TANTSULAVASTUSED - Eesti Tantsuagentuur

DANCEMENU

DanceMENU (TantsuMENÜÜ under Estonian Dance Agency) is Estonian dance touring programme for rural communities. The purpose of DanceMENU is to bring dance to a new audience outside of the usual dance stages.

Supported by: Ministry of Culture, Estonian Cultural Capital, Pakenditööstus

The SPARSE (Supporting and Promoting Arts in Rural Settlements in Europe, in Estonia TantsuMENÜÜ) network has undergone an exciting development in recent months, with which we want to achieve the goals of SPARSE, funded by the European Union's Creative Europe program, i.e. to create a permanently functioning performing arts touring network in rural areas of Europe. The first eight partners and associate partners who have been working together through SPARSE for the past four years have understood the importance of raising and promoting a pan-European profile and have involved new partners in their activities.

The goals of SPARSE and DanceMENU are:

expand the presence of rural tourism networks in partner countries,
develop and share good operating practices with each other,
increase the knowledge of (dance) artists and colleagues in the cultural sector about tours in rural areas,
find resources to support the performance activities of rural areas,
advocate for access to quality professional performing arts in rural areas.

Estonian Dance Agency has been selected for the second time among the recipients of the Perform Europe grant.

Perform Europe has selected 42 innovative performing arts projects for 2024-2025, involving 196 partner organizations across Europe. As part of the "Bringing Family Theater to Villages Across Europe" project of the Estonian Dance Agency and Italy, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, productions from Lithuania, Poland and Germany will go on tour in small venues across rural communities. ETA is the leading partner of the project. In the spring of 2025, the German dance production "Chiffonade" will be performed at TantsuMENÜÜ (DanceMENU) with the support of Perform Europe.

Perform Europe is a program funded by Creative Europe, which aims to support and develop the field of performing arts in Europe. The program focuses primarily on organizing tours, trying to make them more environmentally sustainable, inclusive and diverse, and within this framework events take place in all Creative Europe member states.

The Estonian Dance Agency was also among the recipients of Perform Europe's support in 2021, when the Moroccan-French open-air dance production "Routine" came to the audience in Elva and Rakvere.

Perform Europe is implemented by a consortium of six organisations: IETM – International network for contemporary performing arts, European Festivals Association (EFA), Circostrada, European Dance Development Network, Pearle * – Live Performance Europe and IDEA Consult.

Read more about the project "Bringing Family Theater to Villages Across Europe" HERE.

Dance Performance “Rhythmus”

Rhythmus is a tap dance and rhythm performance that shows the special aspects of tap dance. Rhythmus is bringing to the stage references from the performances of legendary tap dancers a hundred years ago, but also looking for something new – we see tap as a moving and energetic dance, but we also hear it as a musical style.

The performance looks at this through two characters, one with an anxiety disorder and the other with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). How do they manage to keep their disorders under control and help each other overcome difficulties through music and dance?

Director-choreographer: Allar Valge
Choreographer: Veronika Smolina
Dancers: Allar Valge, Matthew James Jordan / Veronika Smolina
Dramaturg: Erik Richard Salumäe
Sound design: Kärt Anton
Stenography assistant: Nele Sooväli
Graphic design: Kadi Aare
Production and technical implementation: Estonian Dance Agency

Duration: 50 min

Premiere: September 16, 2023 in the theater hall of the Estonian Dance Agency

DanceMENU (TantsuMENÜÜ under Estonian Dance Agency) is Estonian dance touring programme for rural communities. The purpose of DanceMENU is to bring dance to a new audience outside of the usual dance stages.

Supported by: Ministry of Culture, Estonian Cultural Endowment, Estonian Centre of Folk Culture, Pakenditööstus, SPARSE Plus, Creative Europe

Koolitantsu Kompanii / Estonian Youth Dance Company

“Failing/Falling”

Six young dancers explore questions about falling and failure. How do we fall and how or can we always be ready to fall? How do we get back up and how do we develop the flexibility to land sustainably and cope with falling (down)? What are the factors that increase the probability of failure and what coping mechanisms alleviate the distress associated with failure? Do the high expectations we set for ourselves help us reach our goals or do they prevent us from reaching them? What is conscious landing? Is the goal to be ready to fall or not to be afraid of falling at all?

