Elmyra Ragimova is a contemporary dance teacher, professional dancer, and choreographer. She danced in her school’s dance troupe from a young age and discovered contemporary dance in her upper-grade years, in Sigita Juraškaitė’s classes. Once she became interested in contemporary dance, she began actively participating in workshops and seminars—each year she improved her skills at the summer intensive organized by Dance.lt, attended Gaga workshops with Natalia Iwaniec, and took part in performance-based practices with contemporary dance performer and performance artist Goda Žukauskaitė. In 2017, she enrolled at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater to deepen her knowledge of dance. During her studies, she improved not only her dance technique but also her improvisational skills, explored various approaches to creative work, and dove into other artistic disciplines—acting and singing. She also studied dance pedagogy and completed part of her studies at the Iceland University of the Arts.
Since 2021, Elmyra has been leading movement classes at the Old Theater in Vilnius; in 2021–2022, she worked as a dance teacher at the “Universitetas mažiemus” preschool. She has worked and continues to work with various Lithuanian and international choreographers, including Aira Naginevičiūtė, Birutė Banevičiūtė, Vyčius Jankauskas, Agnietė Lisičkinaitė, Paulius Prievelis, Lukas Karvelis, Willi Dorner, Simon-Beyer Pedersen, Heli Pippiskold, and others.
In 2021, she joined the DANSEMA dance theater, participating in the creative-educational project “The Creation of the World According to Children.” The project has been and continues to be carried out in various cities across Lithuania, including with children with developmental disabilities. In 2022, Elmyra was invited to dance in Agnietė Lisičkinaitė’s interactive dance performance for teenagers, #NEWGEN, with which she has toured and continues to tour various schools across Lithuania. Currently, Elmyra is interested in participating in interdisciplinary projects—she recently joined the creation of a techno-opera with the international collective INФOPSIN, collaborated with the duo Eye Gymnastics (Gailė Griciūtė and Viktorija Damerell), and has participated in the Vilnius Performance Art Biennial, as well as in performances created by artists Pontus Petterson and Eye Gymnastics. She has worked with Ukrainian artists Sandro Garibashvili and Maria Koreneva, performing a role in the dance film “Tell Me – Де Ти,” which reflects on the war in Ukraine.
THREE KEY EVENTS:
– The courage to attend a contemporary dance class. I felt uneasy about leaving the group where I had danced for a long time, but which no longer aligned with my interests. With the support of my brother and friends, I attended Sigita Juraškaitė’s contemporary dance class. After a few classes, it became clear that this was where I belonged.
– Dance studies at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater.
– Involvement in the activities of the Dansema Dance Theater. The creative and educational methods used by Birutė Banevičiūtė greatly expanded my knowledge of working with children and inspired me to continue working with them.
