Event Category: Performance

DURATION: 90′

LUNAPARK.works 07
LUNA PARK

As part of its 10th International Encounter for Young Dance Professionals ‘How to dance in times of crisis?’ in Athens from 17.10.2025 to 03.11.2025, LUNA PARK is realising the collective performance format LUNAPARK.works – now in its seventh edition. For LUNAPARK.works 07, the participants develop their own short performances, including solos and group pieces, some of them as works in progress, and present them to the public on 30 and 31 October 2025 in PLYFA.

The exchange program ‘How to dance in times of crisis?’ has been organised by LUNA PARK as part of its support for young talents since 2016 with annual encounters in Berlin and Athens. How does our understanding of art change in times of serious social upheaval, in times of local and global crises? How does our artistic expression change? Do we dance differently in times of crisis? Can dance make a difference – even outside the theatre? The participating young dance makers will address these questions in lectures, seminars and discussions, as well as dance theory and philosophical approaches to the conception and evaluation of contemporary dance and performance art. They are supported and curated by experienced choreographers and dance scholars, who will also lead practical workshops in choreography and improvisation as well as joint dance rehearsals, and who will support the young artists in particular in working on their own projects, which will be shown as part of LUNAPARK.works 07.

LUNAPARK.works 07 is a presentation format of the Initiative LUNA PARK e.V., in cooperation with the Greek association LOUNA PARK ERGA, funded by the German-Greek Youth Office (DGJW) as part of the international exchange project ‘How to dance in times of crisis? ‘ and supported in the frame of the artist residency program “tanz(t)räume” (dance rooms/ dreams) funded by TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund (DANCE PACT Local-Regional-National) and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. 

LUNA PARK, founded in 2002 as an initiative of independent artists, has been realizing contemporary dance productions with performances in Germany, Greece and abroad, diverse extracurricular artistic education projects for children, teenagers and young adults and international exchange and encounter programs for young dance professionals and dance education specialists for over 20 years. 

Duration: 100 min with a break
Suitable age: The performance is suitable for everyone aged 16 and over. In certain scenes of the performance, loud sounds, intense lighting effects (strobe light), and darkness are used.

SOPA
Nela Fortunato
Opening Act: Elsa by Stella Evangelia Kasoumpi

SOPA is a performance piece. A one-person show. An ode to peculiarity.

A succession of vignettes in which Iris unravels their thoughts. Through images, memories and dreams, Iris addresses the audience on what it is to be living outside the norm.
Iris opens up, a monstrously beautiful bird. They stomp and dance and tell stories. They are the question mark in an alphabet soup, a femme fatale soaked in a stew, a series of memories traveling from far away in a space rocket.

The piece uses physical theater and a queer, pop, distorted aesthetic in order to pose questions that subvert, trespass and repel the ideas of femininity/masculinity, binarism and gender roles.

Tonal Shifts
Six embodied improvisations on gender fluidity

A physical exploration of gender fluidity through six improvisations that focus on tension, tone, direction, lift, and gravity as embodied tools of self-determination.
Tone and succession function as fundamental bodily patterns in the process of gender transition. They are not approached as abstract concepts, but as active, experiential events: they reveal the dynamic nature of the body and its ability to transform — somatomorphically, biochemically, socially; and also as a vessel of memory, desire, and political presence.

In Tonal Shifts, the body becomes both mirror and conduit. Through bodily tone, sequences are activated that either represent the bodies of the spectators or embody classical figures that have historically constructed gender. The body becomes an open field of discussion.

The performance creates a live soundscape, where body and voice are in constant dialogue. Resonance, accumulation, and vocal expansion act as vocal, organic shifts that reverberate through the body.
The “room of the voice” becomes a space where voice vibrates as a political trace: a presence that positions itself, clashes, and transforms.

Through the body, the voice, and the materiality of sound,
the performance becomes an act of reclamation;
a politics of tone, form, and fluidity.

