Elmyra
Teacher ContemporaryElmyra Ragimova is a contemporary dance teacher, professional dance performer. She has been dancing in the school dance group since she was a little girl, but discovered contemporary dance in the older classes of Sigita Juraškaitė. After becoming interested in contemporary dance, she started to actively participate in trainings and seminars – every year she improved her skills in the summer intensive organised by Dance.lt, attended Gaga seminars with Natalia Iwaniec, took part in performative practices with the contemporary dance performer and performance artist Goda Žukauskaite. In 2017, she enrolled at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre to further her dance knowledge. During her studies, she deepened not only her dance technique, but also her improvisational skills, explored various approaches to creative work, and touched upon other artistic disciplines – acting and singing. She also studied dance pedagogy, and part of her studies at the Icelandic University of the Arts.
Since 2021 Elmyra has been teaching movement classes at the Vilnius Old Theatre, and from 2021-2022 she worked as a dance teacher at the kindergarten “Universitetas maziemus”. She has worked and continues to work with various Lithuanian and foreign choreographers.
In 2021 he joined the dance theatre DANSEMA and took part in the creative-educational project “The Creation of the World by Children”. The project was and still is carried out in different cities of Lithuania, also with children with developmental disorders. In 2022, Elmyra was invited to dance in Agnietė Lisičkinaitė’s interactive dance performance for teenagers #NEWGEN, with which she has travelled and continues to travel to different schools in Lithuania. Elmyra is currently interested in joining interdisciplinary projects – she has recently joined the techno-opera making process with the international collective NФOPSIN, collaborated with the duo Eye Gymnastics (Gailė Griciūtė and Viktorija Damerell), participated in the Vilnius Performance Art Biennial, and participated in performances by artists Pontus Petterson and Eye Gymnastics. She has worked with Ukrainian artists Sandro Garibashvili and Maria Koreneva in the dance film “Tell Me – Де Ти”, reflecting on the war in Ukraine.
THREE KEY EVENTS:
-The courage to come to a contemporary dance class. It was unsafe to leave a company I had danced with for a long time, but which no longer matched my interests. With the support of my brother and friends, I came to Sigita Juraškaitė’s contemporary dance class. After a few classes, it became clear that this is where I belong.
-Dance studies at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.
-Joining the Dansema dance theatre. Birutė Banevičiūtė’s creative and educational methods have greatly expanded my knowledge about working with children and inspired me to continue working with them.