JANA JACUKA
WE LOVE WOMEN
PHOTOS BY PETERIS VIKSNA
Jana Jacuka is a performance maker, choreographer and performer from Latvia. She thrives on movement: “I love the feeling that I can get up in the morning, put my legs out of the bed, stand up, go to the kitchen, lift my hand to get a cup and make a coffee. I'm happy I can move and I really appreciate it. I started to appreciate movement more and more a few years ago, when my grandmother had her second stroke and now half of her body is paralysed. She cannot freely get out of bed on her own, she can't stand up and go to the kitchen. Our bodies, unfortunately, have expiration dates. After that happened, I understood that I want to enjoy movement while I can. Often our body reacts faster than our mind. When I fall, my body reacts faster than I'm able to say something.
I consider movement as our body's intelligence.
Also, I think, movement is very poetic. People standing at the red light and suddenly crossing the street.
Hair blowing in the wind. An animal running in the forest. Your eyes meet with somebody.
In a way, that is dance for me. I notice these subtle or big movements of life and I want to read them, combine them, curate them in a story and share them with others. All my performances are based on personal experiences, moments of life that I see or experience, that stop me.
I really like stillness, because I'm a very fast person. I have hundreds thoughts running through my brain and sometimes I find it hard to be present. Slow movement helps me to be present. For me slowness is a conscious choice.
Simplicity is sometimes very hard to achieve. But I really appreciate it when I come to it in my works or see it in other artists'; works. I think simplicity actually is the result of many days, months or even years of thinking, requisitioning and leaving out the unneeded. It's a brave thing to do - say no to many lovelyideas, but say yes to the right one.
I'm very attentive to what I wear for performances. Sometimes I need clothes that don't take any attention from movement or things that I'm saying on stage. Sometimes I need armour!
When I performed as a guest artist at Damien Rice's sailboat tour concert in Rome (July 2023), I shared a poem “Routine of fear” that I wrote a few years ago. It's a list of everything that I'm scared of. This poem was accompanied by Silvia Perez Cruz on guitar and vocal, she was a huge support for me to open upvulnerably to such a huge audience and I wore a Lora, Pink Sand Silk dress which Rosa gifted me a daybefore the concert. It was my armour. I felt strong and fragile at the same time, I felt that Rosa was with me on stage at that moment. Feminine beauty for me is the combination of power and fragility. Also, I feel these qualities a lot in Rosas designs.
I honestly only recently realised the beauty of Latvian nature, we have 4 different seasons and all are very different in colours. Summer is the colour of sand and blue sky. In autumn all the leaves turn orange and the grass goes to sleep, so we see brown ground. Winter is the most contrasted season, the short days and the cold snow covering our houses, so I would select black and white. And finally comes my favourite season, spring! I would say - all the colours of the palette when finally nature is blossoming.”
swish / you slip / a whisper
stumbling upon my own desires, I taste the saltiness of your mantle. The wind a carrier.
Impressions on sand play mirroring with the waves. Confused and yet so sure, I stand
still
but never so
already moving / already moved.
On wet sand, light shimmers slowly, caring.
Shaped by your soft lines, I shape my own. I don’t belong and
still
I soften.
The gazes cruise across the land as haze dissolves.
blink / are we still here? / a silence
Breathe in
Breathe out.
Poem by Laura Cemin