Silhouette Letters

Silhouette Letters opens a door into a world where silence turns into story, and where a single rope can reveal what words often leave unspoken. This deeply emotional duet weaves together the power of contemporary dance, acrobatics, and an intimate confession about the relationships that shape us.

In a calm, uncluttered space, a long rope hangs from the ceiling. Two dancers become entangled in it, wrapping their bodies around its taut line. Silhouette Letters is a bittersweet duet about relationships that exist in silence, memories, and imagination—with those who are no longer by our side, or perhaps never truly were.

Within a fragile, tender choreography, we witness the birth and transformation of a single relationship. The rope becomes an acrobatic partner—a tool for levitation, climbing, rotation, pendular motion, and delicate balances. The lighting design draws geometric patterns on the floor and, together with the music, deepens the scene’s meditative quality.

The dynamics gradually intensify: the duet grows into a display of acrobatic virtuosity and precise work with weight, counterbalance, and rotation. Lifts, jumps, controlled falls, and meticulous partnering are technically striking. Yet into this intensity enter moments of quiet closeness—long embraces, eye contact, and small but powerful gestures that reveal the intimacy of their connection. The two performers move in complete harmony; although the choreography employs strong physicality and elements of contemporary circus, its expression remains profoundly emotional, intimate, and human. Silhouette Letters is a highly personal confession, drawing on the creator’s own experience of a childhood marked by the absence of a father.

Artūrs Nīgalis is an experienced Latvian dancer and an emerging talent in contemporary choreography. His debut duet Silhouette Letters became the first-ever project from Latvia to be selected among the TOP 20 works of the prestigious European platform Aerowaves 2025.

Artūrs Nīgalis is an experienced Latvian dancer and an emerging talent in contemporary choreography. His debut duet Silhouette Letters became the first-ever project from Latvia to be selected among the TOP 20 works of the prestigious European platform Aerowaves 2025. For this piece, he received four nominations at the Latvian Dance Award 2023–2024 and won the award for Best Contemporary Choreography. Since its premiere, the duet has been presented at leading festivals across Europe and Latin America. Most recently, he premiered his new choreography Made by Person at Riga Circus.

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Mizu

Japanese for water (水) — is a poetic performance that brings together dance, contemporary circus, and puppetry.
Dancer and choreographer Satchie Noro and puppeteer Élise Vigneron have created a breathtaking pas de trois. We witness a dialogue between a melting body of ice, a living body of flesh, and the puppeteer who discreetly guides them from the background, keeping them in motion.

The work forms part of a landscape composition, unfolding on a pontoon with a wooden structure resembling a crescent, set in the middle of a water surface. Before the audience’s eyes, an unexpected form awakens -  a human figure made of ice, tangibly present yet transient from the very first moment. An intimate dialogue gradually develops between the dancer and the icy being, unfolding into a fragile relationship that at times feels almost maternal. Suspended from the structure, the bodies levitate, intertwine, and in powerful moments gaze into each other’s eyes. Accompanied by a meditative melody, they share moments of silent embrace.

Yet this closeness comes at a cost: the warmth of touch begins to transform the puppet. The ice slowly melts, droplets running down to the ground; later, whole fragments break away and shatter softly against the floor. It is equally compelling to watch the dancer, gradually drenched, while the puppeteer remains a natural and unobtrusive presence within the scene. Mutual support, subtle weight-sharing, lifts and rotations -  everything unfolds in the rhythm of inevitable transformation.

Mizu is a deeply moving poem about natural impermanence, existing only in time; about a relationship that changes with every touch. The dialogue between woman and ice reveals the uniqueness of each moment -  before its form dissolves. It is a celebration of connection and love, of fragility and the beauty of the ephemeral, of the inevitability of endings. It lingers in the viewer long after the final drop has fallen from the stage.

Satchie Noro is an internationally recognised artist who creates across diverse environments and disciplines. After studying classical dance, she worked in Berlin and New York before joining leading dance companies in France. Since 2000, she has been dedicated to aerial circus techniques, and in 2002 she founded her own company, Compagnie Furinkaï. She has created works presented around the world, and her artistic practice is acclaimed for its originality and for boldly crossing genre boundaries. She has twice been selected among the TOP 20 artists of the prestigious European platform Aerowaves.

furinkai.com & lentrouvert.com

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