Pynių pynė: Movement Performance for Babies Aged 6–18 Months

With the performance “Pynių pynė” (“A Tangle of Braids”), LNDT opens its doors to its youngest audience. Drawing on the best practices from a range of performing arts, the theatre presents a performance for babies aged 6–18 months. It is directed by Birutė Banevičiūtė, who helped inspire theatre for babies in Lithuania. Her performances for babies and children are appreciated not only by their intended audiences and parents, but also by professionals. As she has presented works rooted in dance and movement practices around the world, the choreographer has also begun applying her creative principles in collaboration with drama theatres. Using the motif of weaving, the choreographer will work with LNDT actors and her long-standing creative team to combine the light, abstract movement characteristic of her work with the discovery, before the young audience’s eyes, of the shapes and colours of the objects chosen for weaving. The performance will also engage young audience members in a tactile experience, allowing them to take in the work through all their senses and become familiar with the stage as a sensory space open to everyone. “Pynių pynė” brings together abstract motifs from Lithuanian folk art that are also recognisable. The act of weaving can evoke the braid-like hairstyle of a fairy-tale character, the making of a flower wreath, or associations with expressions peculiar to Lithuanian, such as “our legs got tangled,” and so on. The performance will open both theatre and its newest audience to one another, inviting children to enter the theatre from their first years of life and experience it as a place for discovery and learning. Birutė Banevičiūtė’s children’s performance “Spalvoti žaidimai” (“Colourful Games”) received the Golden Stage Cross in 2016, and five other performances have been nominated for the award. B. Banevičiūtė tours extensively with her children’s performances, both in Lithuania and abroad. Tickets must be purchased for both adults and babies.