C O L O N Y
winter dance summit | #11 edition
Nida, February 16-22, 2026
P R O G R A M
GAGA / Natalia Iwaniec (PL)
CONTEMPORARY / Dovydas Strimaitis (LT)
POPPING / KOZO (LT)
HOUSE / KIMBO (IT)
PARTNERING + CONTACT / Dominyka & Povilas (LT)
COMPOSITION & FLOORWORK / Frieda Frost (DE)
ARTISTS IN RESIDENCY / Silke Z. (DE) & Liisa Pentti (FI)
NUTRITION / Dovydas Zenkevicius (LT)
☞ A full detailed program and schedule will be shared with registered colonizers.
T E A C H E R S
Get to know the Dance C O L O N Y teachers a little better:
GAGA / NATALIA IWANIEC (PL)
From deep listening to the body to physical sensation, Natalia’s practice offers a framework for discovering and strengthening the body while developing flexibility, stamina, agility, and skills such as coordination and efficiency. It stimulates both the senses and the imagination.
GAGA classes provide a grounded yet exploratory workout, investigating form, speed, and effort while moving across spectrums – from soft to dense textures, delicacy to explosive power, understatement to exaggeration. She guides dancers through awakening numb areas, increasing awareness of habits, and improving movement efficiency within multilayered tasks. Dancers are encouraged to connect with pleasure in moments of effort.
Photo: Eliza Krakówka
CONTEMPORARY / DOVYDAS STRIMAITIS (LT)
Dovydas Strimaitis is a Lithuanian contemporary dance artist based in France. Strimaitis’ floorwork class “Pressing the Floor” focuses on learning how to use momentum and gravity efficiently. While this may initially feel at odds with the free flow of movement, developing control is essential to truly access and sustain that flow. For this reason, the class is structured to build the coordination and control needed to “catch” and work with momentum.
This is a technique-based class focusing on exercises that develop strength, speed, and, most importantly, coordination, enabling dancers to move confidently across different floor levels. The overall goal of the workshop is to become comfortable manipulating gravity and momentum, allowing the floor to become a space for freedom and artistic expression.
Photo: Theo Giacometti
POPPING / KOZO (LT)
Monika Čibiraitė (KOZO) is a dancer, artist, and educator based in Vilnius. She has been practicing Popping since 2012, continuously deepening her expertise through international travel, learning with pioneering and renowned dancers, competing in global championships, winning awards, and representing Lithuania within the international dance community. She also currently teaches in Sweden at Åsa folkhögskola.
In Nida, KOZO will share educational material valuable for advanced popping dancers as well as beginners and dancers from other styles. The focus will be on the essence and roots of popping, alongside techniques and concepts applicable across various dance styles. Sessions will include control exercises and improvisation, introducing the style through multiple perspectives – from funk and soul groove to illusion-based and other stylistic approaches.
Photo: Soph Bradbury
HOUSE / KIMBO (IT)
With African and South American roots, KIMBO brings a distinctive and deeply personal House Dance style to the scene, using movement as her language of expression. While exploring various street dance styles, she found her artistic identity in House Dance, actively participating in battles, choreographing, and teaching across Europe.
She is a winner and participant in numerous international battles, including House Dance 4ever, Summer Dance Forever, House Dance Europe, Juste Debout, SDK, Body ’n Deep, Freedom Rhythm, Red Bull Dance Your Style, Parthlomae, Hip Opsession, Solid House Event, Make Your Move, Battle Dame de Fer, Focus on the Groove, Freedom to the Rhythm, and many others.
Following an inspiring visit to the Urban Essentials Festival in Vilnius, KIMBO is coming to the UNESCO-protected town of Nida for a week-long stay. This is a unique opportunity to merge the rhythm of nature with the rhythm of House Dance.
PARTNERING + CONTACT / DOMINYKA & POVILAS (LT)
Dominyka and Povilas invite participants to share movement and explore new ways of moving together. Most sessions take place in pairs, learning unique movement phrases and, through exercises inspired by contemporary dance and contact improvisation, exploring how two bodies interact. The focus is on movement flow — the continuous transfer, reception, and redirection of energy while moving with a partner — and on how deep listening to one’s own and a partner’s body supports this flow.
Special attention is given to somatic awareness, enhancing the clarity and smoothness of movement. Participants explore interwoven layers of movement: sensing weight, balance, touch, direction, spatial orientation, breathing, and shared rhythm. Body weight plays a key role, with attention to finding stable points in one’s own and a partner’s body to lean, pull, push, lift, step onto, or slide. Through this awareness, a safe space is created to take risks with lifts and acrobatics while experiencing the joy of moving together as one.
Photo: Nemo Stultus
COMPOSITION & FLOORWORK / FRIEDA FROST (DE)
Frieda’s floorwork and creation class focuses on composition and creation on the floor for freestyling, movement sets, or choreography. It invites to create patterns and compositions and introduces specific movements on the floor as well as dynamic moves that use the floor for impact – and that overlap between contemporary and breaking, adaptable to the level and dance style of each participant.
In this class participants will not only learn specific moves but work with tools and ideas how to compose your own floorwork patterns and adapt them to your style of dancing.
Photo: Yoriyas
ARTISTS IN RESIDENCY / SILKE Z. (DE) & LIISA PENTTI (FI)
Silke Z. in collaboration with Liisa Pentti – a dancer and a choreographer and has been leading her own company for 20 years – is working on The Ageing Body Pro Series – SOLO 1 – Remembering Forward. This is a series of dance performances dedicated to the professional challenges and particularities of freelance dance artists in the context of ageing. The project brings active professional dancers, aged over 60 and from a variety of nationalities and dance backgrounds, to the stage. The Ageing Body Pro Series begins in 2026.
In the project professional dancers face a variety of challenges throughout their careers: the ideal of artistic autonomy is balanced with the need to earn a living, and they must manage physical demands and the ageing process. At the same time, changing working conditions require a high degree of adaptability. How do these tensions influence dancers’ identities throughout their professional careers? What role does ageing play in this?
In dialogue with choreographer Silke Z., the dancers confront their artistic identity and the process of ageing on stage. They shed light on their experiences of ageism and formulate questions about their future. In the ‘solo’ performances, choreographer Silke Z. is on stage interacting with the individual dancers. Through a combination of composition and real-time staging, the performers reflect on their past and present physical and biographical experiences. Following the solos, an ensemble piece emerges, challenging age-related stereotypes on stage.
Photo: C. Simon
Photo: Uupi Tirronen
NUTRITION / DOVYDAS ZENKEVICIUS (LT)
Dovydas is a professional chef who goes far beyond simply preparing food. He will introduce the key principles of a healthy, moving body diet and share practical insights tailored to dancers and performing artists. How to maintain a strong and vibrant body during rehearsals and tours, how to balance nutrients effectively, and, of course, how to cook nourishing, delicious meals – all during our Dance C O L O N Y winter dance summit.
If it’s not about dancing, it’s definitely about great food.
Photo: Marius Kazakevičius
