TOGETHER ALONE
The dance performance by two B-Boys Laurynas Zakevicius (Lau) and Rokas Saltenis (Rukus) is constructed as a dialogue with another, but in essence with oneself. While studying the movements and flow of Breaking, juxtaposing them with the Lithuanian folk dance, a physical, tangible form is sought for the spreading of the male or a dancer’s identity. By becoming each other’s mirror images, in today’s bustle of norms, prejudices, and stereotypes, one tries to turn back to oneself, firmness in sensitivity, sense of self in alteration or other, in a duality.
“Together Alone” is an artistic research of the canons of identity in hip-hop dance, inviting artists and audiences to explore breaking as a performing art form. The performance is an opportunity to reflect on the concept of a world without borders, using the links between cultures to rethink topics of migration in art and cultural forms. The Western masculinist dance, Breaking, is juxtaposed and connected with the movement codes of the pair dance existing in the Lithuanian folk dance heritage. Artists ask: what kind of men are we, what does this dance talk about when we go on stage and what is it like when we participate in dance battles, and sports competitions, such as the Olympics?
Discourses of appropriation and homogeneity are raised, which also touch on the ethical issues of the use of images. Creative explorations of this field of art and the stories of its origin invite mutual dialogue beyond the performance.
INFORMATION
Idea, concept author: Airida Gudaitė
Choreography: Rokas Šaltenis, Laurynas Žakevičius, Airida Gudaitė
Performers: Rokas Šaltenis, Laurynas Žakevičius
Composers: Agnés M & Marta Finkelštein
Lighting designer: Eugenijus Sabaliauskas
Lighting operator: Edgaras Varkulevičius
Costume designers: Rūta Kyguolytė, Asami Imanishi
Recenzijos
“Vienudu” is still just the beginning of the work, a twenty-minute sketch; a duet of two dancers – Žakevičius and Šaltenis – stunning in their nakedness, openness and commitment to vulnerability. It seems as if all the norms of the contemporary world dissolve between the dancers as soon as they step on the dance floor – walking in a circle in front of each other, they start the dance with an open gaze, the beginnings of a real connection. The dancers move like mirror reflections of each other, holding hands, doing breakdance and sometimes even folk dance steps, not shying away from smiling if dancing together is simply good. Especially the breakdance reveals itself here as a particularly flexible and sensitive dance.
Aistė Šivytė, Menų faktūra, 2023-07-10
Laurynas Žakevičius and Rokas Šaltenis from Lithuanian hip-hop dance theatre company Low Air showed an excerpt from their duet Vienudu. Shaven-headed in simple white shirts, as matched as alter egos, each circles the other, pacing the perimeter of their space, reaching across with a handshake grip, or building a rotational moment of low jumps and skids – eyes locked on the other’s eyes all the while. The air between the two is alive, with the ambivalence of two men staying face to face.
Sanjoy Roy, On record, 2024-02-11
TOURS
International Street Art Festival SPOT (excerpt from the performance), Vilnius, Lithuania, 2023
Tauragė – Lithuanian Capital of Culture’23 (excerpt from the performance), Tauragė, Lithuania, 2023
International Dance Festival PALMA DANSA (excerpt from the performance), Mallorca, Spain, 2023
International Contemporary Dance Festival „Pėdos” (excerpt from the performance), Anykščiai, Lithuania, 2024
Visaginas Spaces Festival (excerpt from the performance), Visaginas, Lithuania, 2024
Lithuanian Season in France, Nice, France, 2024