From November 11–15, Vilnius will be filled with the energy of dance, music and creativity as the international hip-hop dance and culture festival “Urban Essentials” takes over the city. The programme features high-energy dance battles, creative discussions and seminars with international dancers and choreographers, DJ performances, and two world premieres of street dance performances in Lithuania. Events will take place across various venues in Vilnius.
“Urban Essentials” – a space to meet and celebrate hip-hop culture
This year, “Urban Essentials” takes place in a special context: the festival is part of “Būti tarp. Su. Kintant.” (“Being Between. With. Changing.”), the 15th anniversary programme of Vilnius City Dance Theatre “Low Air”. Over the past 15 years, “Low Air” has grown out of street dance culture into an organisation that brings together performing arts, dance education and international cultural collaboration. “Urban Essentials” is a continuation of this story – a place where hip-hop dance, culture and community meet.
Laurynas Žakevičius, festival director and co-founder of Vilnius City Dance Theatre “Low Air”, says that when he was “just” a breaker, his first ambition was to create an environment for himself – a platform for professional self-realisation where he could dance himself, and later, when he could no longer compete athletically, continue to dance in other ways. This is how “Low Air” theatre and school came about, together with the desire and need to organise events and festivals.
“Today, the body of knowledge and experience we have accumulated is so extensive that I see more opportunities than I can personally make use of. That is why, together with the team, we want “Urban Essentials” to develop as an environment of possibilities. Being part of hip-hop culture and practising different forms of creativity, it is important for a creator to see as broad a field of possibilities as possible. That is the only way we can avoid migrating into other fields with the feeling that ‘I’ve outgrown this’. Although that can happen too – and that is OK.
Even now, the festival brings together dancers, cultural managers, communications professionals, videographers, photographers, designers, DJs, musicians, technical professionals, venues and theatres, food providers, television, media, educational institutions, international professionals, families and many others. We are open to all possibilities for collaboration,” says Laurynas Žakevičius.
€4,000 prize pool for the dance battles
On November 13–14, dance battles will bring together more than 200 dancers from more than 10 countries around the world. Participants will compete in hip-hop, breaking, house and funk dance categories, with MC Beep and a secret guest keeping the energy high.
This year’s festival DJs include Lucas Benjamin (the Netherlands), returning to “Urban Essentials” for the third time, Mab’ish (France/Belgium) and KhanFu (UK). The battles will be judged by an international panel: Rachad (Togo/Belgium), Suzanne Degennaro (France/Italy) and Amir Zakirov (Kazakhstan).
Registration for the dance battles is open until November 11. Participants will compete for a €4,000 prize pool and gifts from festival partners, while audiences will have the opportunity to experience internationally recognised dancers up close. This year’s festival also introduces a new special prize established by BRITE drinks: “Brightest Duo”.
“Every festival partnership is special to us. When developing the concept of “Brightest Duo”, we immediately thought about the power and importance of a duo – or, in other words, partnership. For us, “Low Air” and “BRITE” represent sustainability, trust and collaboration in the search for the brightest result. This is what every dance battle participant strives for, and what we strive for as an organisation. At the same time, we understand that the journey of organising an event can also have its ‘darkest’ moments, and these are what teach us. I hope examples of partnerships like this spark creativity and encourage new ones,” says Laurynas Žakevičius.
Four international dance performances on stage
The stage programme presents four distinct dance worlds, ranging from waacking to house. The festival opens on November 11 with an evening of two performances: Amir Zakirov’s “IT AM” and Suzanne Degennaro’s solo work “LIMBO”, arriving in Vilnius after its world premiere in France.
Inspired by the waacking dance style, “LIMBO” explores the state of being “in between”. It reveals the experiences of intersex people, fragmented relationships with gender, the feeling of being at odds with oneself, and the sense of a drifting generation. Suzanne Degennaro explores the boundaries of a fluid identity, as well as the intersections of gender and bodily memory.
In his solo performance “IT AM”, Amir Zakirov turns conventional perceptions of the body upside down: he wears a self-made suit inside out, a mask featuring his own face on the back of his head, and specially designed shoes worn backwards. The familiar body becomes alien, while the inverted character embodies the darker side of the human psyche. The performance becomes an ongoing struggle between the true self and its darker side.
On November 12, Austrian choreographer Olivia Mitterhuemer and Potpourri Dance bring their house dance performance “LOOP” to Vilnius following its world premiere in Salzburg. Four dancers enter an uninterrupted cycle of movement in which choreography emerges only through moving together. The performance is inspired by the collective practice of house dance, its movement vocabulary and geometric structures.
The festival closes on November 15 with German choreographer Jonas Frey’s “GROOVE”, which explores the intersections of contemporary choreography, club and street dance, music and pop culture. In the performance, collective memory is amplified through familiar movements and recognisable music, with particular attention paid to each individual’s personal rhythm.
A space for learning and connecting
The festival programme invites audiences and professionals to deepen their understanding of hip-hop dance as a multicultural form of movement expression, while creating, reflecting and connecting through the practices of both academic and non-academic communities.
On November 12, the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre will host a Hip-Hop Symposium, inviting participants to look at dance not only as movement, but also as a constantly changing reflection of our culture. The symposium is free of charge, but registration is required. On November 15, workshops with the festival’s dance battle judges will take place at the “Low Air” Dance School.
“Today, we encounter hip-hop and urban dance in the streets, on social media, in music videos and on stage. But what happens to these practices when their environment, context and audience change? Through artistic practices, we explore what dance gains and what it loses along these journeys. Perhaps these transformations tell us not only about dance itself, but also about us: about how what we see on screens, in the streets or on stage shapes our taste, our movement and our understanding of what feels familiar, authentic or valuable to us,” says festival organiser, symposium curator, co-founder of Vilnius City Dance Theatre “Low Air” and LMTA doctoral researcher Airida Gudaitė.
Festival events will take place at Lukiškės Prison 2.0, Arts Printing House, the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, and the “Low Air” Dance School.
The full programme is available at urbanessentials.lt.
Tickets are available via Bilietai.lt.
The festival is partially funded by the Vilnius City Municipality and the Lithuanian Council for Culture.