Modern Jazz Dance Performance "LOVE"

Yesterday, on 14 March, in the small hall of Dailes Theatre, music and the movement of dance intertwined for one hour of performance. The concert consisted of two parts: in the first, one could listen to four songs by the band Martin Confused; in the second, watch the performance "LOVE" with choreography by Līga Liberte, performed by nine dancers. The latter was an attempt to portray the feeling of love in its most elevated, divine expression. The show's description spoke not of love between two people, a man and a woman, but of love for God, for the divine within oneself - "Love is art... art is beauty... beauty is the true flight of the soul... the flight of the soul is truth... truth is what we believe, faith... I believe in love...".

Unlike a staging of a classical work or its interpretation, a modern performance - especially a world premiere - allows each audience member, distancing themselves from critics' assessments, the opinions of dance technique professionals, even the intentions of the show's creators themselves, to find for themselves, to hear and see the note that feels close and resonant. So, in a few words, the emotional backdrop this performance created within me.
From the very first dance, to Sigur Rós's music "Ti Ki", the following visual picture arose and did not fade throughout the entire performance: summer rain in the city eating at the asphalt, an outdoor café with an awning, where at the tables couples, solitary souls, the loved, the abandoned, the grief-broken, those filled with the joy of life and closeness - different people with different destinies. I - a bystander.

Bodies interweave, hurried steps pass by, endlessly past through puddles, glances that casually notice nothing. Am I alone in this city, in this world, or is there always someone watching over me? Some inner force, some light that allows the chrysalis to be reborn as a butterfly. That too can be called God. When you have found it within yourself, fallen in love with yourself, then you can lift your eyes to another and fall in love with God in the other person. Butterflies are drawn to the light, people to love.

I thank You, God, that I met them on this dusty road! Now love like a refreshing rain washes away all worries, and the heaviness in the chest is replaced by light. That is what the wind sings of, what the resonant voice of a Romani woman sings of.

But it is not so easy to keep love, to keep God within oneself. A black hole strives to pull one into the whirl of indifference, selfish thoughts, and haste, haste, haste. Steps past along the street, past through puddles, past, past. Would anyone notice if a table in this café were suddenly left empty, if no one sat there anymore?

But light protects, warms within the chest, and the butterflies fly up into the sky.

The performance lasted about 30 minutes; by the end it felt as though one could listen and watch more and more. A taste of too little. The plasticity of the dancers' bodies was admirable; the choice of music was also pleasing. The choreography is built as a fusion of individual dances within the group dance, each person with their own movement that complements the other's performance. Everything was viewed as a whole, not as an individual experience or feeling. Perhaps that is also well, because concentrating only on the individual and their inner monologue creates blinkers against what is happening around one. In any case, a person interacts within society, and only in contact with others can love for one's neighbour find outward expression.