Behind the Apparent Ease of Juggling Performance: The Creative Team of “bliss”

This November, the International Contemporary Circus Festival Cirkuliacija presents “bliss”, the latest work by Lithuanian contemporary circus and interdisciplinary arts company būda.collective. The performance brings together juggler Kasparas Bujanauskas, director Lukas Dirsė, composer Ignas Šoliūnas, scenographer Tomas Stonys, machine designer Domas Puvačiauskas and artistic mentor Jason Dupree. Ahead of the premiere, we spoke with Kasparas, Lukas and Domas about the creative process, specially designed ball-launching machines, and the search for happiness in a world of routines and expectations.

Interview by Viktorija Roževič

How did you start working together, and where did the idea for “bliss” come from?

Kasparas: We used to live together in an apartment with five other people from different creative fields – artists, architects and musicians. Later, Lukas and I played in a band called “Šuo Leila”, and eventually we founded būda.collective with some of our former flatmates. I grew up in classical circus, but I always wanted to explore something beyond its traditional boundaries.

Our previous performances involved many people and a lot of action on stage. This time, we decided to create a solo performance. I remember telling Domas about my vision: one performer on an empty stage, surrounded by hidden machines launching juggling balls. Domas listened and said, “If the machines aren't visible, I'm not building them.” Eventually, we realised he was right. The machines could become beautiful, interactive elements of the performance.

Domas: I come from contemporary art and sculpture, so the relationship between aesthetics, movement and sound is very important to me. I wanted the machines to be more than functional objects – they had to become a significant visual part of the performance.

What were the biggest challenges in creating the performance?

Kasparas: This was probably our most difficult creative process so far. We explored new techniques, including a numerical juggling system called “siteswap”. It's like a musical score, but for jugglers. You can use sequences of numbers to describe juggling patterns, and we use this system as a kind of language for the performance.

Domas's machines are also completely unique and extremely complex, both in their engineering and construction.

Domas: I study contemporary sculpture, not engineering, but creating these machines required a lot of engineering knowledge. From an engineer's perspective, this would probably be a very strange project. And from a contemporary art perspective, it's unusually technical. The machines became a combination of these two worlds.

When Kasparas first asked if I could make his idea work, I enthusiastically agreed, without really understanding how complicated it would be.

How much of “bliss” is carefully calculated, and how much is left to improvisation?

Kasparas: Most of the performance is very precisely planned. There is an LED screen showing “siteswap” numbers, and each number must correspond to a particular throw. At specific moments, balls must also appear from a machine hanging above me. Not every numerical sequence is physically possible, so everything has to be calculated.

Behind what looks effortless, there is actually a great deal of planning, calculation and memorisation.

Lukas: “Siteswap” became more than just a technical tool – it became the basis of our composition. We start with a juggling sequence and then build movement and music around it.

But improvisation is equally important because it relates directly to the theme of the performance. For us, “bliss” is about searching for happiness or enlightenment. We believe that true happiness can be found in freedom, spontaneity and genuine physical impulses. That's why we leave space for Kasparas to improvise and follow what he feels in the moment.

Domas: And even in a carefully programmed system, something can always go wrong. During one of our early showings, a machine unexpectedly released all its balls. Kasparas had to refill it while we tried to fix the situation remotely. Some of the problems might even have looked like part of the performance! It reminded us that live performance always requires some improvisation.

The performance has a retrofuturistic, almost bureaucratic atmosphere. What inspired this world, and what does the title “bliss” mean?

Domas: I think this is how we often imagine the future – people becoming increasingly isolated, with everything based on logic and calculation rather than emotions. In this world, a person simply performs tasks assigned by a system and may eventually forget what they actually want.

Lukas: The setting is a metaphor for office work, where you have to complete very precise tasks. One of our inspirations was the computer game “The Stanley Parable”, in which an office worker simply follows instructions. Kasparas does something similar on stage.

Kasparas: Lukas once described the idea perfectly: “You work to buy a car, and then you drive that car to work so you can keep working.” It's an endless cycle. Even something that started as a passion can become just another job.

The title “bliss” came from the famous Windows XP wallpaper – the green hill and blue sky that so many people recognise. We found it interesting that this peaceful image appears when you open your computer to work. It's a kind of artificial happiness: a brief promise of satisfaction that quickly disappears, replaced by another desire or goal.

Lukas: The opposite would be personal happiness – silence, peace, being in nature or simply listening to your own impulses. Instead of following what the system expects from us, we might ask ourselves what we actually want.

We don't want to tell the audience what happiness is. The performance asks how we can recognise it, and whether it's possible to find it by consciously searching for it.

Do you experience this tension between what you want to do and what you have to do in your own creative lives?

Kasparas: Very often. Even when you love your work, you still have to plan, earn money and do many other things just to be able to continue creating. Sometimes I think it would be easier to work in a café – you finish your shift and leave your work behind. In the creative field, that's rarely possible.

But even during the most difficult moments, I realise I'd rather be here, creating, than doing something purely for money. In the creative process, you can see your work changing and growing. There are always new discoveries.

Lukas: For me, it's important to have activities where we can experiment and remain ourselves. būda.collective is that kind of space – we can create together with people we trust and do something that feels genuinely meaningful to us.

How do you see the contemporary circus scene in Lithuania?

Kasparas: It's still a small field, and in a way, we are helping to build it. There is no formal contemporary circus education programme in Lithuania, so I learn through experimentation, workshops and collaboration with artists from different disciplines.

I grew up in classical circus, where the trick itself was the most important thing. You juggle, and the audience watches the balls. The performer almost hides behind their skills. Contemporary circus challenges me to step out from behind the tricks and find other ways to express myself.

Sometimes we even discuss what Lithuanian juggling could look like. We don't have a strong, established circus tradition here, but that's also exciting – we have the freedom to discover our own artistic language.

Lukas: Our work combines circus, theatre, visual arts and music. We see ourselves not only as contemporary circus artists but also as interdisciplinary creators. The Lithuanian contemporary circus scene is still developing, which gives us space to experiment and discover what it could become.

Finally, what would you wish for yourselves before the premiere of “bliss”?

Domas: Peace of mind.

Kasparas: I hope we can keep the creative fire burning and finish this journey with a bang.

Lukas: I hope the performance has a long life and, hopefully, travels abroad.

“bliss”, a juggling solo performance by būda.collective, co-produced by Teatronas, will be presented at the International Contemporary Circus Festival Cirkuliacija on 5 November at Kaunas Cultural Centre, Kaunas, and 18 November at the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, Small Hall, Vilnius. The creation of the performance is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.

PREMIERE IN KAUNAS (Tickets)

PREMIERE IN VILNIUS (Tickets)