Go, move and do! How choreographer Ieva Adāviča and “Sadancis” are preparing for the Dance Festival / Article

The rehearsal of the dance collective “Sadancis” is underway, and a meeting with its former leader Ieva Adāvičs has been arranged here, even if it’s only a name the former this time it is not really appropriate, because Ieva is still very often with her friends in rehearsals. The new outfits for the boys are also being tried on, and while Ieva and the seamstresses are looking at what else to adjust, the dancers Baiba Stikāne and Oskars Brasliņš respond to the call for a conversation.

When asked how it is to prepare for the holidays now, after two years of the pandemic, Baiba Stikāne answers: “You have to do more than maybe other times when preparing for the holidays, because those two years have taken their toll. But, I think, on the other hand , it’s that you want to throw yourself into it with a different energy, at least for me, because it hadn’t been that long at all and right now it’s the first season when we resume working and operating normally, the holiday will be like a beautiful adventure.”

He is complemented by Oskars Brasliņš:

“Actually, those years when you sat at home and couldn’t do anything were very, very terrible, and there was such a breakdown emotionally, and the very jerky nature of the rehearsals – that hit back any desire to go, move and do.

I myself still thought several times if I need it or if I need to start again, but in any case, I have that dancer and I have that drive and I want to do it, but there is a lot delayed, a lot. And at the very beginning, when we returned to the season without restrictions, you could also feel that you have no energy, you have no motivation.

But this season is like that again – we are moving forward with full power, we see the great goal, which is the Song and Dance Festival.”

Choreographer Ieva Adāviču’s dancers recognize her as strict, but Stikāne emphasizes: “A good leader must be strict, because that’s the only way to achieve some kind of result! My years with Ieva have been very beautiful, very active.” Brasliņš says that those were very valuable years: “You can learn a lot from Ieva, both in your life and from dance. Maybe it sounds harsh, but that firm hand is very, very necessary if you have higher goals. And Ieva is the person who tells you what emotions you have to put into the dance, and that gives a lot to the dancer, you know what you have to bring out, what you have to show the audience.”

Ieva Adāviča might already be on a well-deserved rest, and she has also left her duties as a leader, but she is still with the dancers. “We don’t let her disappear completely, no, no, no,” explains Stikāne. Braslins does not hide:

“Those moments when Ieva is with us are less frequent, but in any case, when she comes, you immediately understand that you have to straighten your back, you have a completely different smile on your face and there is a completely different dedication to the dance when Ieva is present. ”

Ieva Adāviča will be the Honorary Chief Conductor of the Dance Festival. When asked how the preparation for the festival is going and what it requires from the team leader after these two years of covid, Ieva Adāviča reveals: “More tension than for the dancers, because you are already responsible for those people, you are responsible for their satisfaction as well, not only work alone. The composition has changed a lot, next to those who know how to dance very well, there are those who can’t dance at all. In the first year, we have those who have not danced, and this is due to the pandemic, because all the time, every fall, high school stop, go to Riga. Nowadays, there are rarely young people who can afford to go to rehearsals twice a week, which is a very expensive pleasure. Well, we lost about nine dancers, now almost all of them dance in Riga, and no one came during the pandemic years This year, in the fall, it was almost like this for us – to be or not to be, but now we have the composition and we are dancing.”

The choreographer admits that there is a great lack of boys and men in dance collectives: “Perhaps there are more collectives than the human resources who want to do it. Not everyone wants to dance. If he has not danced in his childhood and does not have that love in him, then it is already quite difficult is to start in the older years. And there were years when there were more people in Latvia, including in the villages, now there are simply fewer of them. I looked at an old program – in Burtnieki there was a youth dance group, a middle generation dance group, a mixed choir and a brass band. In one village! And who is there now? None of them. For the moment, if there is not some core of the collective, where there are at least six stable couples, then it is impossible to gather a new collective at the moment. [..] A lot of people work in two workplaces, a lot of people work 12 hours a day, there are some of them here too, they come exhausted, they stand for a while with their eyes closed, but he has come, he doesn’t accept anything anymore, but he is has come So, look, it’s a little bit harder to dance with it these days.”

When asked whether the new generation, which is more used to computers and mobile phones, joins collectives, Adāviča answers:

“If he has danced with a good leader at a young age, that love is already instilled in him, it is not only a love of dance, there is also music at the same time, there he develops a sense of rhythm, develops posture.

They then know where to put their hands when, say, he has to present himself when entering university, he can go out in front of a large hall, host an evening and so on. Millenium generation, those who are immersed in computers, they practically stay there, they don’t understand what it gives.”

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Adāviča has been dancing for 54 years: “The beginning was “Gauja”, there was already the Folk Dance Ensemble, I came, it was already the name of the ensemble. After “Gauja” there was Smiltene, a collective where completely new people met and after three years there was already ensemble. I worked in Smiltene for 32 years, then I kind of decided that I should end my career, I was just that old – 62 years old, that’s all, that’s enough. But there was no leader here, young people came and danced by themselves for a whole year. What kind of dancing is that? Their hearts hurt a little, because once they had been a good team, their eyes shone so extremely, they wanted to dance so extremely, you can’t say no, that’s how I stayed.”

Adāviča says that every year she becomes softer, but admits that this is bad: “Just as students like strict teachers, so dancers need a strict leader, they need demands and with uķ-uķ-ū nothing can be done. Because a person is already lazy by nature, you have to encourage him all the time, because the result must be there, so that you can look at it.

I do not accept that anyone can go on stage. If you go on stage, you are raised above others, and you have to learn more than the person sitting in the hall.”

One of Adāviča’s dancers expressed in the conversation that the choreographer teaches how to put thought into the dance, to which Adāviča retorts: “Well, that’s the most important thing, no one comes just to jump anymore! I’ve done a lot of concerts abroad, in Latvia you can still understand, let’s say, by music and songs words, but still the main thing is to bring out what the dance is about, that’s the most important thing. The steps, that’s the primary thing, you have to learn them, it’s a technical thing, but the main thing is to bring out what the dance is about. I’ve been to Germany, performed concerts In Heidelberg, in the gymnasium, where all the teachers were very scared, because for them those young people are so attractive, so uncollected, how would they accept us at all, we were the same young people in return, I was very scared, what would happen, maybe they would start whistling, maybe something will throw, maybe go out… No one went out, they understood what it was about, what message each dance carries. That’s the main thing we’re trying to achieve.”

Adāviča admits that new choreographers enter more safely, but the first festival also presents challenges: “It’s not that everyone starts as a genius. No one starts as a genius, they learn little by little. This contribution is very big, dances are created. The biggest misfortune for us is that music is missing, there is no individual composer as there once was [Gunārs] Ordelovskis, who specially created music and decorations for dance groups. The young ones are such a hard nut to crack, but the dances are made a lot and I’m happy for them.”

In April, the choreographer will be presented with an award for her lifetime contribution to dance, Adāviča says about her sense of satisfaction: “I think that award could just as well have been given to all managers who have worked for a long time, for example, Uldis Šteins, Olga Freiberga, there are many of them. May they even after a year that award is coming!only best wishes for me, i don’t feel like i’m superior or better than others. [..]

I think I have learned a lot from my dancers.

A person has to learn all his life, I am very happy that I can still learn, today I learned another dance, and it gives me great satisfaction, because I like the learning process and the learning process is with each composition, because it is different with each member have to work. And the fact that you’re standing in a big concert… I’ve had in France that we’re giving a concert and the audience is standing up, and you see the dancers are standing, they have to stand on the stage, they’re sweating, he can’t stop the sweat because he standing on the stage, then I am satisfied that I have done something.”