April is not only the month of jazz – we will celebrate the International Jazz Day on April 30 – but the Day of Dance is also approaching, and with it – the Dance Award, which will take place on April 29 in the Riga Circus. The director of the ceremony is Paula Pļavniece, and her assistant is a dance and theater artist Rudolph Gediņš, with whom we meet in “Classic” in a broader conversation.
Liene Yakovleva: In general, we have many awards: “Great Kristaps”, “Gambler’s Night”, the Great Music Award. In your view, what is the importance and weight of the Dance Award? Maybe it’s just slowly showing itself?
Rudolph Gediņš: I personally have such ambivalent feelings about this award. I remember the moment when the idea of creating such an award arose, which meant the separation of contemporary dance from “Night of Gamblers”. It seemed strange to me and I didn’t really support it at the time. But right now, it’s very important that this industry, which is so multifaceted, has its own professional award where this genre can shine. Because it is clear that in “Night of Gamblers” combining theater with dance, the dance will be secondary in any case. The dance award honors contemporary dance, classical dance, scenic folk dance and modern dance – they are absolutely different worlds, so it is important that once in two years people get together, see each other and rub shoulders, if only by force. It is probably too early to judge whether this award will become an event worthy of Latvian cultural canon, as this is only the third time, considering that it takes place once every two years.
You are also among the nominees with the show “Very good minutes”, which was an important event for both you and the whole team.
The play “I’m going out, in the garden”, which is our most recent performance, has also been nominated.
Elina and I talked about how it seems so strange that “Very good minutes” is nominated, because it seems so long ago! We don’t show this show anymore: not only because we are in the final stages of expecting a baby and it would not be safe and necessary, but it would also be some kind of time lag –
not in a bad way, but in the sense of getting back to where we were thinking about this show, about how people think about it or see it.
The spectrum of events nominated for the Dance Award is so huge and so diverse that I don’t even know how to put it all together: from the stage of the Latvian National Opera and Ballet to Mežapark.
In the context of the award, we have decided to conceptually push for the connection of genres, even if we are talking about the specifics of the space where this award will be presented: it will be the Riga Circus Arena, which is a circle, and the circle is generally considered the ideal shape to which we all strive. And then, somehow, we will try to round the corners of the quadrilateral of the dance genre and end up in a circle. Everything that happens will be about meeting. The presenters of the Dance Award will be the laureates of the previous Dance Award – representatives of all four genres will be continuously on stage: in classical dance it is Elsa Leimane, in contemporary dance – Krišjānis and Ieva Santi, in scenic folk dance – Lilija Lipora and Ilmārs Dreļs. In the modern dance it was Andrzej Začinaev, who unfortunately will not be there if he is not in Latvia at the moment, but in his place will be Ruslans Levchenko-Gladins, whom Andrzej has delegated in his place.
About meeting them and not meeting them: from where did you become a dancer yourself? “Amber”, “Uguntiņa”, ballet school?
It started in the dance collective “Auseklītis” of the Riga French Lyceum, and probably its leader Iveta Pētersone is a little bit to blame for the fact that I ended up there: I started dancing folk dances in the first grade and dabbled in all kinds of other movement things. But I think that in general my ending up in dance is an absolute coincidence: just because I was a more coordinated child than average and I had to be put somewhere – and why not in dance? I liked it myself and it turned out well, and that’s how I made a bit of a career.
And at what point did the contemporary direction appear in your work?
It is related to the legendary play “The sun rose from the sword”, created by Agris Danilēvičs.
At that time, I was a dancer of “Auseklīša”, and somehow during this whole process, the guys of “Auseklīša” became friends with the girls of “Dzirna”. I started to spend time with the millers, it seemed – oh, then you can do something too! I was partially pushed into the contemporary dance: the wonderful dance artist Rūta Nordmane had heard that I flirted and said – I should go to [Kultūras] academy!
And on the day of the entrance exam for the choreographer’s program, she called me. At that time I had finished the 11th grade, it was summer, but Ruta calls me and reminds me… And says: “Oh, I’ll call Olga [Žitluhinai]maybe you can make it!” So she pushed me a little inside. I thought – well, then I have to try. And then I kind of fell in love with those choreographers.
And quite deep! (..) But contemporary dance is really the term we most often use in relation to you. But it is also probably so fluid. Do you think contemporary dance has limits, can it go wide, deep, high? Maybe those things are still very difficult to define?
I think it has absolutely no boundaries, and it’s not definable either… But that’s how I think about any genre of art, whether it’s movement theater or fine art. Genres are something invented by people – how we each define our activity for ourselves. If we talk specifically about contemporary dance,
we can take four different artists who represent one genre and are at least classmates. For example, Kristīne Brīniņa, Liene Grava and Krišjānis Sants. These three people are united by education, generation, even genre, but they do absolutely different things. It does not fit in one pocket. Therefore, it seems to me that it is absolutely necessary to do as you want!
We are currently making a show about zombies in “Kvadrifron”. And why not make a show about zombies? If the actors don’t speak the text – does it become a dance performance at that point? I doubt it. You choose something you want to do and you just do it, and that addition of genres is absolutely a synthetic thing. It is clear that it needs to be done, especially when talking about awards – to be able to [kādu] award, you need to define what it is, to divide it into categories, or maybe in general – in which award category to put it: whether it will go to “Gamer’s Night” or to the Dance Award. In recent years, we have started applying everything everywhere.
What determines the great diversity, even in the colleagues you mentioned, who are so different: or personality? Because the school is already one.
It is absolutely a personal interest – what interests you. And you understand that only with time.
I can say the best about myself: I graduated from the Academy of Culture at a “young age” as a choreographer, for two years I kind of wandered around and didn’t understand what I was doing. And then I realized that the theater is where I want to be, and I joined the directors. And obviously, my performance in the dance is also affected at that moment. It all kind of changes and becomes not a genre, but what I do.
The same is true for Liene, Krish or Kristine. That’s what they do. When they start the process of producing a new show, they definitely don’t define the genre that it will be. For example, in this show I want to walk and sing. Or lay bricks. Or fly. And you find it interesting because it fits what you want to say. And you do it. This is purely a personal interest.
And the handwriting can also change after some time.
Yes, it would even be desirable.
More – in the post.
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