Satikt

“Satikt” is an immersive choreography, chants and moving sound organized in the form of a spectacle, balancing between similar differences and different similarities.

It is a research on Lithuanian sutartines multi-part (polyphonic) singing, where concurrently performed chants are characterized by a sound vertical filled with large and small seconds as well as rich usage of complementary rhythms. The word “sutartine” comes from Lithuanian word “sutarti”: to get along with, to come to terms, to agree, and translates in Latvian as “satikt”. Sutartines used to be performed only by women, each singing seemingly their own song with their own concurrently sounding text, but with rhythm and melodies that compliment the other creating consistently dissonant harmony, which could be described as similar to a sharp dissonant soundscape created by bird songs.

During the creative process of “Satikt”, the practice of sutatines chanting was considered as an indirect praxis of dialogue, where the slightly unlike is accented as complimentary, where the necessity for the nearby different is cherished. Based on this presumption artist duo IevaKrish has begun to develop methods of creating polyphonic dance material. In which two dancers, each in their own frame of complementary rythme, perform one shared dance. In other words, how the slightly dissimilar can be enriching for the whole.

The dances of “Satikt” performed side by side, same as synchronal chants of sutartines, incline to differ from each other only by a tone. “Satikt” possibly is a try to meet and to get along through the dissimilar and dissonant. 

Authors, choreographers, scenographers - IevaKrish

Arrangements of sutartines and sound design - Jēkabs Nīmanis

The outside eye - Sandija Santa

Performers - Dārta Drava, Ieva Gaurilčikaite-Sants, Krišjānis Sants, Ilze Amanda Zakrevska

Producers - Tuvumi (Anna Ulberte, Katrīna Smilga), Valmiera Summer theatre festival.

The performance was created during Valmiera Summer theater festival 2020 and was later developed with the support of State Culture Capital Foundation, Choreographer's association’s programme “Jumts” and dance exchange programme “HOROS”.

Recording from festival Sansusī 2022. Camera by Toms Harjo and Jānis Šēnbergs, editing by Krišjānis Sants