Dimitra Mertzani
22/05/25 – 01/06/25
Performing arts: Dance
Title of the project: “Flowing Reality”
Greece/Cyprus
Description of project:
Reading a beloved book, from comics to literature artworks, something touching rises that gives us the feeling of being related to it. How does the sense of what is «hidden» behind the lines become dance? This project explores how dance is born through the internal movement caused by the texts we read.
Extracting fragments out of passages that move me on such as theatre plays, poems, letters etc, i will record words, phrases, situations and conditions that emerge from every selected piece of writing. Through analysing, experimenting in practice and searching, the extracted elements will be filtered in various, registered dance maps. I imagine a solo of a dancer, passing from one cosmo-map to the other, creating senses of different situations and synthesizing a reality, which is constantly changing, formulating a tour of personalities, of various spaces and times, of perspectives, intentions and desires.
The whole idea is triggered by the curiosity about how dance is being born and how it acquires its meaning.
Open presentation:
Saturday May 31st 2025
21:00, Free Entrance
Improvisation workshop: Drawing inspiration and elements from our favourite books
Sunday June 01st 2025, 11:30-14:00
Free submission
Dimitra Mertzani
Dimitra Mertzani is a graduate of National School of Dance (KSOT), Athens, Greece. She was granted a fellowship and attended the ICD-International Contemporary Dance Programme in Turin, and she is a senior 4th year student in the Department of Theatre Studies at the University of Athens. She works as a professional dancer, choreographer’s assistant, movement director in theatrical performances and teaches contemporary dance and improvisation. She has collaborated with choreographers such as Tzeni Argyriou (Hotspot, Phrasis, Praxis, Meetings, Synthesis, Anonymo), Christos Papadopoulos (Ion, Opus), Kitt Johnson (Synthesis), Rootlessroot: Linda Kapetanea and Josef Frucek (Stones and bones), Ermira Goro (Thirst, You, Dandelion), Hannes Langolf (Dandelion), Aria Boumbaki (I’m too sad to, Running Dry), Kat Valastur-Leon Eixenberger (Ajativada-black rain), Katerina Delakura (Re-volver), Kyriaki Nasioula and Argyris Angeli (Loom), Patricia Apergi (Cementary), Mina Ananiadou-Guest Project (Lakes,4 episodes and the Sunset), Christos Xyrafakis-Andi Xhuma (Exhibition at Palais de Tokyo) and Hellenic Dance Company (Open frontiers) giving performances in dance festivals in Greece and abroad. She regularly taught and gave seminars at the Professional School of Dance Aktina (2021,2022), as well as in open studios in Athens and she completed her internship in theatre education at various schools in Athens. Since December 2024 she has been working for the Kalamata International Dance Festival as the personal associate of the artistic director, Tzeni Argyriou.