INTERGENERATIONAL INCLUSIVE PERFORMANCE

LUSTOPIA is a diverse intergenerational and inclusive performance on the themes of lust and utopia, co-produced by the choreographers Airida Gudaitė and Laurynas Žakevičius, from the Vilnius city dance theatre and urban dance company LOW AIR in Vilnius, Lithuania, and the contemporary choreographer Silke Z. from Cologne, Germany.

The project brings together six dancers from Lithuania and Germany who differ in age, generation, body–mind diversity and dance biography.

Individually and as a collective, the six dancers follow the temptations of moments of pleasure and create utopian visions of an individual and shared lust. The result is a visually rich performance that plays with pleasure, obscenity and intimacy and reveals realities far beyond the polished mainstream. 

In search of a joyful freedom, the performers transform themselves again and again, exploring different stages of pleasure with great physical intensity and forming visible and invisible alliances with each other and with the audience. 

LUSTOPIA is a sensual celebration of pleasure that touches gently on categories such as age, gender and disability, but never allows them to become a normative order.

INFORMATION

Artistic Director: Silke Z.
Choreography: Silke Z., Laurynas Žakevičius, Airida Gudaitė
Dancers: Caroline Simon, Hanna Held, David Winking, Grėtė Vosyliūtė, Dmitrijus Andrušanecas, Darius Strankevičius
Light and stage design: Garlef Kessler
Music & sound design: Liam Giles, Laurynas Žakevičius
Costumes: Melina Jusczyk
Management: Hanna Held
Organisation: Rica Hellige
Assistant: Franziska Nagel

Premiere:  2024

The production and dissemination of the performance was partly financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Vilnius City Municipality. The dance performance was also supported by the NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste, Kulturamt der Stadt Köln, Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Das nrw landesbuero tanz e. V. Partners of the dance performance are the mental health arts festival “Ryšiai” and the initiative of the Mental Health Ambassadors “Žvelk giliau”. The organiser of the Mental Health Ambassadors project is the Institute of Hygiene. Source of funding – Ministry of Health of the Republic of Lithuania.

REVIEWS

“What goes down in these times is lust. The desire for life, the desire for another person, no matter who he is. The lightning beam that drives into the soul when you look into another person’s eyes, the blatant desire for what triggers in you more than the mere, already happy feeling of soul kinship. <…> It was necessary to answer whether desire was “bound to certain characteristics such as age, gender, body or disability”. Yes, whether “shame and insecurities caused by gender attribution, age or disability” would stand in the way of a lust utopia.”

Michael S. Zerban, O – Ton, 2023-10-29

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“Contexts and time were on my mind a lot in the premiere of Lustopia by Laurynas Žakevičius and Airida Gudaitė / “Low Air” and Silke Z. / “Die Metabolisten”. Here, six dancers of different ages and physical conditions – Caroline Simon, Hanna Held, David Winking, Grete Vosyliūtė, Dmitrijs Andrušanecas and Darius Stankevičius – created, according to the authors, a utopia of fusion. One of the main themes that emerges is lust. Are we capable of lusting after the “other” body? But… do we have to lust after everyone? <…> Upon entering the venue, the audience is greeted by the liberated space of the Black Hall of the Arts Printing House. There are three cubes made of body parts made of photographic walls, into which, as in an immersive exhibition, one can stick one’s hand through the cavities. Although at first you don’t expect anything, when you touch the skin, you are not surprised, because we are here to talk, to think, to see, and – why not – to touch the body. Our touch is controlled by the dancers, you avoid the feeling of discomfort – it seems you are just saying hello.”

Sigita Ivaškaitė, Menų faktūra, 2024-10-01

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“Low Air’s latest performance Lustopia is a beautiful postcard against social inequalities between genders, physiques and ages. This becomes evident as soon as the performance begins, when six different dancers appear on stage: two young and middle-aged women, a larger-built, older man and a man with Down’s syndrome. They emerge from cubes constructed from four interlocking photodrobes, close-ups of patches of uneven human skin.” 

Greta Vilnelė, 7md, 2024-10-11

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