On 21 October the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will mark the centenary of the Liepāja Ballet, culminating in a new collaboration with Elza Leimane, Latvia’s greatest ballet dancer, and musician Reinis Sējāns. Performing together, their work “Crow. Flight in One Act” at the Great Amber Concert Hall in Liepāja will strike with an never-before-seen, symphonic scale.
“Dance was a much older tradition in Liepāja, but 1923 is the year that we can attribute to the beginning of the professional ballet troupe. Over the years, ballet in Liepāja has grown greatly and many of the greatest Latvian and foreign ballet dancers and choreographers have performed here,” says Uldis Lipskis, Director of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra.
“We will celebrate the centenary of Liepāja Professional Ballet on 21 October with a number of exciting events, topped by the performance “Crow. Flight in One Act”. To make it even more beautiful, we thought of having an excellent opportunity to present the ballet sketches by the artist Dace Dēliņa-Lipska in the foyer of the second floor of the Great Amber Concert Hall. Orests Silabriedis will deliver us a lecture on the history of ballet in Liepāja, featured by visual ballet performances from students of the Liepāja Ballet and Dance Studio led by Ingrīda Žizņevska, her training also inspired soloists of the Latvian National Ballet,” says Uldis Lipskis.
The highlight of the celebration will be Reinis Sējāns and Latvian National Ballet’s leading soloist and choreographer Elza Leimane’s collaborative work "Crow. Flight in One Act", premiered in autumn 2016 at the New Hall of the Latvian National Opera.
“This time I will be joined on stage by four other soloists from the Latvian National Ballet because crows live in flocks. The powerful presence of the orchestra and the space itself is extremely inspiring – the Great Hall of the "Great Amber" is not a typical classical ballet stage, but thinking about the Crows, this space is very stimulating and challenging. There are some aspects that need to be reconsidered and worked on,” says Elza Leimane, whose dance career traces her to Liepāja, where her teacher Sarmīte Jakse premiered her most striking role "Giselle" at Liepāja Theatre. She then passed the role on to Elza Leimane, who won the Annual National Theatre Award for it on the stage of the Liepāja Theatre.
“Embodying the crow, bringing it into movement and exploring the possibilities of this character brings me great creative joy and true inspiration. “In "Crow" I can move with the concepts of precision and freedom like nowhere else in my creative work. It has moments where I let myself improvise, moments where I have to be precise and moments where I just surrender to the flow of the scene. And Reinis (Sējāns) is our wind – where else could we have a more vibrant wind than in Liepāja!"
“Crow. Flight in One Act” is a story about man and not about a crow – about the inner struggle of the human being, about the ugliness in the beauty and the beauty in the ugliness, about approaching the danger and rediscovering yourself. The crow as a symbol, as an exceptionally intelligent and beautiful bird, helps us to tell this story in such a way that everyone can find themselves in it.
Tickets for Liepāja Symphony Orchestra concerts are available at "Biļešu Paradīze" site: https://www.bilesuparadize.lv/lv/organizer/50
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