Many of Lithuania's national celebrations and rituals involved dance, which were given names according to their function.

Circular or ring dances (rateliai), games (zaidimai) and paired dances (sokiai) were performed for parties and celebrations, as were polyphonic singing dances (Sutartinių sokiai), which paired specific dance steps with archaic songs.

Today folk dances usually go hand in hand with folk songs and are performed on stage, but originally they would include entire communities.

'Lithuanian Dances' is a sequence of seven popular folk dances from various regions of the country. 'Astuonnytis' portrays the spinning of yarn and the weaving of fabric, whilst 'Gyvataras' is a moody, medium tempo dance.

'Dzigunas' ('The Jig') imitates a galloping horse whilst 'Linelis' (Little Flax) is one of the oldest game dances reflecting human life and work in the fields.

'Rezginele' is a girl's dance characterised by weaving figures whilst 'Sadute' is danced at the home of a bride by her closest girl friends on the eve of the wedding. 'Suktinis' ('Twirler') is the traditional finale dance at all folk-dance festivals.

The work also incorporates national folk instruments such as skrabalai (wooden bells) and skuduciai (Panpipes), although for the contest these are to be played on xylophone and muted brass.