“Sounds of Solidarity” by Echo Mediterra for Mediterranean Day

Tuesday November 28^th, at 20:00
at “Evanthia Kairi” theatre
Free Entrance

Description of project:

The term “no man’s land” became historically significant in the First World War, when it referred to an unoccupied area between opposing armies. Interpreting the phrase ‘no man’s land’ in a metaphorical sense, I imagine a place where humans stand in their pur-est existence as animals striving to survive.
‘Songs of Absence’ is the first segment of my performance series ‘No Man’s Land’, which is based on this premise. It is based on the character Lavinia in Shakespeare’s ‘Titus An-dronicus’. Lavinia is the daughter of Titus, a general in the Roman army who is engaged in a cycle of revenge. ‘Songs of Absence’ is developed from the scene in which Lavinia has been raped, her tongue and hands were cut off by the assailants, and she is then hung from a dead tree trunk. She is stripped of her most fundamental human abilities to communicate. Yet, as she is physically pared down, her narrative and thematic im-portance escalates.
This seemingly paradoxical power of Lavinia’s silence heightens the sense of hearing. The primordial energy of the silence fills the absence of sound, like that of a wordless animal in no man’s land.

Description of project:

“The Sisters’ Project” (working title) is a theatrical dance performance addressed to all, from 8 to 108 years old. Set in a dusty attic, The Sisters’ Project unfolds the relationship between three sisters exploring the concept of loss. From the loss of loved ones and loved objects, to the loss of contact between them and the loss of time itself. How do three young women find support and comfort from each other, while developing their own identity.
Through humour and poetry, acrobacy, mime and an imaginative scenery (consisting of wooden objects and fabric), The Sisters’ Project takes you on a imaginative journey where there is space for complexity: for laughter and tears, anger and acceptance.

Artisti Diner
Thursday, September 14
from 6 p.m. visit of the sailboat Bise Noire
(Kon/nou Zervaki 5, Ermoupoli)
7:30 p.m. group walk to the Akropoditi Dance and Performing Arts Centre
(Ir. Politechniou 84, Ermoupoli)
8 p.m. performance installation and aperitif at the Akropoditi Dance and Performing Arts Centre.

Project description 

“Escales” is a multidisciplinary residency of artistic research and exchange founded by Laurine Landry, Lucas Verheij and Nourya White Khaldi aboard the sailing ship Bise Noire.
In collaboration with Akropoditi Dance and Performing Arts Centre, Bise Noire presents the work in progress of the four artists currently in residence.
During the three-week journey from Athens to Ermoupoli through the Cycladic islands, the four companions faced adverse winds, two mutinies and the confined space on board. This experience led them to draw inspiration from the “Ship of fools” by the painter Hieronymus Bosch.
The ship of fools is an allegory, originating from Book VI of Plato’s Republic, about a ship with a dysfunctional crew. The allegory is intended to represent the problems of governance prevailing in a political system not based on expert knowledge.

Mileva Testas (Toulouse, 1992) is a designer. She works on this exhibition with different ephemeral medium as base for sculpture and painting. She is interested in artisanal and industrial shapes.
She experimented sailing knots shaped in bread and memories pictures of the residence trip painted on rectangular crackers bread.

Swiss artist Nicolas Steullet (La Chaux-de-Fond, 1995) is currently researching into childhood states. For the Akropoditi Dance and Performing Arts Centre, he presents a research project in progress: a logorrhea in simili-French intended for humans under the age of 2. Using language, he is trying to create a secure cocoon. He is trying to extract the subjectivity of words to rediscover that place in childhood when language was charged solely with the emotions provoked by sounds.

The work “Softly and tenderly” by Lucas Herzig (Zurich, 1988) consists of remnants of fishing nets and threads collecting objects found along the places visited during the residency. Among them are bound stone figures depicting parts of the human body, referring to our senses, the means at our disposal to perceive and explore the space around us. The found objects are of human origin, reflecting our way of thinking, producing and exploiting the resources at our disposal.

From the figure of the mermaid, Ludovic Vial (Geneva, 1994) will present a performance incorporating different movement’s qualities, from Voguing, to the sail of the boat on which they have travelled until here. Somewhere between a monster and an object of desire, they will seek to bewitch as well as to warn of an imminent danger.

To all our dear friends of Akropoditi, 

In view of our current anniversary year we would like to celebrate with you our…

20 years since the conception and foundation of Akropoditi Dance Theatre
10 years since the foundation of Akropoditi Dance & Performing Arts Centre
10 years since the foundation of the International Dance and Performing Arts Festival “Akropoditi DanceFest”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              in Syros!                                                                                                                     

To cherish all our anniversaries we will be organizing two special evenings we would like to share with you.

Saturday 1^st April 2023
Celebrating the anniversary of the formation of our Company and Centre we will be offering a night filled with music, dance, food and lots of memories! We are looking forward to sharing our history and experiences with every single one of you; former and latter co-workers, fellow-travellers, students, members, friends and with whoever would like to get to know us.   

Friday 21^st June
The closing night will be dedicated to celebrating the anniversary of the foundation of the Akropoditi DanceFest. More information on this specific day is to be announced.  

Hope to see you there!

The project “OVERFLOW” is the result of the Artistic Residency of Silvia Pezzarossi & Anna-Maria Bayon at Akropoditi Dance and Performing Arts Centre.

Project description 

OVERFLOW is a contemporary dance and physical theater duet, performed by myself and the dancer Anna-Maria Bayon, which addresses adaptation and survival in society.
Particularly struck by the radical, immediate and contradictory nature of current social dynamics, I asked myself “how do bodies survive between increasingly extreme, increasingly unpredictable laws and events?”
The image behind this creation is that of a ‘contemporary shipwreck’. With a choreographic approach that feeds on an overdose of absurd and zany, naive and poetic imagination, it is an extravagant and staggering shipwreck that I wish to explore. The bodies of two women intertwine, support each other, counterbalance each other, adapt and save each other. Extreme, contradictory and insane like the challenges they have to face.
If on the one hand my intention is to explore the power and beauty of a body that adapts, transmutes, fits together, endures and resists to the point of overflowing; on the other hand, I want to give voice to the humanity that runs through it: its need for the other, for empathy and mutual aid.
Body and voice. Imagination and illusion. Control and laughter. Poetry and surprise.
OVERFLOW is an invitation to resilience through a sensitive, confident and creative look at our society.

with the support of Wallonie-Bruxelles International