An experiential event for children, with elements of dramatised documentary and narrative performance and with original music, revolving around the games in the neighbourhoods of Asia Minor, which “tell” in their own way the everyday life of the communities prior to the 1922 Catastrophe. Games that seem forgotten, played without ever being told, left to perish along with the hope for the return to the motherland.
The thread of collective memory unfolds through a story that travels in time, through playing with children games that were passed down by those who saw pain in refugee yards, along with the smile of a carefree childhood.
Stories of integration and rebirth in a new land as well as ways used to express resourcefulness, the grace and imagination of a people, will be presented with the help of contemporary audiovisual means and restored old toys.
Seventeen refugee settlements were integrated into Northern Evia. Four out of these transformed into separate refugee villages that took their names from respective regions of Asia Minor: Neos Pirgos, Neo Mousarli, Nea Egin, Nea Sinasos.
Refugees from Prokopi of Cappadocia, Makri and Livisi, Marmara, the region of Smyrna, Ardassa in Pontus, Michaniona in the area of Kyzikos in Propontis, and Yosgati in the far reaches of Asia Minor, settled in Northern Evia, bringing along their traditions and know-how, and breathing new life into the place.
A performance combining the screening of stories of present-day descendants of refugees and archival photographs with the live presentation of original compositions based on the rhythms and melodies of Asia Minor, attempts to capture the contribution of refugees to the shaping of this place’s new identity, taking the audience on a journey across a past yet recent space-time continuum.
Troy. Smyrna. The face. The mother. The land. The motherland. The Queen. Hecuba. She crosses time. Like a curved arrow.
Ruins. Corpses. A city. Troy. Smyrna. Lost motherlands. Lost lives. Whose walls are ruined. Burnt down. By the fire of war. Thousands of people. Becoming refugees. They saw their port turning into a river of blood. They buried there a piece of their soul. Their heart hasn’t forgotten. The body was tortured, to put down roots elsewhere.
The story of a city. The destruction of the “cradle of civilisation”. Troy is still on fire.
This work involves collaboration between contemporary dance and original music and it is inspired by images and emotions emerging from the texts of well-known authors and poets (Sotiriou, Venezis, Seferis, Hemingway, et al.) who wrote about the Asia Minor Catastrophe.
The despair, sorrow, terror, pain and the struggle for survival and inclusion of the Asia Minor refugees are dramatized through contemporary dance choreographies, which are enriched with contemporary music compositions and songs interlacing electronic soundscapes with Asia Minor music scales and rhythms. The lyrics of the songs are inspired by images and emotions emerging from the texts.
The goal of this work is to highlight the ability of the Asia Minor refugees to transform pain and sorrow into art.
The three artists offer a musical and poetic presentation of the relationship between Kalomiris and Palamas, a rare phenomenon of osmosis between two leading exponents of the Greek letters.
In his autobiography, the great composer from Smyrna, Manolis Kalomiris, recalls his life against the backdrop of Asia Minor, and also how he had dreamt since childhood to become one day the shaper of Greece’s musical language – a “Palamas” of contemporary Greek music. This music-theatre rehearsed reading is based on Tina Malikouti’s idea to combine the composer’s piano works with K. Palamas’ poem “The Twelve Lays of the Gypsy”, which had left a defining mark on M. Kalomiris’ entire artistic career, capturing the nature of the modern Greek soul.
Smyrna, Constantinople, Vienna, Athens. Images from the life of a cosmopolitan Greece spread over the East and the West.
A Dot of Eutopia is based on the relationship between our perception of the time and space distance separating us from climate crisis on the one hand and the development of positive emotions and internal motivations for individual and collective commitment to slow down climate change on the other. Choreographer Zoi Efstathiou explores the concept of distance, by creating relationships of interdependence, autonomy, and collective effort. The dancers focus on positive emotions and associate them with the commitment of both individuals and society to address climate change. More specifically, they follow movement paths and develop persistent interactions driven by intrinsic motivations, that can lead them to a research of collective action. As shown by the title, the production seeks and creates – through the arts of dance, multimedia and modern electronic music – a eutopia, an actual place and way of slowing down climate change through positive emotions.
NEMESIS, the new production conceived and directed by Giorgos Christakis, founder of Dagipoli Dance Co, explores the relationship between the human body and the environment, the ecosystem and climate change, and points out the key role played in maintaining the balance among them by the human factor, that is, human behaviour.
If one projects the role of the climate change-burdened ecosystem onto the human body, one notices that the degeneration of both of them is mainly due to human behaviour. Taking into account the social, economic, class, national, and psychological considerations and effects of climate change, NEMESIS explores the spectrum and the processes of effectively addressing it in relation to man and his body and, more specifically, the disabled body. That is why the work proposes ways to address the effects of climate change and the issue of human behaviour in association with these two vital notions (body/disabled body) by drawing connections, pinpointing identifications and developing interactions between them.
In the new original work The Oracles of Water, director and choreographer Apostolia Papadamaki creates a modular, interactive and participatory site-specific performance connecting climate change and the global water crisis with the mythical background and worship of Apollo in Delphi. Through a trajectory of meanings, she aspires to put together scientific discoveries and findings, historical facts, mythical entities and high concepts, by associating studies on the effects of climate change in the wider area of Delphi and the consequences of human intervention in its water table with the global water crisis. The performance transcends traditional boundaries, using the power of art to attract audiences both spiritually and emotionally. It serves as a reminder of humanity’s responsibility to protect the planet’s most valuable resource and encourage collective action to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Every performance consists of two parts. The first part takes place between 6.30-7.30, at sunrise, at the Temple of Athena Pronaia and the second part between 20.00-21.10 at the archaeological site of Delphi. Attending both parts is mandatory.
The musical group In excelsis presents a finely-tuned performance called Εις την Πόλιν – Istanbul, exploring the multiple and diverse aspects of the musical, artistic, and spiritual landscape of “Ottoman” Constantinople. Through this landscape, painted with the colours of sounds, speech, and movement, the goal is to capture the atmosphere and ambiance of that era – sometimes dreamlike and spiritual, other times filled with conflict or sacredness, yet always colourful and diverse.
Hymns from the Byzantine music repertoire intersect with the sacred music of the Dervishes (specifically the Mevlevi order), alongside typical orchestral compositions reflecting the intellectual secularism that dominated the Sultan’s Palace and Constantinople for centuries following its Fall. At the same time, “military marches” blend with excerpts from folk lamentations about the Fall of Constantinople, complementing the most important musical compositions related to Constantinople during that time.
The international performer Erini presents the music and dance performance “Malés,” in which the thematic axis of “conflict” is drawn from the Cretan “mantinada”. In the Cretan dialect, “Malés” means quarrel/fight, and in this particular performance, it challenges the audience to view conflict not only as a destructive force but also as a source of creation and inspiration that emerges from cultural osmosis. Erini collaborates with Manolis Manousakis (music director) and Aristoula Toli (dance director) and interprets traditional Cretan songs in interesting orchestrations of an ever-evolving tradition. At the same time, the performance highlights the interconnected relationship between music, song, and dance, the threefold event, a dynamic phenomenon with performative power that constitutes an integral part of the artistic and cultural expression of the local Cretan culture, while emphasis is given to the content and meanings of the words. The conflict and its various aspects are depicted, visualized, and questioned through the “female gaze” in Cretan music.