Creative movement laboratory in Šančiai (Kaunas, Lithuania) – the project with the persons with disabilities centre “Korys” community, initiated by well acknowledged Lithuanian dancer Mantas Stabačinkas, dancer Vasara Visockaitė and Kaunas Biennial.
The aim of the project is to develop the creativity of people with disabilities through artistic movement practices, to involve them in active processes. Mantas Stabačinskas seeks to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in everyday life and to raise empathy in society.
The project involved professional dancers and artists to deepen their knowledge in the field of social dance.
More than thirty members of “Korys” community, among which people with mental and movement disabilities, joined the workshops, practicing with various objects and materials, and experimenting with contemporary dance.
“We called this project – movement lab – because the baggage of knowledge seems big, but not completely filled. It was a laboratory for everyone – both those involved and us. It is great that professional dancers joined this project and wanted to volunteer for our workshops. I’m glad that they came not only from Kaunas, but also from other Lithuanian cities. As for the process itself, we had a certain base, but at the same time we were open to see where the process would take us. I think that if we had had a specific goal, such as creating a performance, such a precise goal would have caused tension and stress. There would be no time left for exploration and mutual improvement, so we set out to create and work freely.
We sat down every day, shared our thoughts and came up with a certain format for the lesson. Most of them had a fairly clear structure – starting with a general greeting, where everyone presented a movement and everyone had to repeat. Then every day a different volunteer did some warm-up, after which we all moved to creative tasks using different objects – colored rubber, tennis balls or ribbons – that facilitated movement and helped to feel a different form of movement. Our movement was based on contemporary dance, but we also gave some basics of ballet”, – Mantas Stabačinskas, presented the project.
Photos: Nanook | Severina Venckutė
