to develop a deeper connection with the fundamental purpose of my work. I need a clear meaning for what I do and why; I want to tell a story, provide an answer, bring forward a social/political issue, express my opinion, touch psychological surfaces… There are too many conflicts and too many loud people around us, so I want to believe that art has the potential to quietly, but powerfully change the world towards a little bit better one.”
Alone for too long. The inner perception starts to represent your reality. Sounds inside your head become unbearably loud and you no longer remember how a human touch feels like. Soon the highly reactive senses take over the physical body and you wonder: “what if I am more of a threat to myself than what that toxic person ever was?”
Music: Wait by @vilqqumusic – Vilhelmiina Niskanen.
Dance & choreography: Emilia Kumpulainen
Collaborative support: Arteffetto Danza
Vilnius, Lithuania
Marius Eidrigevičius is also known in the street dance community of Lithuania, the Baltics, and neighbouring countries as Arni. Arni is the inspiration for many young dancers. He is a master in hip-hop and house dance styles and has discovered the path of educator since 2011. 2017 was a turning point when he moved to Sweden, to Åsa Folkhögskola, where he studied street dances.
Having traveled Europe and across the Atlantic, Marius learned from many of the world’s most respected street dance teachers and participated in a great number of street dance battle events. He has performed dance and theatre works in Lithuania and Germany and created choreographies for music performers. Dancer is often invited to conduct larger-scale hip-hop and house dance workshops or to judge dance battles worldwide.
Streaming the rap music energy through dance is a highest form of hip-hop dance. When there is no rehearsal, just pure freestyle. Imagining I am a rapper, but I rap with my moves. Cause I do not trust my voice, but I trust my moves. I simply love to listen music through my headphones and dream how I will get down for the audience. I feel a good connection of the song artist Kev Brown, his music always was in my playlists.
Tiblisi, Georgia
34 years old, professional ballet dancer, Born in Tbilisi, Georgia. Began her classical training at the age of 10, at Tbilisi V. chabukiani State School of Ballet. 2002-2004 studied at The Boston Ballet School ( Boston, MA, U.S.A) with full scholarship, and a Sydelle Gomberg scholarship recipient.
2004-2005 studied at The Joffrey Ballet School, (New York, NY, U.S.A).
2005-2008 joined Pennsylvania Ballet, (Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A. Artistic director Roy Kaiser) as a corps de ballet member.
2008-2011 joined State Ballet Of Georgia,( Tbilisi, Georgia. Artistic director Nina Ananiashvili) as a corps de ballet member.
2011 up to now is working with a georgian choreographer Mariam Aleksidze at the Rustaveli National Theatre, (Tbilisi, Georgia). Scince 2016 is a principal dancer at Girogi Aleksidze Tbilisi Contemporary Ballet (Artistic director-Mariam Aleksidze).
Has participated in numerous classical and contemporary/modern ballets, workshops and dance projects, such as musicals and mini theatrical choreography shows as well.
Since 2015, Natia Bunturi has also been staging choreographic performances in contemporary ballet. Scince 2016, she has been Guesting for Sosani Dance Theatre, Regenburgh, Gemrmany for projects: “5 Statione”(2016), “Sculpture in Motione”(2017), “Code”(2019).
In 2016, Natia Bunturi became a lead soloist at Giorgi Aleksidze Tbilisi Contemporary Ballet and had been performing leading roles for the company up until now.
Alongside dancing she stages choreography for drama theatre such as:
Two tales from:
“The knight in the panther’s skin”
Director: Paata Tsikolia.
Tbilisi New Drama Festival
G. Eristavi Theatre, “Change”, Director: David Chkhartishvili.
K. Gamsakhurdia Sokhumi Drama Theatre,
“Troy-The lost paradise”.
Director: Gamze Tarnivermish.
Iliauni Theatre,
“Magical box”. Director: Kakhaber Shartava.
Along with her main line of activities, Natia Bunturi works in various fields as a dancer, TV host and film actress and a photo model
This is a choreographical miniature solo, created by the dancer herself. The piece is based on a famous Georgian female quartet “Ishkhneli Sisters” legendary music, which was formed in 1918 and performed traditional Georgian music during Soviet era. The original music has been recomposed to embient by a National Orchesta trumpet player and an electronic musician George Shamanauri, especially for the choreographical piece. The title and the narative of the work consists in the idea of ones iternal light, shining inside the human, into the very depth of soul, which is a salvation in the dark and a constant hope for redemption.
Tiblisi, Georgia
I am Michel Zakaidze, actor, Performer and musician. My relationship with movement started in my early years when I started to study Georgian National dancing. After finishing school I applied in Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film University on pantomime faculty and soon after that I started working at theatre. While being a student I was performing in Georgian State Pantomime Theatre because I always liked to act with my body and emotions in silence and under some kinds of music.
During the 4 years I gained enough knowledge to continue my career in Movement Theatre, in which I’m working now. Today besides acting I am also a dance tutor. I am head actor in movement theatre and I perform in 18 performances. Dancing on a stage somehow became my second home, but lack of resourses doesn’t let me go forward. I am musician aswell. I make music for theatrical performances, also I am a DJ.
I am looking for something new. I want to release my emotions and strength to create something special. I want to share my feelings with people, get closer to them, look in their eyes and destroy walls they have built to hide.
Stockholm, Sweden
Cilia Herrmann is working in the field of dance. She is intrigued by the transformation of space, both, in a physical way, working with scenography, and in a social-political way, working with literature. Choreography is a tool for her to observe and shape transformation. Bodies are landscapes on which this transformation gets inwritten.
