Archives: Events

AURORA
SPYROS KOUVARAS & SYNTHESIS 748 DANCE CO.

The choreographer Spyros Kouvaras and the Greek-French contemporary dance group Synthesis 748 Dance Co. return to PLYFA in Votanikos with their new work, presenting the piece “AURORA” for five performances from December 14 to 18. “AURORA,” the third part of the choreographic series “Sacred Bodies of a New Ecotopia,” draws inspiration from the plant world and the book The Three Ecologies by Félix Guattari, exploring symbiotic possibilities between nature and culture in a time of urgent ecological need. Spyros Kouvaras creates a choreographic meta-fiction, a techno-natural space that hovers between dream and reality, seemingly detached from the conventional space-time continuum. In a scenographic setting where primal and futuristic elements interact, the performers envision a dawning new era. Their bodies appear devoted to the perpetuation of their movements, and through the constant exchange of sensory stimuli between nature and humanity, they trace the outlines of an alternative “geology of existence.” “AURORA” is not merely a work about the environment; it is a self-contained environment—an emerging community of living beings that, approaching our world with poetic abstraction and imagination, raises reflective questions about the cultural reality we have shaped.

SYNTHESIS 748 DANCE CO.

Synthesis 748 Dance Co. was founded in 2010 in Paris by choreographer and dancer Spyros Kouvaras, with support from the CND—France’s National Dance Center. Since 2017, the company has been supported by the Ministry of Culture and is based in Athens. Synthesis 748 Dance Co. has developed an international presence, with its works presented in theaters, museums, galleries, archaeological sites, and festivals across European countries, South America, Lebanon, and recently at the CICA Museum in South Korea. Spyros Kouvaras’s choreographic research and practice draw inspiration from myth and posthumanist theories, focusing on social imaginaries and embracing utopian communities of both present and future. The dance vocabulary diverges from recognizable forms of contemporary dance and centers on the interactions of body, sound, and image, creating kinetic environments with a neo-ritualistic aesthetic.

The performance is presented with financial support from the Ministry of Culture.

Don’t
Anema Dance Company and Zoe Efstathiou

The Anema Dance Company and emerging choreographer Zoe Efstathiou present the performance “Don’t”, a work inspired by social and kinetic prohibitions.

The concept of kinetic prohibition emerged from the choreographer’s previous notes, which guided the dancer on what to do or not to do. Starting from a dystopian setting, the dancers come together to create a system born from prohibitions—a system that operates and repeats. This system is formed by dancers—individuals who conform from its inception, experiencing the discomfort of compliance—and by an individual “alibi,” a form of otherness that obeys, unable to manage its freedom and uniqueness.

The choreographer’s artistic and kinetic proposal is rooted in minimalism, choreographic composition, and the creation of movement material that repeats and evolves, functioning as an exhausting and controlling system.

With her dual identity as a Psychologist, the choreographer highlights the dysfunction of a system by choreographing four dancers, while also engaging in dialogue with Panteion University and Social Psychologists researching the “entity-system.”

On the day of the premiere, a Q&A session with the creators will follow, along with an open discussion with the audience featuring a Musicologist, Drama Therapist, and Social Psychologist.

Under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture

Duration: 45 minutes

REDUNDANCes
An original “ballet” that no one really needed.

The choreographer Dimitris Mytilinaios presents this year his new work REDUNDANCes. Insisting on experimenting with the reformulation of the ballet stage code, he now stages a choreographic collage of remixed classical variations.

The title oscillates between “redundant dances” and “redundancies of dance”, i.e. “redundant dances” and “redundancies of dance”, and touches sarcastically both on the debate regarding utilitarian and useful art and on the tendency for symbolic meaning and narrative association of the work art with modern life. At the same time, in a humorous tone, the work refers on the one hand to the feeling that it is unnecessary to do something more difficult (in this case dancing) and on the other hand to the difficulty of feeling that what one does is unnecessary.

The play consists of sixteen covered variations and unfolds in four acts. The composer, Andis Skordis, re-orchestrates the orchestral passages and gives us their percussive versions. Reverently preserving the original scores, the group is tested in all combinations (soli, duets, trios, quartets and quintet) based on an apparent libretto from which the roles also arise: the Prince, the Maid, the Cook, the King of the Upland and the Princess of the Upland. The idea of percussive covers aims at the aesthetic renewal of the familiar repertoire, disrupting the relationship between rhythm and melody and emphasizing elements that may not be prominent in the original versions, while the libretto unifies the fragments of the ballets and at the same time opens a window to the imagination.

Excerpts from: Études, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Sylvia, Swan Lake, Sylphide, Petrushka, Laurencia, Giselle, Diana and Actaeon, Romeo and Juliet and The Story of Manon are used in the performance.

The show is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
With the support of the Polina Galopoulou Dance School.

Duration: 50′

Veritas

Ioanna Portolou & Griffón Dance Co.

The Griffón dance company and choreographer Ioanna Portolou present their new production Veritas, an insightful and timely work that explores the concept of truth. The performance will be staged at the PLYFA Theatre in Votanikos from November 9th, 2024, for fourteen performances, running until December 8th, 2024 (every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 21:30). Following the sold-out success of their production Amazing, Griffón returns with a dynamic piece that delves into the truth—what is unseen, unspoken, hidden, and untold.

What is truth? Does it exist? And if so, who knows it? Truth is what is presented as reality. However, beliefs and subjectivity are its greatest adversaries, as they employ a multitude of metaphors, pronouns, and anthropomorphisms, ultimately misinterpreting the true event. On this topic, German philosopher Martin Heidegger argued that the truth represented by aletheia (which essentially means “unconcealment”) differs from veritas, which is tied to a Roman notion of correctness and, ultimately, a Nietzschean sense of justice and will to power.

Can one truth be more true than another? In the new work Veritas, Ioanna Portolou choreographs Griffón’s dancers—Ioanna Apostolou, Cécile Mikroutsikou, Giannis Nikolaidis, and Theano Xydia—under the imposing electronic sounds of Antonis Palaskas, creating a universe of dense, associative images, political and historical references, and an eerie atmosphere. The performance Veritas confronts the audience with their own personal truth and the frailty of the human body.