INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL PŪGA | 2023

The winter season dance festival PŪGA invites all dance lovers and beyond to come together for the biggest celebration of the year.

On 28-30th of December, a three-day festival will take place in Vilnius’ cultural hotspot – the Arts Printing House, which will delight not only with Lithuanian dance premieres, practical dance workshops and classes, a party in one of the most beautiful venues – the Opera Social House, or a dance battles, but also with a performance by guests from Iceland.

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PROGRAM. December 28-30th:

28 December, 18:00, Arts Printing House (Pocket Hall)
 2IN1: SPECIAL DANCE CLASS/PARTY
Low Air invites you to a special dance class which feels like a party – where you will feel relaxed and at the same time you can learn some street dance moves from real dance professionals.

> FREE. Registration below.

28 December, 19:00, Arts Printing House (Black Hall)
VISUAL DANCE PERFORMANCE “GAME OVER”
“It’s a joke, but we are immortal” – Julio Cortazar
When visiting the grave of Julio Cortazar, one of the most famous Argentine writers of the 20th century, it is a tradition to leave a glass of wine and a piece of paper on which a game of “classes” is drawn. Inspired by this tradition and the author’s rules for playing with the imagination, Low Air presents an innovative performance combining dance and visual art. The visual dance performance “Game Over” takes dreams and analyses how they could be explained in real life. The performance is full of symbols and codes, which the audience, together with the creative team, will try to decipher.

> TICKETS: press here

28 December, 20:30, Arts Printing House (Pocket Hall)
IMPROSESSION + OPENING PARTY
The first day of the festival will end with a dance improvisation session, bringing everyone together to move to the rhythm of dance. The term “improvisation”, often used in the dance community, will be the main focus of the evening – in this session, movement will be created in the “here and now”, listening to the DJ, observing the environment and each other.

> FREE. Registration below.

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29 December, 18:00 and 20:30, Arts Printing House (Pocket Hall)
PREMIERE: DANCE PERFORMANCE “SAPNUOJANTI GRAŽUOLĖ”
“Sapnuojanti gražuolė” is a contemporary dance performance based on Charles Perrault’s fairy tale The Sleeping Beauty and its predecessor Giambattista Basile’s The Sun, the Moon and Thalia. These two tales are used to create an autonomous dream space that is not described in either of them. Vaiva Paukštė, together with the creative team of the performance, explores the relationship between gender and narrative. The creators aim to change the point of view from the external, male gaze to the inner experience of the sleeping beauty, her dream reality, thus destroying the image of the fictional “woman”.

*After the performance there will be an after-talk with the creative team.

> TICKETS  18:00: press here 

> TICKETS 20:30: press here

Coproduced by: LMTA

29 December, 19:30, Art Printing House (Black Hall)
DANCE PERFORMANCE “WAITING FOR A DANCE” (ICELAND)
Waiting for a Dance will invite the audience to indulge in an intimate moment of anticipation. What does one experience in a state of waiting? If we wait together, can we experience the desire for change together? The unfolding of the performance time through repetition and nothingness increases the expectation that something will happen. Perhaps something we don’t know how (…) This soundscape was created by the choreographer Yelena Arakelow herself and is her first sound piece. It is based on field recordings made with Yelena’s iPhone. The field recordings were made during moments of waiting in Reykjavik, Westman Islands (Iceland), Riga and Vangai (Latvia).

*After the performance there will be an after-talk with the creative team.

> TICKETS: press here

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30 December, 12:00. Low Air Dance School
CONTEMPORARY DANCE WORKSHOP WITH YELENA ARAKELOW (Iceland)
Yelena Arakelow is a Swiss-born choreographer, dancer and artist, living and working in Reykjavik, Iceland since 2015. In 2018 she graduated from the Icelandic University of the Arts with a BA in Contemporary Dance. She is currently a member of the Reykjavik-based collective Improv for Dance Enthusiasts, working with the North Atlantic Island Dance Network to increase the sustainability of dance in the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Iceland, and studying for her Master’s degree in dance at the Oslo National Academy of Arts.

> PAYMENT: 10 EUR (cash or card payment at Low Air Dance School before the workshop)

> REGISTRATION: Below.

30 December, 18:00, Art Printing House (Black Hall)
PREMIERE: INTERACTIVE DANCE PERFORMANCE ” TRUTH OR DARE”
The present tense of the dance performance is a dialogue between the past and the future. Is it possible to win a game where the aim is to see the untruth in one’s truth? Or is the answer not in the struggle but in the dialogue? We know only one thing: it will certainly take courage to make such a move. Truth or Dare is a well-known game that everyone is invited to play. The rules of the game are simple: dare to confront the rules of the game-drawing or let someone else decide for you what is your truth? But does dare always mean truth? Or is truth >< dare? We are all pawns in this global game, constantly moving through space like a game board to be on the right side at the end of our game.

*After the performance there will be an after-talk with the creative team.

> TICKETS: press here

30 December, 20:00, Opera Social House
WHAT’S YOUR FLOW: ALL-STYLES DANCE BATTLES + PARTY
The festival will close with an all-styles dance battles, where dancers will fill the space with their authentic fLow movement, using different dance styles. They will improvise and reveal the techniques of different street dance styles.

All festival guests and dancers are invited to the PŪGA closing party.

> FREE FOR THE AUDIENCE

> REQUIRED REGISTRATION FOR PARTICIPANTS: coming soon

> PARTICIPANT’S ENTRY FEE/DONATION: 5 Eur (cash payment at the entrance)

(The collected money goes to the winner of the evening’s battles and the DJ)

REGISTRATION