If I fall, who will catch me?

Choreographer: Eliisa Sirelpuu

Dancers and fallers: Anett Leesment, Kadi Krikmann, Kelli Katriin Krünvald, Mirt Marleen Pevkur, Saara Lotta Krusell, Ööle Lilleorg

Costume design: Karmen Teesi Pregel

Light design: Priidu Adlas

Music: Jon Hopkins – Open Eye Signal – Happa remix
Grandbrothers – Bloodflow
Ben Laver – HYMN
Perra for Cuva – Her Entrance

The School Dance Festival (Festival Koolitants) is organized by the Estonian Dance Agency.

Supported by: Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Estonia, The Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Pakenditööstus

Premiere: April 2 Festival School Dance 2023 at the regional dance day in the Pärnu Concert Hall

koolitants.ee

Koolitantsu Kompanii (Estonian Youth Dance Company) is an Estonian youth dance company that brings together talented young dancers who are studying in different dance schools. The company offers the opportunity to learn about the profession of a dance artist under the guidance of recognized and talented choreographers. The first Koolitantsu Kompanii production premiered in 2015, and so far twelve dance productions have been created both in theater halls and on Rakvere Vallimäe (rampart), as well as a dance film. Estonian choreographers who have directed Koolitantsu Kompanii: Maarja Pruuli, Kadi Aare, Ruslan Stepanov, Argo Liik, Olga Privis, Kaja Lindal, Eliisa Sirelpuu, etc.

Festival Koolitants (School Dance Festival) is Estonia's largest annual dance festival of all time, which brings together thousands of children and young dancers from all over Estonia every year with new original dances and productions. Koolitants was founded in 1994. The biggest purpose of Koolitants (The School Dance Festival) is to highlight the dance education of children and young people and to focus on special artistic nature and moments.

Dance performance “Care”
Helena Krinal & United Dancers of Zuga

Director and choreographer: Helena Krinal
Dancers: Ajjar Ausma, Helen Reitsnik, Tiina Mölder
Composer: Liis Ring
Designer: Marta Konovalov
Lighting Designer: Reelika Palk
Graphic Design: Kadi Aare
Production and technical implementation: Eesti Tantsuagentuur (Estonian Dance Agency)
Duration: 50 minutes

Premiere: September 21, 2024 at the Estonian Dance Agency Theater Hall (Hobujaama 12, Tallinn)

Throughout our lives, we all care for someone or are cared for. Sometimes it’s so hard, taking care of someone. And then it’s so hard when no one needs our care anymore. Not to mention how hard it is to give yourself into someone else’s care. And despite all this, there is so much love in caring, providing care, and being cared for. Love that elevates us and offers redemption for past mistakes. Care carries us through life, from birth to death.

The dance performance “Care” focuses on how difficult, easy, depressing, and uplifting it is to care for someone else.

The collaboration between Zuga and Helena Krinal, which started by chance, turned out to be so interesting and enriching for both parties that they have now been researching and creating together for six years and have reached their third performance – “Care”. Previously, they created “Noise” (2019) and “Shame” (2021). “Noise” was nominated for the Estonian Theatre Award in the dance performance category in 2020.

Helena Krinal is an Estonian-Palestinian artist who is interested in the physical exploration of being human, recreating and expressing behavioral situations through physical sensation in a performative context. The goal is not to demonstrate these mechanisms (whether it’s shame, guilt, or insecurity), moralize, or illustrate anything, but to physically transmit this physical feeling to the audience.

Zuga United Dancers is an association of dancers and choreographers that has been active since 1999. They have been invited to perform in many countries and have received several theater and dance awards for their work over the years.

