KATARIINA: THE QUEEN WHO UNITED THE BALTIC SHORES
KATARIINA: THE QUEEN WHO UNITED THE BALTIC SHORES
KATARIINA: THE QUEEN WHO UNITED THE BALTIC SHORES
Contemporary Dance Performance
Premiere: Tuesday, 24 March 2026
Venue: Tanssin Talo, Erkko Hall, Kaapeliaukio 3, 00180 Helsinki
Duration: 45 minutes
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
Katariina: The Queen Who United the Baltic Shores is a contemporary dance performance commissioned by the Lithuanian Embassy to Finland to mark the 500th anniversary of the birth of Katariina Jagellonica (1526–1583) — Kotryna Jogailaitė (Lithuanian) / Katarzyna Jagiellonka (Polish) – daughter of the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and from 1562 the wife of the Duke of Finland, later King John III of Sweden.
Concept & Choreography: Karolina Auglytė Butavičienė and contemporary dance theatre Plalaforma (Vilnius, Lithuania)
Music: Otso Kauniskangas (Helsinki, Finland)
KATARIINA JAGELLONICA — DID YOU KNOW?
- Katariina’s great-great-grandfather Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania and later King of Poland, was born in 1352 in Lithuania — then the last pagan state in Europe. He accepted baptism in 1386 upon receiving the Polish Crown and introduced Christianity to Lithuania.
- In the 16th century, the Jagiellonian dynasty ruled both the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The two states shared a monarch yet retained distinct identities, institutions, and capitals.
- Katariina’s mother, Bona Sforza of Milan, helped introduce Renaissance culture to Lithuania and Poland, bringing artists, architects, tailors, and gardeners from Italy. Katariina and her siblings were raised in Renaissance fashion—learning Latin, Italian, and German, as well as etiquette, dance, painting, music, hunting, and also mathematics, economics, and agriculture.
- Katariina became a cultural bridge between Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, and Sweden. Following her royal wedding to John (later King John III Vasa) in Vilnius in 1562 – after residing at the royal court there for several years – she arrived at Turku Castle with a lavish dowry of carriages, horses, books, furniture, jewels, tableware — and notably several types of table forks, introduced to Finland and Sweden for the first time.
- John and Katariina lived in Turku Castle for less than a year—the only royal couple ever to reside in Finland—before being arrested by King Eric XIV in 1563 and imprisoned in Gripsholm Castle until 1567.
- Offered freedom and return home by Eric XIV, Katariina refused to abandon her imprisoned husband. Two of their children were born during their captivity. Though eleven years younger, King John III deeply respected and loved Katariina. According to historians, he valued her political and cultural counsel, named her as a possible regent.
PLALAFORMA CONTEMPORARY DANCE THEATRE
Plalaforma is a contemporary dance theatre of young performers, who grow and mature artistically together through long-term collaboration, from their student years into working life.
Plalaforma’s artistic approach emphasizes fine detail in contemporary movement, diversity of dance techniques, and emotionally engaging, process-driven creation.
CREATIVE TEAM
Karolina Auglytė Butavičienė - choreographer, dance educator, founder and artistic director of Plalaforma. She holds a Master’s degree in Choreography from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and has worked in contemporary dance for more than a decade.
Otso Kauniskangas - (Helsinki, Finland) is a musician, composer, and multimedia artist currently studying music technology at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. For Katariina: The Queen Who United the Baltic Shores, he reinterpreted elements of traditional Finnish and Lithuanian music and shaped them into an electronic soundtrack that unfolds gradually, setting the atmosphere of the performance. It combines clear structure with moments of openness and surprise, while remaining warm and distinctly human in sound—even as it is created through digital technology.
Embassy of Lithuania – author of an idea.
