Twoness
Anna Novikova, Rūta Pūce (Latvia)Venue in Valmiera (107km from Riga)!
The performance “Divotne” (Twoness) was created in 2017 by two young choreographers Anna Novikova and Rūta Pūce, who became mothers and included this personal experience in their artistic language – dance. The role of a mother draws a woman into a vortex of care, duty, incomprehensible love and great bodily experience, which cannot always be told and understood. This experience is not unambiguous, therefore, in the performance, a woman is divided into a duality – Mother and Non-Mother, in order to find a path along which to continue with herself through an internal dialogue. The choreographers emphasize that the maternal and non-maternal can coexist and the formation of this union is a transformative, old-destroying and at the same time self-renewing process. It is also a unique process, there is no one correct maternal and non-maternal relationship option. We are different and that is wonderful. The performance has received the Latvian “Dance Award 2017–2018” in the category “Contemporary Dance Production or Event”. It was included in the “40 winks” section of the “Springback magazine” in 2021.
About artist
Rūta Pūce (1989) is a Latvian freelance contemporary dance artist. Her work emphasizes the body as a socio-political entity, exploring it as a medium of expression and a site of research where dance, choreography, art, and daily life intersect.
“I am interested in overcoming binary thinking and I start by not separating the body from the mind, dance from choreography and art from life. I can be analytical and creative, a mother and non-mother, ready to fight and preach peace at the same time. I like to wander close to borders.”
Pūce made her debut in the professional contemporary dance industry with the contemporary dance show “Twoness” (2017), which explores the role of a woman-mother in society (Choreography: Rūta Pūce and Anna Novikova). The solo “Until Death Do Us Part” (2023) emphasizes the human relationship with one’s body, the contemporary dance performance “Entrails” (2024, Ģertrudes Street Theater) uses the body as an archive in the artistic research to talk about the Latvian contemporary dance industry.
Pūce works as a dance educator with future professional contemporary dancers at the Riga Ballet School and is actively involved in the activities of the Latvian Dance Information Center and “Dance.lv Journal”. She is a member of the Association of Choreographers.
Anna Novikova is a graduate of the Riga Ballet School with eight years of experience as a member of the Latvian National Ballet company. Since 2015, after earning a Bachelor of Humanities in the Arts sub-program Contemporary Dance Choreography and a Bachelor’s degree in Art Photography in the University of Brighton in the UK (2013), Anna has been working as a choreographer, dance artist, and educator.
Since 2018, she has been teaching contemporary and classical dance to students in the contemporary dance program at the NMV Riga Ballet School. She participated in the development of the RBS contemporary dance education program (2019). She is a member of the Association of Choreographers. Anna actively expands her knowledge in the field of movement and body exploration by attending masterclasses and studying body health and functionality, specializing as a foot function instructor.
Credits
Choreography: Rūta Pūce, Anna Novikova
Dancers: Agate Bankava, Anna Novikova
Lighting design: Ivars Tilčiks
Composer: Toms Auniņš, Kaspars Kurdeko
Producer: Ina Ločmele