“Blank Spots”.Photo by Dmitrij Matvejev

The young generation dancer and emerging choreographer Lukas Karvelis (b. 1997) attended the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art, the first class of contemporary dance at this school, and later continued his studies at the Codarts University for the Arts in the Netherlands, where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree. While still in the eleventh grade, he started dancing in the Šventasis pavasaris (Holy Spring) performance of the Vilnius City dance theatre Low Air and creating dance solo miniatures, Today, he has worked with such famous choreographers as Jiri Kylian, Anouk Van Dijk, Marina Mascarell, Antonin Comestaz and appeared on stage in Brazil, Israel, Italy, Canada, Lithuania, the Netherlands, France, Sweden, Turkey and Germany.

In 2018, at the Solo-Tanz competition in Stuttgart, Karvelis won 2nd place in the choreography category and 1st prize in the video category with the dance performance Blank Spots. In the same year, he participated in the festival Lucky Trimmer in Germany and the dance platform in Bern, Switzerland. His mono-performance Blank Spots has been performed in Germany, the Netherlands and Brazil.

Karvelis’ debut mono-performance Blank Spots (2019) explores the relationship between personal and collective identity. It contrasts and combines drag queen and national heritage styles, creates an unexpected juxtaposition and dialogue that provokes thought about possible choices in the modern world and identity of an individual trying to survive in it. After shedding the adopted layers of the contemporary culture of the global world, one returns to the national identity, which, strange as it may be for the representative of the Generation Z, lies in a folk song.