Hymen – NAYIA T. KARACOSTA

Cyprus

‘’I haven’t been born yet,
But when I do, I’ll be a woman, a girl
and when I reach 700, or 800, or 900
I’ll become every single one of you
and you’ll be me.
We’ll gonna be like a single body carrying other women within.
Kind of a babushka’’.

A documentary- performance based on women’s real stories.
Which is the narrative that our female bodies carry on?
How do we talk about these bodies and how do they become a documentation material?

“Hymen” is the final presentation of the project “Discovering our Under/Pants” by actress/performer and drama fascilitator Nayia T. Karacosta, within the frame of the artistic development residency programme “Moving the new” at Dance House Lemesos, in Cyprus. Alongside Eleni Anastasiou, the project was created out of the need to talk about our female bodies, our self-disposition and pleasures, through techniques derived from Documentary Theater. This need became our research and then the research became our play ‘’Under/pants’’ part 1. Wanted to continue to explore, the research expanded and evolved into experiential workshops regarding the women’s bodies as memories, experiences and matter. Using the material that was driven out from these workshops, the performance “Hymen” explores how the narration of the interviewees-participants transforms and creates a female collective body.

Collaborators:
Idea | Research | Text | Performer: Nayia T. Karacosta
Artistic Collaborator: Eleni Anastasiou
‘’Moving the New’’ mentor: Rodia Vomvolou

*This whole research would be impossible to occur without the support of these women, who helped in one way or another throughout this two years process and whom I thank deeply:
Angeliki Sigourou
Aggelo Papaggelodimou
Andrianna Euthimiou
Ariadne Psihoyiopoulou
Afrodite Skinner
Vivi Sklia
Georgia Gleoudi
Demetra Kamari
Irene Kapou
Elena Takkoushi
Elena Sammouta
Eleni Anastasiou
Eleni Varda
Eleftheria Sοkratous
Emily Cutler
Konstantina Skalionta
Maria Kasapi
Mariela Nestora
Marian Kyprianou
Marina Kakoulli
Belinda Papavasiliou
Sofi Kamenou
Troodia Theodorou
Rodia Vomvolou

Duration:  25 min
Trailer:

Νayia T. Karacosta

Graduated from the School of Drama, Faculty of Fine Arts-Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Specialized in Acting and Performing Arts.
As an actress she created with Eleni Anastasiou the documentary play “Under/pants” based on interviews about women’s masturbation. Nayia expands this research through “Moving the New” artistic development programme, at Dance House Lemesos in Cyprus with the documentary- performance ‘’Hymen’’.
With E.Anastasiou they also co-founded the suitcase-theatre group “Intra Portas” performing site-specific plays that are happening inside the classrooms at schools.
As an actress and performer she also collaborated with Belinda Papavasileiou, Eva Papavasileiou, Stamo Tsami, Pari Prokopiou, Nastazia Christodoulou, Ari Stefani, Magdalena Zira, Asteri Pelteki, Ersi Vasilikioti,  Themis Theocharoglou, Loue Patsias, Stergio Dinopoulo and others, in plays, performances, tv-series and short films
As a Drama facilitator she teaches Drama and Theatrical games across a variety group of ages and background since 2013.
Her theatrical plays were presented at the “Play On” programme by the Cyprus Centre of the International Theatre Institute.
Nayia was also a member of the artistic committee in the 32nd and 34rd Pancyprian Festival of Amateur Theatre and she’s currently a member of the board of directors for ASSITEJ (Association of Theatre for Children and Young People) in Cyprus.

Eleni Anastasiou

Eleni Anastasiou is a director and a PhD candidate in theatre studies (School of Drama-Faculty of Fine Arts-Auth). She has directed and dramatised devised performances. She is the founder and director of Theatro Valitsa Intra Portas which makes theatre for children and teenagers inside the school’s classrooms. She has collaborated with the Cyprus Theater Organization, National Theatre of Northern Greece and the Persona Theater Group. She is the Vice-President of Assitej Cyprus and a member of Cyprus Centre of the International Theatre Institute.

Rodia Vomvolou

Rodia Vomvolou (1993, Greece) is a performing arts dramaturg and researcher based between Amsterdam and Athens. She is currently doing a PhD research project on the self-positioning of the dance dramaturg, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Maaike Bleeker in Utrecht University. As a freelancer dramaturg and mentor, Rodia collaborates with institutions and dance houses in Europe (Onassis Stegi, Dansmakers Αmsterdam, Dansateliers Rotterdam, Circustruction Rotterdam, Dance House Lemesos, Dance Days Chania, ZfinMalta) as well as with independent artists in Greece (Danae Theodoridou, Eleni Mylona, Persa Stamatopoulou, Ioanna Angelopoulou, Nefeli Asteriou, Anastasia Valsamaki, Eftychia Stefanou), the Netherlands (Vloeistof, Fernando Belfiore) and in Cyprus (Petros Konarris, Konstantina Skalionta). Since 2019 she is the mentor and curator of the Artistic Development programme “Moving the New” of Dance House Limassol in Cyprus. Additionally, she participates as a representative dramaturg of Dance House Lemesos in the European program “Micro and Macro Dance Dramaturgies”, a collaboration between TANEC PRAHA (CZ), Anghiari Dance Hub & Marche Teatro (IT), Bora Bora – Dans og visuelt teater (DK) Dance House Lemesos (CY), Dans Brabant (NL). Rodia graduated from Utrecht University in 2018 with an MA in Contemporary Theatre, Dance and Dramaturgy (Cum laude) with a scholarship by John S. Latsis Foundation Scholarship. She also holds a BA in Drama and Performance Theory, History and Analysis from the School of Drama, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (Cum Laude). Supported by a scholarship from Stavros Niarchos Foundation, in 2016 she attended a five months exchange program in Theatre and Dance Studies in York University (Toronto, Canada).