The choice

“Memories are often fragments, brief moments or encounters, which together form the scrapbook of our life. <…> Memory is sacred ground. But it’s haunted too.” (Edith Eger, “The Choice”).

During WWII, Edith Eger and her family were sent to Auschwitz. A dancer and gymnast, she performed for Josef Mengele. Believing survival meant reuniting with loved ones gave her strength to endure horror, loss, and dehumanization. Her parents and boyfriend were killed. Years later, she learned to forgive herself and others.

This performance, inspired by The Choice, uses dance, movement, and puppets to explore trauma, memory, and liberation, telling a story of survival, ghosts of the past, and the courage to reclaim freedom – an experience reflecting us all.

Director, puppet artist: Gintarė RADVILAVIČIŪTĖ
Assistant director: Virginija RIMKAITĖ
Choreographer: Sigita MIKALAUSKAITĖ
Composer: Rita MAČILIŪNAITĖ
Scenographer, costume designer: Julija SKURATOVA
Lighting designer: Vilius VILUTIS
Workshop masters: Virginija Pajarskienė; Gintarė Vaivadaitė Valaišienė; Marius Vaitkus; Justinas Šukaitis

Actors: Sigita MIKALAUSKAITĖ; Deivis SARAPINAS; Lijana MUŠTAŠVILI; Indrė VĖLYVYTĖ; Eliza BONDARENKO

• Awards and festivals where the performance was presented:
  In 2023, dancer, choreographer, and Vilnius Puppet Theatre “Lėlė” actor Sigita Mikalauskaitė received the Contemporary Dance Association Award for the most memorable creative dance activity of the past year – the choreography of the movement performance “The Choice.”
• The 23rd Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes will take place from September 19 to 28, 2025, in Charleville-Mézières, France.
• The sixth edition of the International Festival of Puppet Theatres for Adults PUPPETS' METAMORPHOSES will take place between 20th and 28th of June 2025 in Białystok (Poland).