2025 01 16  – 03 02  Exhibited at Ceramic Art Pavilion (Respublikos g. 3)

Opening January 16, 5 p.m.

The artist presents a series of photographs and objects to capture the delicate art of ballet, suspending the moment of the dance, allowing the viewer to see and feel the exhilarating rush, the illusion of music frozen in motion, and the physical exertion of dancers.

The works in the exhibition reflect the everyday life of the students of the Ballet Department of the National Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis school of arts. The choice to look behind the scenes of ballet reflects the hard daily work necessary to achieve the impression of lightness and ephemerality of dance on stage. Vaiva Abromaitytė, who works in a variety of artistic media, seeks to develop a holistic expression of the body and movement in her „flesh and matter” photographs. In them, it is as if you are reading the French philosopher Deleuze’s sayings about „the fold” and the complexity of man, nature and the universe. The artist emphasises a distinctive visual language, where the play between the void, the body and the material, light and shadow is of exceptional aesthetic importance.

For Vaiva, creating art is a constant state of process and continuity. The life-size photographs in the exhibition gaze at the audience and radiate a diverse spectrum of energy of dance. The traditional elegance, splendour and beauty of the art of ballet unfold in classical photographic formats that capture the everyday life of ballet. Sometimes the dancers pose candidly, sometimes they reveal the perfect beauty of the silhouettes of classical ballet that have been honed over the years, or they immerse themselves in the element of movement, capturing the vibrations of the body and the soul in a microsecond, in which an exciting connection between the performer and the viewer is forged. This is the moment where the wonder of dance is born, and it is a stimulus to relive it over and over again, on the stage, in dreams and in memories.

The exhibition is dedicated to the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Lithuanian Ballet and the 80th anniversary of the founding of the National Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis school of arts (NČMM). The Ballet Department of the NČMM was established in 1952 as the Choreography Department of the then Vilnius Ten-Year Music School – a centre for the training of professional Lithuanian ballet dancers, a fosterer of the traditions of this field of art and a guarantor of the continuity of its practice.

Children with a talent for dance, previously educated in the ballet studio attached to the Lithuanian State Opera and Ballet Theatre (LNOBT), began to learn the art of ballet in a systematic and consistent way thanks to the efforts of choreographer Vytautas Grivicks (1925-1990) and other ballet artists, and gradually emerged as a successors to the older generations of ballet artists. The Ballet Department has been headed by Henrikas Kunavičius (1925-2012), Lili Navickytė – Ramanauskienė (1933-2021), Jolanta Vymerytė (1965-2022), Edvardas Smalakys (b. 1968), Petras Skirmantas (b. 1957), Lina Puodžiukaitė – Lanauskienė (b. 1981). Since 2016, the head of the Ballet Department is Eligijus Butkus (b. 1979), the principal of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, a multi-time laureate of the Golden Stage Cross, the laureate of the „Opera Lighthouse”, Jurgis Žalkauskas, Konstantinas Stasys awards.

Over 70 years, many soloists and artists have been trained, without whom the development of Lithuanian ballet is unimaginable. They have danced and continue to dance on the stages of Lithuanian and foreign theatres, who, having become choreographers, have encouraged and continue to inspire others to dream and to rise above the everyday. Most of the soloists, after their stage careers, have become teachers in the Ballet Department and are passing on their accumulated knowledge and experience to the future generations of Lithuanian ballet artists.

In the photos dancing are Ballet Department students Adelija, Akvilė, Deivydas, Gabija, leva, Jogailė, Jokūbas, Jonas, Kostas, Leila, Milda, Mykolas, Nojus, Nojus, Nojus, Nora, Nora, Paloma, Paulina, Robertas, Saulė, Sergejus, Tėja, Timotiejus, Vasara, Vasarė.

Organizer – National Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis school of arts, Principal of the school – Dainius Numgaudis. Partner – Panevėžys Civic Art Gallery.

Curators – Eligijus Butkus, Giedrė Zaščižinskaitė.

Graphic designer – Evelina Dragūnienė.

Assistants – Aistė Dragūnaitė, Liepa Gradauskaitė.