Modris Tenisons (19 March 1945 – 16 September 2020) was a

mime artist A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek language, Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a the ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

and

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. He was especially well known in Lithuania. He was also a multidisciplinary artist: a theater director, stage designer and theater consultant.

Background

Modris lost his father at an early age. He started schooling in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

when he was six years old. During his school days, he showed talent in art."MODRIS TENISONS: Režisors un scenogrāfs, dizaina mākslinieks, profesionāla pantomīmas teātra izveidotājs Kauņā."
2003. Retrieved October 6, 2010.

Mime career

After graduating from the School of Applied Arts in

, he studied and performed

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or ...

for four years under Robert Ligera, until he fell in love and emigrated to

. In 1966 at

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

, he founded the first professional pantomime team in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. He directed several professional pantomime theater and radio performances, including ''Ecce homo'' (1967), ''Dream Dreams'' (Sapņu sapņi, 1968), ''Do Butterflies'' (Sargājiet tauriņu, 1969), ''20th Century Capriccio'' (XX gadsimta Capricio, 1970), and ''Collage'' (Kolāža, 1971)."The Lithuanian Mime School. Modris Tenisons."
Retrieved October 6, 2010. Modris was loved and respected by Lithuanians, who considered him as a kind of local '

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...

'. Modris was honoured by the Lithuanian government with an Order of Gediminas for his contributions to the art of mime. He had been retired for years but kept drawing and attracting orders as an artist. He had remained a legend in Lithuania theater for two generations. In 2003, he was visited and interviewed by a group of Lithuanians to understand him as a phenomenon.

The language of ornamental signs

Modris also had great interest in

ornamentation An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration * Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts * Ornamental turning * Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals ...

. He was involved in researching the symbolism of the Latvian traditional Lielvārde Belt (''Lielvārdes josta'') with 22 ancient symbols. This Latvian ethnic group was a major part of his creative work. He and Armands Strazds were the creators of the Zime Project, which was the central exhibit of the Latvia Pavilion at

Expo 2000 Expo 2000 was a World Expo held in Hanover, Germany from 1 June to 31 October 2000. It was located on the Hanover Fairground (Messegelände Hannover), which is the largest exhibition ground in the world. Initially, some 40 million people were ...

. Zīmes, from the Latvian word for "sign", are coloured graphic patterns generated by the computer encryption of texts, pictures, or sounds. During the course of Expo 2000, 300,000 visitors to the Latvia Pavilion generated their personal "zīmes", including the (then) President of Latvia,

Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga (; born 1 December 1937) is a Latvian politician who served as the sixth president of Latvia from 1999 to 2007. She is the first and to date only woman to hold the post and the most recent to be re-elected for a second ter ...

Other contributions

In 2006 he was involved in a creative laboratory: a survey on actors'

psychophysics Psychophysics is the field of psychology which quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimulus (physiology), stimuli and the sensation (psychology), sensations and perceptions they produce. Psychophysics has been described ...

, nonverbal theater methods and the Latvian sign system. Sixteen actors (Rūta Birzleja, Nadīne Bokovikova, Linde Dambe, Sanita Duka, Ilze Ikše, Jurijs Kondratenko, Dzintars Krūmiņš, Daiga Līcīte, Sandris Majars, Simona Orinska, Dagne Reinika, Ieva Skopāne, Lena Smelova, Inese Upeniece, Agrita Vidže and Zigmārs Zakis) participated in his laboratory, which lasted for 4 months.

Personal life

Modris had to leave

and

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, where he had dedicated himself to mime, for his native

. Occasionally, he was engaged in theatrical activities after he got married. He survived his wife Ilze Tenisone"Ilze Tenisone: VJauniešu kamerkora 'Vecrīga' dibinātāja, vadītāja un ilggadēja diriģente."
Retrieved October 8, 2010. and had two adult sons, Juveris and Peteris, who worked and studied in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He lived with his daughter Ilze and assistant, friend and life partner Simona Orinska.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tenisons, Modris 1945 births 2020 deaths People from Riga Latvian entertainers Mimes Latvian artists