*** Welcome to piglix ***

Modris Tenisons


Modris Tenisons (born March 19, 1945 in Riga, Latvia) is a mime artist in Lithuania and Latvia. He is especially well known in Lithuania. He is also a multidisciplinary artist: a theater director, stage designer and theater consultant.

Modris lost his father at an early age, so he had to learn the skill of independence when he was just a child. He started schooling in Riga, Latvia when he was six years old. During his school days, he showed talent in art.

After graduating from the School of Applied Arts in Riga, he studied and performed pantomime for four years under Robert Ligera, until he fell in love and emigrated to Lithuania. In 1966 at Kaunas, Lithuania, he founded the first professional pantomime team in the Soviet Union. He directed several professional pantomime theater and radio performances, such as Ecce homo (1967), Dream Dreams (Sapņu sapņi,1968), Do Butterflies (Sargājiet tauriņu, 1969), 20th Century Capricio (XX gadsimta Capricio, 1970), Collage (Kolāža, 1971).

Modris is loved and respected by Lithuanians, who consider him as a kind of local 'Charlie Chaplin'. Modris was honoured by the Lithuanian government with an Order of Gedeminos for his contributions to the art of mime. He has been retired for years now but keeps drawing and attracting orders as an artist.

He has remained a legend in Lithuania theater for two generations. In 2003, he was visited and interviewed by a group of Lithuanians (Stasys Baltakis, Arvydas Lebeliunas, Tomas Girdzijauskas, Hannele Maianiemi, Ieva Zelionkante and Laisvunas Karvelis) to understand him as a phenomenon.

Modris also has great interest in ornamentation. He was involved in researching the symbolism of a Latvian traditional woven belt ('Lielvardes josta’) with 22 ancient symbols. This Latvian ethnic group is a major part of his creative work.


...
Wikipedia

...