Agnija Šeiko

Professor of the Department of Dance at the LMTA Klaipėda Faculty. Subjects: Contemporary Dance, Dance Composition and Theory of Performativity, Dance Management. Languages:  English (C2), Russian (C2).

In 1996–2001, Agnija Šeiko studied choreography at Klaipeda University and in 2003–2005 continued her studies at the Codarts Dance Academy Rotterdam (the Netherlands). Upon graduating and coming back home in 2005, the dancer joined the activity of the Klaipėda-based creative agency Žuvies akis (Fisheye) and the International Festival of Contemporary Art PLArTFORMA developed by the agency.

Seven years later, in 2012 together with choreographer and dancer Petras Lisauskas and producer Goda Giedraitytė, Agnija Šeiko founded a dance theatre – the Šeiko Dance Company – where now Agnija Šeiko acts as a manager and artistic director, a choreographer, a dancer, and a dance teacher. The performances of the Šeiko Dance Company have appeared on the stages of Europe, China, and the United States, earning their creators numerous national and regional art awards and prizes. The theatre continues to attract young artists to live and create in the Lithuanian port city Klaipėda. The artists of the Šeiko Dance Company have been nominated for or received honourable awards such as the Padėkos Kaukė Award, given to the best theatre professionals of the Klaipėda City, and Golden Cross of the Stage, the most significant performing arts award in Lithuania.

In developing the theatre’s repertoire, Agnija Šeiko involves nationally and internationally recognised artists from various fields and invites them to Klaipėda. Among the members of the creative team of the Šeiko Dance Company, you can see choreographers Alban Richard (France), Dalija Acin Thelander (Sweden), Palle Granhøj (Denmark), Maciej Kuźmiński (Poland); dancer, choreographer Kenzo Kusuda (Japan); Daphnis Kokkinos (Greece-Germany), who was an assistant to legendary choreographer Pina Bausch and a dancer and the director of her theatre in Wuppertal (Germany); Lithuanian cellist Mindaugas Bačkus; Lithuanian light artist Linas Kutavičius; film artist Albena Baeva (Bulgaria), and many others.

Some of the choreographic projects engage the city community and vulnerable social groups – people with disabilities or seniors – who become participants of various performances of the Šeiko Dance Company alongside professional artists. It is interdisciplinarity, distinguished aesthetics, a focus on sensitive social issues, and a wide range of forms that make Agnija’s artistic works special. Her performances frequently involve live music, sculptural installations, and video projections. The choreographer’s work is always able to keep the audience amazed with a new form, new contexts, or the direction taken.

Besides the genre of dance performance, Agnija Šeiko’s works have embraced dance operas, performance, interdisciplinary theatrical performances combining dance, music, and technology elements. The theatre’s dance and cello music performances as well as dance performance-like excursions are too worth mentioning — these have already become the trademark of the Klaipėda culture.

Apart from working with the Šeiko Dance company, Agnija Šeiko works with most state and national theatres of Lithuania creating choreography for opera, musicals, and staged productions.