The youth-oriented novel When the Statues Went Away by Angeliki Darlasi, adapted for the stage by the author herself and directed by Christos Christopoulos, has been turned into a special performance designed for children aged 6 to 11 years.
Once there was a girl who had heard statues singing. She had danced with them in the moonlight. She had seen them shedding tears. Because statues come alive at night. Angelina was well aware of that, as she grew up in a museum. Tiko and the statues were her best friends. When Mussolini declared war against Greece, the fear that the darkness of Nazism would prevail grew even stronger. And all those involved in the museum, from archaeologists to plain workers, all of them shared a common anxiety. They all protected the same secret, which seemed to be summarized in just one phrase: “We must make haste…”. Angelina will want to learn that secret and help her friend, Tiko, hide his own.
The Dance of Death, a piece conceived and choreographed by Iris Karayan, focuses on the concept of conflict in times of war – a topical and deeply evocative theme.
Drawing inspiration from the painting Der Krieg [The War, 1929-1932] by German artist Otto Dix, as well as his collection of fifty etchings and engravings from 1924, Iris Karayan choreographs a performance that intertwines political, expressionistic, and allegorical elements, combining the art forms of dance and music. Hovering between opposite poles, such as chaos and harmony, conflict and concord, tension and calmness, the performance will revitalize the Ancient Theatre of Gythio with the energy of its four dancers’ movement, creating a powerful and dense choreographic narrative based on the concept of conflict.
Four actors and a musician travel to Arcadia, seeking fragments of the myth. Their goal is to found a utopian community in harmony with nature, following the tradition of the Arcadian Ideal.
From ancient to contemporary times, Arcadia has been the place onto which European thought has projected the idea of a lost paradise on earth. It is a place where myth and reality blend. At the same time, it reflects the issue of Greece’s heterodefinition, given that many of the thinkers who shaped the perception of Greece never actually visited the country.
How far is the Western European mythical tradition of Arcadia from the modern Greek experience? Can we imagine an ideal society today? Can we imagine a life in harmony with nature, or does something like that come in conflict with our modern lifestyle?
In the Fortified Troupakis-Mourtzinos complex in the Old Town of Kardamyli, a monument that serves as a testament to the story of the last members of the Palaiologos family, Fenia Papadodima takes us on a tour across the land of the Nykliani. A land and a world that is at once cruel and fascinating. A place where death is constantly present.
Through her original music, the portraits painted by Giorgos Kordis on stones hanging on the walls of the tower, and the texts – Mani by Patrick Leigh Fermor, Homer’s Nekyia, as well as folkloristic and philosophical studies, and oral traditions –, the performance explores a woman’s position within a harsh, patriarchal family. Her weakness and strength. Her cry and lullaby. The boundary between life and death. In this misty, hovering “in-between” realm of Mani. Alongside her performing – an ensemble of renowned musicians.
The music theatre performance In the Labyrinth: Accounts and Poems by Incarcerated Women brings to life poems, thoughts, and accounts of women who have been imprisoned, as well as those who have been released from prison.
The emotional fluctuations, internal conflicts, and mental struggle of these women are brought to the foreground through the performance of traditional songs from various parts of Greece and Southern Italy. Seven female artists – five musicians, an actress, and a dancer –join forces on stage to create a poetic, musical, and visual representation of the Labyrinth.
A contemporary ritual that blends storytelling with live music and dance, creating a performance that is both dynamic and ardent, while also embracing a more traditional (“doric”) approach to presenting various stage expressions, with the goal of vividly portraying on stage the Labyrinth found within the minds and souls of incarcerated women. A hymn to every individual’s personal journey towards the much-desired freedom.
ATOPOS cvc presents Otherlands a site specific exhibition at the archaeological space of
Heraion, Perachora, in the framework of the program of 2024 of the Ministry of Culture
“All of Greece, One Culture”. Otherlands serve as a space of critical encounter with
the Other; sculptures by Petros Moris and sonic fiction by Jeph Vanger and Savina Yannatou
intertwine, in a resonance of everything that exists and has existed in the land, human and
non-human bodies, archaeological remains and geological materials.
Exploring lost stories and connections of pre-archaic history and mythology while maintaining a
direct connection to the subterranean, Otherlands is an interrogation of otherness in deep
time, as a structural component of conflict at both the social and intercultural levels. Deep time
is kept by the drift of the tectonic plates and fossil traces of stone-eating animals in the
limestone columns of the archaeological space. Within deep time we are able to reimagine
historical and contemporary conflicts as we give in to slower processes of making and
unmaking.
The piece hot dark matter, inspired and choreographed by Zoi Efstathiou, explores the transit of refugees, drawing parallels to the passage from heaven to earth. It also compares refugee reception with the arrival of hot dark matter, a whirlwind moving leftwards and carrying information, an ambiguous mass.
Hot dark matter is a programme that tracks bodies in the deep sea, a programme that delves into the Odyssey-like journey of refugees who are driven away from foreign countries. Focusing on the body of a dancer moving leftwards as they strive to move towards the light, the concepts of exclusion and integration, intergroup contact and conflict, are being shaped. The piece treads a fine line between the presence or absence of a realistic conflict that arises during the reception of hot dark matter, as the bodies clash, align, merge, experience exclusion, and move forward together.
Beats per Minute Cultural Group presents the walking dance theatre performance Final Class: Gymnastics. It is a piece that blends elements of documentary theatre and devised theatre, aimed at teenagers and young individuals. The creative team invites audiences to ponder why the gymnastics teacher’s phrase “Boys grab some balls to play football, and girls – some balls to play ‘apples’ (a type of children’s game)” seems so familiar to them. T
he gymnastics class at a typical general high school is turned into a battlefield centered on gender discrimination and stereotypes regarding sexual orientation. The class breaks apart when the students start investigating and questioning gender discriminations and the ways in which they are reproduced during the class. This process triggers an anxious internal conflict in all individuals involved – a conflict stemming from exploring the concepts of femininity and masculinity, challenging gender discrimination, and expanding the importance of gender identities.
The new work by choreographer and dancer Dimitris Mytilineos titled Afternoon dances explores a choreographic language that is characterized by a horizontal approach, less emphasis on competition, and a lack of masks.
Afternoon dances could be described as a hybrid piece that draws its raw material from classical ballet, blending it with choreographic tools of postmodern and modern dance. Under the sounds of percussion, dancers perform in various formations – solo, as duos, trios, and a quartet –, relying solely on movement and music for aesthetic expression.