DORĖJA ATKOČIŪNAS
LITHUANIAN / AMERICAN DANCER
DEC 18, 1998
Thoughts unsaid, then forgotten
My name is Doreja and I’m 25 years old. I was originally born in Los Angeles, California, but from 8 years of age I grew up in Lithuania, which I consider it now to be more of a home than America. I was mostly raised by my dad who is a poet, a musician, a painter and was a priest - but stepped down and chose to lead a family life. My mom, from a small half-island in Lithuania, got in UCLA - one of the most prestige universities in the US, where together with my dad, they began building a stable life. My mom, while having three kids, studying and taking on 2 jobs, provided financial support, and my dad was the one staying home and taking care of 3 daughters. So in gratitude to my parents, I was raised with virtues of hard work, faith, embracing free spirit and expression, I grew to seek challenges and find excitement in self-development, I learned to see beauty and feel what it is to be loved.
I grew in circumstances that gave me a choice to live in a world of art and it started from the moment a violin was put in my hands – that’s approximately 3 seconds after I was born. All my experiences and hobbies of playing the violin, the piano, singing, writing texts and poetry, drawing are still in my life and are things I always come back to, but a dominant role was eventually taken by dance and it formed the life I am living now. It became a style, a rule by which I lead my life and most of all a guide that helps me remember to care, to be humble and to enjoy. It is a need of mine to achieve wicked technical ability and seek artistry in personal movement and expression.
I want to grow in shades of honesty and respect towards myself and others, to keep learning again everyday who it is that I am, for only then can I radiate my true self and open the eyes of spectators to what lies within my inner realm. It is my wish to master the language of dance, to become a strong performer and be part of leading companies with grand audiences where I can share my truth and inspire infinite others to do the same.
I grew in circumstances that gave me a choice to live in a world of art and it started from the moment a violin was put in my hands – that’s approximately 3 seconds after I was born. All my experiences and hobbies of playing the violin, the piano, singing, writing texts and poetry, drawing are still in my life and are things I always come back to, but a dominant role was eventually taken by dance and it formed the life I am living now. It became a style, a rule by which I lead my life and most of all a guide that helps me remember to care, to be humble and to enjoy. It is a need of mine to achieve wicked technical ability and seek artistry in personal movement and expression.
I want to grow in shades of honesty and respect towards myself and others, to keep learning again everyday who it is that I am, for only then can I radiate my true self and open the eyes of spectators to what lies within my inner realm. It is my wish to master the language of dance, to become a strong performer and be part of leading companies with grand audiences where I can share my truth and inspire infinite others to do the same.