Dagmāra Bārbale
1991
Choreographer, dance teacher
Dagmāra Bārbale (née Leja) was born on 23 January 1991 in Smiltene. Commenced her career in dance at the age of two and a half, in the children’s dance group of the Smiltene Cultural Centre, and then continued in the Ieviņa folk dance ensemble.
Studied at the Smiltene Secondary School, graduating in 2010. At the age of 14, was already working with dance groups – as a répétiteur and assistant leader of the Dadzīši (Wee Thistles) folk dance group (2005–2010) and the Ieviņa folk dance ensemble (2008–2010). Studied at the Rīga Graduate School of Law (2010-2013) obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Law and Diplomacy. She continued her studies at the Rīga Stradiņš University, gaining a Master's degree in Strategic and Public Relations Management (2015).
In parallel with her studies, was actively involved in folk dance groups in Rīga and Smiltene: led the Dadži (Thistles) young people’s dance group (2014–2017), and at dance teacher Agris Daņiļevičs’ Dzirnas (Mill) dance school since 2010. Since 2014, has worked with the Vektors Riga Technical University folk dance ensemble, initially as a répétiteur (2014–2016), later taking over as artistic director (from 2016).
Bārbale has worked with dancers of different generations: “The most difficult thing in instructive work is to get the dancer to want to understand and to immerse themselves in the process, so as to do it all to the best of their ability. Each age group has its own peculiarities, and one has to find an approach to each one, as to why it would be interesting for this dancer to take part. Perhaps there is a song and dance festival coming up, maybe a foreign trip or a major concert. As we say at Dzirnas, we have to find the carrot to dangle before them.”(Vanzovičs, Sandris. Dagmāra Bārbale: A choreographer we are going to hear a lot more about. Nir.lv. 3 May 2018)
The artist has also gained extensive and significant experience in the creation and management of major dance performances: as assistant to Daņiļevičs, participated in the central concert of the 15th Dance Festival Tēvu laipas (Our Fathers’ Plank-ways, 2013), major dance performances No zobena saule lēca (The Sun Leaps from the Sword, 2013), Zvaigžņu rakstu kalējiņi (Smiths of Stellar Patterns, 2014) and Lec, Saulīte (Rise, Oh Sun), where she also performed as a soloist (2014), as well as a choreographer’s assistant and dancers’ coordinator at the World Choir Games in Rīga (2014), choreographer’s assistant at the major folk-dance production Līdz varavīksnei tikt (To Reach the Rainbow) at the Latvian School Youth Song and Dance Festival (2015) and the Nordic-Baltic Song Festival (2015).
Bārbale was a chief choreographer for the major folk-dance production Gredzenus mijot (Exchanging Rings, 2016), at Spēlēju. Dancoju. Dejoju (I Played. I Danced. I Pranced), the 35th anniversary concert of the Iļģi post-folk group (2017), the Vēstījums Rakstos (Message in the Symbols) major dance concert (2018), No zobena saule lēca (The Sun Leaps from the Sword) dance production (2016, 2018), as well as for the Māras zeme ((Goddess) Māra’s Land) central dance production at the XXVIth All-Latvian Song and XVIth Dance Festival (2018).
The versatile artist has also achieved notable success in creating new dances. Many of them have received prizes at creative dance competitions, such as the award-winning choreographies Pazarītes (Tiny Branches, 1st place), Cīruli, cīruli (My Dear Lark, 1st place), Es čigāna meita biju (I was a Gypsy’s Girl, 2nd place) in 2016 and, in 2017, Jestrais dancis (Frisky Dance, 1st place), Dzīvoju pie kundziņa (I Lived at the Gentleman’s House, 1st place) and Salniņa (Mild Frost) with which the Vektors folk-dance ensemble won 1st prize and the audience vote at the Valmiera Cultural Centre in the XXth Creative Dance Competition final. For the Vēstījums Rakstos (Message in the Symbols) major production (2018), Bārbale, together with Agris Daņiļevičs and Gints Baumanis, created new choreographies for compositions by the post-folk group Raxtu Raxti.
A chief choreographer at the XXVIIth All-Latvian Song and XVIIth Dance Festival (2023).
