“Days, Minutes”. Photo by Martynas Aleksa

Dancer and choreographer Martynas Rimeikis (b. 1980) graduated from the Ballet Department of the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Arts in 1999 and joined the ballet troupe of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre. Between 2003-2007, he studied at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in dance and drama. During his career as a dancer, spanning two decades, he worked with various choreographers at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, the theatre for ballet projects Vilnius Ballet and the Anželika Cholina Dance Theatre, as well as embodied many central roles. In 2020, he became the artistic director of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Rimeikis made his debut as a choreographer in 2012 with the composition Waiting for Godot on the stage of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, which was later presented at the international dance exhibition International Tanzmesse NRW in Düsseldorf, Germany. In 2015, Rimeikis’ one-act ballet Visur kur mes nebuvom (Everywhere We Weren’t; part of the triptych Bolero+) won the Golden Cross of the Stage award for the best choreography. In 2017, Rimeikis created another ballet at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, his first full-length work, Procesas (Process), which also won the Golden Cross of the Stage for choreography.

Apart from that, contemporary dance compositions created by the choreographer for the students of the Ballet Department of the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Arts were performed in international ballet competitions where they won awards. Rimeikis has also tried his hand on the drama theatre stage and the cinema.

One of the latest works by Rimeikis is the 2019 ballet Dienos, minutės (Days, Minutes; part of the Ballet Triptych), for which the music was composed by the young generation composer Marija Paškevičiūtė. This ballet talks about the modern pace of life, a crazy race with time where there are no winners, where everything happens at such a speed that it seems as if you are standing still. The theme of the flow of time and its constancy is expressed through abstract choreography and harmony between movement and sound.

martynas.rimeikis@opera.lt www.opera.lt