Visaginas festival: returning famous Visaginians, theater, dance, cinema, jazz, street and other arts | Culture

In addition to the highest-level artistic program, the goal of this festival every year is to bring famous Visaginians from all over the world back to their hometown, even if only for a short time, who have something to share. This year there are even four of them: the long-awaited Alina Orlova is finally coming with her band, Skaistė Bareckaitė (DJ SKAI), who DJs on the most mysterious stages of Copenhagen, , LNOBT ballet soloist Voicech Žuromskas and the first drummer of Noize MC group Andrejus Pichas.

The first composition of the Noize MC group is with a drummer from Visaginas

After the start of the war in Ukraine, Noize MC moved with his family from Russia to Vilnius, created the song “Strana doždej” (“Land of Rain”) and wrote on his Facebook wall: “Our very first drummer Andrejs Pich from Visaginas told me about 20 years ago years, as the words “rain” and Lithuania translate.

Photo of the organizers/Dainius Putinas “Low Air”

This group was created by the three of us – me, Sania Kisly and him. in 2004 Andrei graduated from our university, moved out of the dormitory and went home. We were surprised – everyone in our circle was hanging on to Moscow, but he took it and returned. Now Lithuania is also my home. I fell in love with Vilnius with all my heart.” In just three days, the clip was viewed almost 800 thousand times on the Internet.

August 3 after a 20-year break, the group Noize MC will reunite, this time in Visaginas, with their first drummer, Andrej Pichus.

Before this concert, the citizens of Visagin will again be delighted by the vertical dance on the wall of a five-story residential building, which received good reviews last year – this time the performance of this genre will be organized by Inga Briazkalovaitė from Klaipėda.

Alina Orlova from Visaginia and the roots of American music

July 30 after many years, Alina Orlova comes to her hometown with joy: “I’m excited to meet my hometown and I’m happy to have the opportunity to perform my music program here today. Next to my beloved lake, together with musicians Ada Gecevičius and Paulius Vaškas, we promise to create a sensual and atmospheric evening. We invite everyone who loves sensitive and poetic music to join our musical journey”.

Photo of the organizers/Alina Orlova

Henry Herbert (USA), a piano phenomenon from the USA, will also perform on the same day. One of the most sought-after blues and boogie artists in the world. Having started playing at the age of four, he released his first CD at the age of twelve. And soon he collaborated with the legendary “Rolling Stones” keyboardist Chuck Leavell, performed for the royal family of Monaco, appeared on David Letterman’s TV show, where he made the audience gasp in amazement due to his astonishingly virtuosic, energetic performance. He has organized a series of public instrument concerts at public transport stations, earning more than 100 million YouTube views.

French acrobatic performance at a height of 6 meters

August 2 after the opening of the Visaginas Museum, a performance by one of the most famous French circus troupes, Rhizome, will be shown in the amphitheater of the Atgimimo gymnasium located next to it. Standing at a height of 6 meters above the ground, the acrobat Fanny Austry will attract the attention of the audience, creating a hybrid of the ephemeral calmness of hanging in the air and the somewhat jerky dynamic of risky dance.

Balancing on an ideogram-like sculptural structure, the artist will share with us a moment suspended beyond time, accompanied by a rich and impactful, electrifying score by composer Marielle Chatain. The rhythm of the world will not stop for a second – neither on the ground nor in the air.

A Finnish play about stuck dogmas

The famous Finnish director of the young generation, Kauris Honkakoskis, will reveal his personal lived experience of the cult in the careful ensemble work “The Desk” about the seductive power of discipline, hierarchy, mind control and the search for the ultimate truth.

Organizers’ photo/”The Desk”

Praised by audiences and critics alike for their mastery of physical expression, the Finnish troupe will reveal the universal mechanics of power in political and spiritual cults. You can expect sharp, strong and poignant ensemble work.

Discoveries of dance and theater: 4 radically different dancers and mono-performance N-33

Dancer Marius Pinigis, who appeared at the festival last year, is coming back in a different way – on July 31. he will take part in the dance and live music performance “Seasons of the Year” – this is the first joint work of two Klaipėda art groups, the Šeikos Dance Theater and the cello quartet led by Mindaugas Bačkaus.

The different seasons and elements are embodied here by each of the unique and impressive performers with a very different expression and plasticity: the aristocratic ballerina Beata Molytė, the theater shaman Benas Šarka, the mime actor Aleksas Mažonas, and one of the strongest modern dance dancers of his generation, Marius Pinigis.

Choreographer Agnija Šeiko managed to skillfully strengthen the cooperation of these personalities on stage, giving them enough freedom of expression. In this way, an unexpected harmony of dance and music performers of different performers is created on the stage.

Organizers’ photo/”Bleu tenace”

Immediately after “Times of the Year” we will dive into the theater – Justus Tertelis’ mono-performance “PRAeis”. If you have always been curious about how actors learn so much text, how actors not only “enter” but also “exit” a role, what it feels like to play a “good” play – actor, playwright, director Justas Tertelis in his one-man show engaging and easy reveals those behind the scenes of today’s theater world. The creator states that this play is only for audiences aged 33 and over, which is a bit of self-irony, as he feels that this is a work for people who know the previous theater contexts as well. Of course, younger people are also welcome.

News of A. Vasiljevas and the Visaginas ballet project

The festival program also includes an exhibition of stage costumes from the Alexander Vasiliev Foundation, a luminary of historical costumes. In it, citizens of Visaginas will be able to familiarize themselves with the costumes worn by French and Lithuanian stage personalities in various plays or performances in the collection of the famous fashion connoisseur.

Photo by Eglė Sabaliauskaitė/”Metu laikai”

With this exhibition on the same evening in the “Draugystės” hall, the news of the Visaginas ballet project – two duets, which are united by the fact that the male performers in both are from Visaginas – will be in perfect harmony. The ballet soloist of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater, Voicech Žuromskas, will dance together with the Armenian choreographer Rima Pipoyan, who already appeared at the festival last year, and Vitalijs Grabovas will dance with the Klaipėda dancer Laura Geraščenko.

“DJ class” format, never seen in Lithuania, with a versatile DJ

This summer, an unprecedented format started in Visaginas – the project “DJ class” – a creative dance music creation laboratory, where two professional DJs from very different contexts share their knowledge and experience – interdisciplinary art creator Eglė Gudonytė and dance music virtuoso Skaistė Bareckaitė from Visaginas.

August 3 after the main concert, you will be able to hear the results – 9 newly trained DJs from Visaginas will play their short programs, and after them DJ SKAI (Skaistė Bareckaitė) from Visaginas, who has been playing regularly on the Copenhagen music scene for the past few years, and this summer also performed in Vilnius, will reveal herself in full volume.

The festival program also includes highlights of street art: an outdoor urban performance by the Vilnius dance theater “Low Air”, the opening of the Visaginas “graffiti” wall. Also – a sunset with the famous Latvian jazz trio “Elpo”. And “Scanoramas vasara” is one of our most important In the country, the film festival dissemination project, aimed at popularizing European cinema, will return to Visaginas.

Based on close cooperation with representatives of local culture and art, the project invites viewers to “small festivals” and, together with the citizens, creates unique film programs for the city where it is implemented. From July 29 until August 2 nightly movie screenings at VKC cinema “Draugystė” will allow you to look at European cinema from different angles.