Premiere of short films dedicated to the centenary of the Latvian National Ballet
On Sunday, November 20, at 16:00, on the occasion of the final screening of the “Cinema and Ballet” program, “Before the Curtain”, the premieres of five short films will take place in the New Hall of the Latvian National Opera.
Directors Katrīna Neiburga, Ineta Sipunova, Juris Pakalniņš, Uģis Olte and Ivars Zviedris have made short films dedicated to the centenary of the Latvian National Ballet. Both ballet splendor and everyday life are clothed in five visual landscapes, paying particular attention to the body and psychological world of the ballet artist.
PROGRAM
“Shoulders down, hips up” / director Katrīna Neiburga
The idea for the short film was born during an open conversation with the dancer Anna Lauder, who revealed to the director on a pleasant summer evening in Miķeļtorni that when she looked in the mirror she was never satisfied with what she saw. The director was looking at one of the most beautiful and graceful people she knows about her, but it turned out that the profession of a dancer makes her seriously question herself and strongly criticize herself all her life. Body and ballet, dream and nightmare is a very interesting topic in this age of body positivity.
“Ballet. The law of energy and permanence”/ director Ineta Sipunova
What happens when the viewer’s gaze meets the movement of the dancers in the scenic space? Physics examines the issue of conservation of energy. Energy does not disappear or recreate, it just changes from one form of energy to another or moves from one body to another. The informational-emotional charge generated by the music and the content-emotional mood given to the performance is transferred to the viewer. The spectator also arrives with his charge and an exchange takes place. It is a perpetual circle that keeps the viewer coming back again and again to encounter this exchange. And so for more than five hundred years in the world and now for one hundred years in Latvia.
“Behind” / director Juris Pakalniņš
A film about what happens behind “Swan Lake”.
“Behind the curtain”/ director Ivars Zviedris
Before the curtain falls, the dancers’ nerves and muscles are perfectly tuned for the dance, like a musical instrument. The dancers’ thoughts connect with their bodies to relive the story of the great 20th-century ballet Vaclav Nijinsky. Julia Brauer lives this story in a special way.
“Aust”/ director Uģis Olte
The film is made as a surreal and imaginative cinematic painting, reproducing the eternal cycle of alternation of light and dark in the Latvian summer landscape, using the dancers of the Latvian National Ballet and the choreography created by Elsa Leimane as the main means of expression. There is no dialogue in the film, the whole message is created with visual and musical storytelling techniques only.
The culmination of the centenary of the Latvian National Ballet will be on December 1, when a brilliant concert will be held on the Big Stage. An exhibition dedicated to the centenary of the ballet is on display at the Latvian Museum of Photography until 27 November. At the end of November, the volume dedicated to the centenary of the Latvian National Ballet “A century or a moment?” will be released.
Film Screening Trailer:
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