“Knīpas and knaukė” explores emotions. Children will be taught to recognize their feelings in a playful performance / Article

“Knīpas and knaukė” explores emotions. In a playful performance, children will be taught to recognize their feelings

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Visitors to the performance “Researchers of Emotions” will have the opportunity to participate in the performance together with the children of the vocal studio. In this adventure, children will learn to recognize emotions, understand and feel them. The director of the performance, Inga Cipe, reveals: “Actually, this will be a pilot show, because we will try out how the concept works for us. Because every emotion will be played out in some way – we will have to get involved a little bit. Will we have to create something, or will we have to sing along, or will we have to dance , will we have to guess a riddle? It won’t be a passive show where you watch part of the artist’s concert and that’s all, it will be about acting and thinking. I would even say that it is a little bit more serious and complicated than we are used to perceiving children’s shows on a daily basis.”

The concert performance “Explorers of Emotions” tells the story of a curious girl Emma and a brave boy Lukka, who travel together and get to know the 12 planets of emotions: joy, anger, happiness, sadness, shyness, friendliness, fear, peace, excitement, gratitude, envy and love. The performance is mainly intended for children of preschool and school age, but it is also possible to watch it for the smallest listeners and spectators together with their parents. The director Inga Cipe is convinced that this is a performance with added value: “The mental burden is getting heavier and heavier and the person is less able to cope with it. If abroad, it was already being talked about 4, 5 years ago, before Covid, it was already a topic in many countries , then for us this Covid situation made it much more glorious, and we are where we are right now. It is the last moment to understand our emotions, our moods, how to deal with it. It turns out that psychologists are already working with it from the age of a small child.”

This show was also created with the help of various specialists. The author of the idea of ​​the performance is Edīte Putniņa, a teacher of “Klusuma skolas”. Doctor psychotherapist Laura Valaine also helped implement the idea. The performance was actively developed in the last months, since the epidemiological restrictions eased in the spring. But the vocal group “Knīpas un knauķi” learned the musical repertoire already for its anniversary concert, but a lot of work had to be invested in learning the choreography, says the artistic director and choreographer Sanita Sējāne: “We did the last dance together with the children and I realized that the nicest thing is to talk directly to talk with them, how do they feel this emotion best and what helps them to open up, or vice versa – curl up and disappear. To be alone. It turned out to be a wonderful process for us, basically we made that dance together. But there were dances that I made also alone and more choreographically, making more children dance and move. But there were dances where we only put in some specific elements, a specific action.”

The premiere of the concert performance will be on July 3 in Sigulda. Still this summer, “Knīpas and knauķi” will also go to Cēsis, Jūrmala and Tērveti with a performance. However, the performance will not end with the summer – the creators promise to present the concert performance more actively in the fall.

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