Performances at the Estonian Dance Agency Theater Hall (Hobujaama 12, Tallinn):
01.12.2024 at 6pm
02.12.2024 at 12pm

Tickets fienta.com

Supported by: Ministry of Culture, Estonian Cultural Endowment, Estonian Centre of Folk Culture, Pakenditööstus, SPARSE Plus, Creative Europe

Led by the Estonian Dance Agency and local cultural organizers, TantsuMENÜÜ brings dance performances all over Estonia.

www.tantsumenüü.ee

,,Soledad’’ or ,,Loneliness’’ is a piece about the freedom that being alone gives us, but also about the barriers that we have to build between ourselves and the others. Being free inside our delimited space, we still have to face ourselves in its most direct and rawest form. Isolation in its duality could at the same time be calming and making us anxious, it could be a refuge or a motive for escaping it. Being a (flamenco) artist and spending hours upon hours alone, working on every small movement detail or sound, one also has to face their own doubts and fears. All this trouble just to later meet with other artists like themselves, enjoy and create together for a moment onstage and then disperse and go back to their familiar loneliness. But what makes some of us stay in isolation permanently?

,,Soledad’’ is a meeting place for flamenco culture and contemporary dance. Musicians from Spain, Canada and Estonia with a local flamenco dancer move through various stages and emotions created by loneliness.

Director, choreographer and performer: Ingrid Mugu

Dramaturgical consultant: Heili Lindepuu (ILIEH theater)

Musical design: Tjebbe Broek, Dennis Duffin, Indira Aparici Alcazar

Musicians: Dennis Duffin (flamenco and electric guitar), Indira Aparici Alcazar (vocals), Aneta Varts (percussion)

Stenography: Nele Sooväli

Lighting design: Chris Kirsimäe

Duration: 50 min

Supported by: Ministry of Culture, Estonian Cultural Endowment, Estonian Centre of Folk Culture, Pakenditööstus, SPARSE Plus, Creative Europe

Choreographer Igor Lider's dance performance "Change" invites the viewer into the exciting world of street dance. Dedicated to hip-hop culture since childhood, four male dancers bring their years of experience to the stage. Their encounter with theater and contemporary dance space creates a new and extraordinary change.

Multi-level, modern and eloquent.

Igor Lider is a choreographer, dancer and musician who has been active as a creator for almost twenty-five years. Igor's great love is street dancing, which has taken him to podium places at many festivals and competitions. As a choreographer, he has worked with several musicians and directed dance films.

Alexander Makarov is a dancer, dance teacher and choreographer from Valga, Estonia. Alexander has been dancing for more than twenty years, and his strengths are hip-hop and popping. He has participated in several street dance competitions and won first place.

Edgar Budza is a street dancer, choreographer and competition judge. Edgar has participated in many festivals both in Europe and Russia. In recent years, she has worked as a dance teacher.

Valerii Zaichenko is a dancer and dance teacher from Luhansk, Ukraine. As a creator, Valerii always tries to create something new, without forgetting the basic principles of dance, which is why he is very good at freestyle. He is also the winner of many street dance competitions.

Kalver Kaseorg is a dance teacher, choreographer and dancer from Tartu. He started his dance path with hip-hop freestyle and has now also reached the top of street dance choreographers in Estonia. In addition to teaching, his life also consists of amazing collaborations with artists and in the television.

Director: Igor Lider

Choreographers and dancers: Igor Lider, Alexander Makarov, Edgar Budza, Valerii Zaichenko

Dramaturg: Ruslan Stepanov

Sound design: Igor Lider

Light design: Elerin Tönne

Photo and video team: Anastasiia Lider, Sofia Kusainova, Artur Kriuk

Graphic design: Kadi Aare

Production and technical implementation: Estonian Dance Agency

Premiere: March 3, 2023 in the theater hall of the Estonian Dance Agency (Hobujaama 12, Tallinn)

Duration: 1h

Supported by: Ministry of Culture, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Pakenditööstus

www.tantsuagentuur.ee

CONTACT

Estonian Dance Agency theatre hall address:
SA Eesti Tantsuagentuur
Hobujaama 12, 10117 Tallinn

General contact: info@tantsuagentuur.ee

Artistic director of the dance theatre programme: Raido Bergstein

Starlight Cabaret artistic director: Liisi Org

TantsuRUUM curator: Joanna Kalm, Eline Selgis

Creative Council: Raido Bergstein, Kristjan Kurm, Jane Miller-Pärnamägi