Lithuania's PUZZLE Set for Edinburgh Fringe

Lithuanian dance show Puzzle, a gorgeous dance performance for babies is headed for the Edinburgh Fringe to entertain the very youngest audiences of all at the ZOO venue.

After a limited run at the 2015 Fringe Puzzle has toured internationally to great acclaim.

As three dancers emerge from brightly coloured onstage shapes, they begin to create the perfect playful mood for the youngest audiences.

What follows is 30 minutes of pure joy followed by a further 15 minutes where the audience are invited to interact with the soft, tactile shapes on the stage.

How does the world look to a small child? Is it round or angular, is it yellow or blue? Is it rectangular, green, hollow, or soft? Child psychologists have discovered that in their earliest years children learn best through reacting to a variety of geometric shapes and colours.

Lithuanian choreographer Birut? Banevi?i?t? with her three skilled dancers (Giedr? Subotinait?, Indr? Bacevi?i?t? and Mantas Staba?inskas) piece together a puzzle from their coloured shapes in an absorbing performance exploring a child's developmental stages. Dancers crawl, bounce, walk and run as they traverse a delightful world filled with vibrant costumes and gorgeous scenery which is assembled into an array of familiar forms, from geometric shapes to vegetables, fruit and flowers. Accompanied by music composed especially for little ones, this is a gentle and joyous dance performance for babies.

Gint? Zurbait?-Butkuvien of Lrytas, the Lithuanian news service said 'The music, composed by Rasa Dik?ien?, is sensitive to the demands of infants. Large, primary coloured scenery and costumes create chuckles and delight. The dancers use child-like mannerisms and gestures in their movements with repetition endearing them to their target audience. Puzzle is a brilliant introduction to movement and live spectacle for very young children'

On its original showing PUZZLE was nominated by Lithuania's Ministry of Culture as the best children's performance of 2012. See a short video here: https://vimeo.com/105550337

Dance Theatre Dansema are an independent company with a commitment to promote contemporary dance to children and young adults. Puzzle comes to The Fringe as one of a group of four Lithuanian dance shows at Zoo. Following The Fringe it tours to Bulgaria, Albania, China and Norway. www.dansema.lt

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