Baltic Ballet Theater (BBT) contemporary ballet performance. With holographic video installation.
Director/Choreographer – Marija Simona Šimulynaitė
Set Design – Erlandas Smolskas
Music – Bjork, and electronic music
Video Installation – Denis Astah, Kristijonas Norkus
Lighting Designer – Mantas Bartusevičius
Dancers – Evelina Fokina, Pijus Ožalas
Contemporary ballet performance called “Army of Solitude” featuring holographic video installations set to the music of Bjork and electronic music. The main idea of the performance is that “a person is born alone, dies alone, comes and goes alone, everything that happens along their life’s path is ‘on the way.’ Inside, we all have an endless amount of psychedelia, which sleeps, and if awakened, we all would understand how important it is to live for oneself, without exhausting ourselves for the sake of others. Just as you were, so too will you remain someone’s hitchhiker on the way.”
The performance portrays emotions that were highlighted during the pandemic, when each of us had a huge struggle with our inner “loneliness army,” trying to resist ourselves and our thoughts’ “fronts.”
During the dance, two people are seen, reflecting one person’s inner struggle with themselves, their desires, longings, addictions, and other phenomena that attack us when we are in a moment of weakness. Loneliness is one of the scariest emotions, evoking mystical, surrealistic images, but in the end, we realize that loneliness is also freedom.
The performance features the impressive music of Bjork, which inspired the choreographer Marija Simona Šimulynaitė to delve into this theme in the dance project. The use of holographic video projections enhances the impact of the dancer’s movements, aiming to create an organically fused motion with the expanded emotional and mental palette. The uniqueness of holograms in dance theater reveals entirely different optical aspects. Usually, we are accustomed to seeing the performer and the image of the installation behind them; here, the artist will be amidst the projection, interacting with it as if performing the functions of continuity with the projection, costume, and movement.
