Brussels Dance Meant To Be

Official 2022 Selection:
RED ROCK SCREENDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
“Best Experimental Short Film”:
FIVE CONTINENTS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Internationally celebrated dancer Laurel Jenkins (Trisha Brown dance Co.) teams with ingenue Rūta Ronja Pakalne in a completely spontaneous and 100% improvised dance duet in a rainy weekday alcove found in the heart of Brussels, Belgium. Life is passing by, people are hurrying home from market and a few people even joined in to celebrate the film's happening. This film is about love and about listening. You will see how Laurel and Rūta listen to each other to express completely organic nuance in their language together. There is care, there is also a quiet battle of will that poses a question (from moment to moment) between the two and the pedestrians who appear : "Who is going to lead this?"

About Laurel Jenkins:
Laurel Jenkins’ choreography emerges from rigorous experimentation and interdisciplinary dialogues in the realms of contemporary dance, opera, music and theater. She engages with the choreographic process as a radical space for reimagining our collective human experience. Her work has been presented by Lincoln Center, Disney Hall, REDCAT, Automata, the Getty Center, Show Box LA, Danspace, Berlin’s Performing Presence Festival, and Tokyo’s Sezane Gallery. She recently choreographed Bernstein’s MASS with the LA Phil and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. In addition, she has choreographed for LA Contemporary Dance Company, The Wooden Floor, California State University, Long Beach, University of Vermont, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Jenkins was a member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company from 2007-2012, and developed original roles in Brown’s final works. Jenkins also danced in New York with Vicky Shick and Sara Rudner. She performed the role of Ismene in Peter Sellars’ staging of Oedipus Rex conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Last spring, she performed solos by Merce Cunningham in Los Angeles as a part of the Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event. Jenkins is the recipient of a Vermont Arts Council Grant, an Asian Cultural Council Grant, holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence, and an MFA from UCLA. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Dance at Middlebury College in Vermont.

About Rūta Ronja Pakalne:

She's a Dancer/choreographer/filmmaker, currently living in Tallinn, Estonia. Her origin is from Riga, Latvia.
She studied at Latvian Academy of Culture, where she received her BA degree in ARTS (Contemporary Dance Choreography)
She has two years study to her credit at P.A.R.T.S. Training cycle, Brussels, Belgium.
​Also, one year of MA studies in Theatre arts/Contemporary Dance Art at the Latvian Academy of Culture.
In 2018 she graduated Baltic, Film, Media, Arts and Communication School: MA in Audiovisual Media: Television and Documentary film.