Interactive Dance Performance for Families with Babies
GUT FEELINGS

Recommended Audience: babies aged 6–15 months (not yet walking) with parents

A ticket for this performance is required for both the baby and the parent(s)

Ingredients (serves 30):
7 cabbages
4 ladles
5 kilograms of kitchen cloths
3 people
1 golden tube
A pinch of light
Optional: Families with Little Sprouts

Preparation:
Place the raw cabbages, peeled ladles, and sifted soft kitchen cloths into a single vessel. Add three pre-kneaded bodies and one gently blanched golden tube. Knead with care and let the mixture rise for four months. Then season with light, allowing it to slowly evaporate. Fold the Families with Little Sprouts — in all shapes and sizes — into the prepared base, giving them space to move freely so the starter may awaken and come to life. Take your time. Let the mixture soften and settle into a pleasant consistency. Taste as you go, stirring occasionally.

Gut Feelings is an intimate, interactive dance performance for families with babies, accompanied by live music — a sensory journey inspired by food. What might the inside of our stomach look like? How does digestion move, sound, and unfold? What images does it conjure up? Where do our appetites carry us? What memories linger within them?

Feeding is one of the first rituals we learn — slow, repetitive, and attentive — becoming an essential rhythm in family life. Across cultures and homes, it takes different forms, yet always holds the same essence: care, presence, and connection.

The performance is rooted in the idea that our earliest encounters with food shape the way we experience the world. By observing the act of eating closely and tenderly, we rediscover the quiet poetry hidden within the everyday.

Important information for the audience
This performance is designed for babies approximately 6 to 15 months old (not yet walking), together with their caregivers. Before attending, we invite you to consider your child’s stage of development. This helps create a safe, calm, and responsive environment where participants of all ages can fully engage in the experience.

Premiere: 29 March 2026 during the New Epiphanies Festival in Warsaw

The project was co-financed by the ZAiKS Authors’ Association’s Fund for the Promotion of Creativity.

Co-funded by the European Union as part of the “European Schools of Care” project and co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage through the Culture Promotion Fund.

Creative Team: director and choreographer Hanna Bylka-Kanecka (Poland), set designer Angelina Jankowska-Janiak, lighting designer Ewa Garniec, consultants Katharina Schrott and Yoko Yagihara, producer Karolina Wycisk (“Performat Foundation”), co-producer “Toihaus Theatre in Salzburg”.

Featuring: Agate Bankava, Anna Novikova, Jānis Ratenājs.

Venue: Valmiera Museum, Bruņinieku Street 3
https://maps.app.goo.gl/uKNHm5kjSTukSW368

VVTF - VĒDERA SAJŪTAS