Duration: 30 minutes
Suitable for: Ages 18 and over
Ticket price: 12 euros

DIPTYCH

DIPTYCH, the new project by Konstantinos Papasotiropoulos in collaboration with Eleftheria Agapaki, is presented for six days at the Foyer of PLYFA. Stefanos Vlachos, in the theater’s antechamber, performs a solo piece consisting of OKU NO HOSOMICHI and ARCHEION, presented in succession, capturing the work of the walking man.

A. OKU NO HOSOMICHI (September 2024, Ballas, 30’)

I am walking
I am walking
I am walking
I am walking
I am walking

A rectangular metal sheet surface laid with fine charcoal / a hole before the world / dislocated from the effort of observation / I receive the world / I walk / white light / the walking man sees with his fingers

B. ARCHEION (October 2023, Athens, 20’)

An imaginary cylindrical collage of snapshots from the lives of people who separated from themselves out of love / a man dances at its center / orange light / within the hole I am signified / perhaps the air / in the trace, the entire journey is stored / vertical arrangement of the body

Notes:
OKU NO HOSOMICHI is a stage adaptation of the eponymous travel diary by the classical Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694). This text follows the journey of Bashō and his student from present-day Tokyo to the northern provinces of Japan. In OKU NO HOSOMICHI, the journey of man through the world is captured. ARCHEION constructs a textual body with excerpts from the Synaxarion of Saint Nikodemos (1749–1809). At the center of a hole in his path, man connects with the body of the multitude of Saints.

DIPTYCH is an independent production of HËW.

The Land of Wanting More
A research on the decriminalization of female sexuality

The expression of sexuality is one of the core dimensions of human personality. The perception one has of their own body is directly connected to their sexual identity and, consequently, to their self-esteem. Does this simple principle apply equally to all genders?

In 2019, the Council of Europe described the current situation concerning women as a violation of human rights. It depicted an environment that is hostile and simultaneously offensive to the physical, sexual, psychological, and socioeconomic expression of women, which primarily obstructs their autonomy and the implementation of human rights, while perpetuating gender stereotypes in both public and private life. This was the first definition of sexism in an international text. Gender stereotypes perpetuate the unequal treatment of men and women. Women who challenge their supposed roles in society may face sexist and misogynistic behavior.

During the interwar period, the liberation of female sexuality became, for society, the embodiment of lust. It was seen as a dragon that poisoned everything it touched, turning women into indifferent, irresponsible, and toxic beings. In the modern 20th century (the 70s, 80s, and 90s), women became empowered, emancipated, and defied stereotypes on a large scale. In this new era of sexual liberation, women were able to expose their bodies even more, as a symbol of resistance against the sexism that persists in society. They stood naked, unapologetic for their bodies, instead showing them love. However, the criticism, isolation, contempt, guilt, violation, abuse, and constant fear they experienced for these choices have remained a persistent part of society then and now.

The struggle for gender equality, from which the uninhibited expression of sexuality arises, has been in a fundamental state of conflict since the early 20th century, with the creation of the first wave of the feminist movement. A century later, in its third wave, the feminist movement continues to fight against attitudes, practices, and behaviors based on the idea that one person is superior or inferior due to their gender.

Through systematic research, practical representation, and well-founded discussions, an attempt is made to provoke genuine public reflection, seeking deeper introspection on the issue of the historical oppression of eroticism and the free expression of women’s identities.

The Land of Wanting More is a mixed-media performance that combines practices from devised theater, the Viewpoints technique, and cinematography. Using dramatic and narrative speech (alternating between roles and actors) and in dialogue with live music, the stories of women come to life as they confront their unconscious, face their desires, and identify with them. The final script of the performance emerged both from research and improvisation, and it is inspired by texts from George Sand, Charles Mee, Judith Butler, Sam Shepard, Camille Paglia, Colette, the poetry of Matsi Hatzilazarou, and real testimonies. These testimonies are personal stories of sexual liberation and loss, as well as sexual, physical, and emotional abuse of women.

Trigger Warning – the performance includes a graphic description of rape.

Duration: 50 minutes