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Aura invites children to explore the microscopic world through butoh movement
🇱🇹 Lithuania /Culture & Society

Aura invites children to explore the microscopic world through butoh movement

From Delfi · () Lithuanian

Translated from Lithuanian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources New plan
  • Aura dance theater and Okarukas will premiere Mikro/Makro in Vilnius on September 6 and offer creative movement workshops.
  • The production uses Japanese butoh-inspired movement, insect imagery and allegory to explore nature’s fragility, beauty and mystery.
  • Recommended for children aged five and older, the performance combines dance, changing light, electronic music, costumes and video projections.

A child’s curiosity about insects inspired Mikro/Makro, a new dance performance that brings Japanese butoh movement to a young audience. The production will premiere in Vilnius on September 6, alongside creative movement workshops organized by Kaunas dance theater Aura and Okarukas.

I could no longer sleep, so I got up and made sketches and notes. In the morning, I looked at them and there was the whole plot of a performance about the insect world.

— Inga Fontez, known as SakurakoShe described how the idea for Mikro/Makro emerged during a sleepless night.

Its choreographer is Inga Fontez, known in the art world as Sakurako, a name meaning “cherry blossom girl.” Now living in France, she had never created a work for children before. She said a sleepless night filled with images of insects led her to sketch and write notes. By morning, she had the outline of a performance about the insect world.

The production follows a caterpillar as it becomes a cocoon and then a colorful butterfly. Through that transformation, it considers the cycles of life and the connection between death and life. Sakurako says the performance does not divide nature into beautiful and ugly or good and bad. Children, she says, accept this reality naturally and vividly.

Some people find insects ugly, but to me and my daughter they are beautiful and incredibly interesting.

— Inga Fontez, known as SakurakoShe explained her fascination with the insect world and the subject’s appeal for children.

Mikro/Makro is recommended for children from age five, not because it contains frightening material, but because its images are powerful and absorbing. Vilius Vilutis created lighting that shifts from bright colors to darkness resembling a spider’s burrow. Neringa Keršulytė designed the scenery and costumes, while Phil Von composed the electronic score and Rimas Sakalauskas created the video projections.

In the performance, as in butoh philosophy, we do not divide things into beautiful and ugly, good and bad.

— Inga Fontez, known as SakurakoShe described the production’s approach to nature and existence.

Sakurako chose the Aura dance theater ensemble for the physically demanding work, which includes acrobatic elements. The production presents butoh through images of insects and invites children to examine nature’s fragility, beauty and secrets, as well as humanity’s place and time on Earth.

I needed the highest-level professionals. The performance demanded a great deal of physical ability, including acrobatic tricks.

— Inga Fontez, known as SakurakoShe explained why she chose the dancers of Kaunas’s Aura dance theater.
About this summary

Originally published by Delfi in Lithuanian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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