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Syndesi (Connection) – Douglas Comley 819 1024 akropoditi13

Syndesi (Connection) – Douglas Comley

Malta

The performance will be followed by an open discussion with the audience.

Syndesi is an exploratory, interdisciplinary performance. It is led by Angela Bettoni, a performer and writer with Down Syndrome, together with Kaylie Magri, Luke Bugeja Gauci and Douglas Comley. The initial research stage in Malta included the participation of musician Noah Fabri as collaborator and was funded by Arts Council Malta.

The piece is based on writing by Angela and collaborators and explores intimacy in platonic friendships through dance and physical theatre, and audience response – especially to interactions between disabled and non-disabled performers. Research suggests attitudes are shaped by individual and societal values, and Syndesi aims to explore how Greek/international audiences perceive this through a site-responsive work. The work combines music, movement, dance, and physical theatre. The performance looks at how gesture, touch, and movement can communicate platonic affection on stage, and how audiences engage with these expressions.

Credits
Douglas Comley – choreographer
Angela Bettoni – writer and dancer
Luke Bugeja Gauci – dancer
Kaylie Magri – writer and music/physical theatre
The Malta project prior to the festival includes musician Noah Fabri.

Duration: 25 min.
Trailer: 

Douglas Comley

Douglas Comley is an experienced performer, director, and choreographer whose career spans three decades across Malta, the UK, and Europe. As a performer, he has worked with a wide range of contemporary dance companies, including Theatre Anon Malta (2024), Bodies in Urban Spaces under Austrian director Willi Dorner (2012), Carlson Dance Company in Wales (2006), Welsh Independent Dance with Charlotte Vincent (2005), X-CELL Dance Company (2003), Vincent Dance Theatre (2000), Daghdha Dance Company in Ireland (1998), Diversions Dance Company for the television film Trodio Mesur Amser (1996), Attik Dance Company (1995), and Nexus Dance Company with choreographer Nigel Charnock (1995).
As a director and choreographer, Comley has led numerous long-term projects. He directed and choreographed integrated theatre productions for ŻiguŻajg in collaboration with Opening Doors between 2020 and 2025. He was the founding director of Dynion Male Dance (1996–2016) and led Fractal Dance Company (1996–2000), creating work for BBC Television with the National Orchestra of Wales and performing at Portugal’s Evento 98 festival. He also directed the County Youth Dance Company Wales from 2000 to 2015.
His large-scale choreography includes opening ceremonies for CHOGM Malta (2015), the World Gymnaestrada in Austria (2007), the Commonwealth Games in Manchester (2002), and the Rugby World Cup (1999).

Kaylie Magri

Kaylie Magri is a versatile Maltese performer whose work spans theatre, production management, and vocal performance. She developed her artistic practice through an Erasmus+ exchange at the University of Exeter, where she studied Drama and gained experience in contemporary theatre-making. During her time there, she served as Stage Manager for We Are Off to Find a Fairy, a puppetry production created within the Puppetry and Object Theatre module and assisted in production management for Kif Tgħallimt Insuq. She later continued this role with Dù Theatre’s 2025 staging of the same work.
Her training includes Studio18’s Acting Programme, Contemporary Theatre Making, and a Stanislavski workshop with Julian Jones. Alongside her theatre background, Kaylie has cultivated strong vocal foundations. She holds a Rockschool Trinity College Theory of Music Grade 3 (Distinction) and has studied singing since 2011, including ensemble work with Kor Għanja tal-Poplu, VocalBooth Choir, and harmony training with Joshua Alamu.
Her performance experience includes international competitions in Romania and Switzerland, the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, and the Ultimate Artists Gala Night in London. Most recently, she appeared as an ensemble member in Musical Matchup: The Who’s Who Cabaret?, continuing to expand her presence in Malta’s performance scene.

Angela Bettoni

Angela Bettoni is a performer, writer and advocate with Down Syndrome, whose work bridges artistic practice, disability advocacy, and international collaboration. She holds a BA in Creative Arts, where her dissertation examined how people with learning disabilities are represented within Malta’s performing arts landscape. She has an Advanced Diploma in Performing Arts (MCAST, Malta) and Diploma in Community Access for Disabled People (University of Malta). Her artistic development has been shaped by involvement with Opening Doors Association Malta, an organization that provides training in arts to disabled adults, and international training opportunities, including a five-week danceWEB scholarship to the ImpulsTanz Festival in Vienna, residencies and Erasmus programmes in Venice, London, Sweden and Greece, including with Skanes Dansteatre, and inclusive companies Chickenshed Theatre and Stopgap Dance Company, UK. Angela has performed in mixed-ability work across Malta, Italy, Germany, Sweden and Sri Lanka, appearing solo/duet/trio performances, and has performed at Dance Festival Malta and Venere in Teatro Dance Festival Italy. She received a University of Malta Social Commitment Award for contribution to the arts industry (2024) and a JCI Malta (Junior Chamber International) Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) Award for her advocacy work on inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities (2022).
www.angelabettoni.net

Luke Bugeja Gauci

Luke Bugeja Gauci is a Maltese contemporary dance artist whose work spans international companies, festivals, and emerging choreographic platforms. He is currently performing with ŻfinMalta, the National Dance Company of Malta (2024–2025), working with choreographers including Sita Ostheimer, Korsia, Liliana Barros, Simone Riccardi Zani, Thick & Tight, and Tara Dall. His previous seasons include engagements with Moveo Dance Company, Zugraga Dance Company, and Marchepied Cie, collaborating with artists such as Diane Portelli, Nunzio Impellizzeri, Corinne Rochet, Nicholas Pettit, and Tabea Martin.
Luke has also performed with JV2 (Jasmin Vardimon Company), working under Jasmin Vardimon, Andre Rebelo, and Vinicius Salles, and has contributed to projects for Notte Bianca Malta with choreographers Chakib Zidi and Deborah Falzon. Earlier work includes performances at the Malta Dance Festival, the Malta International Arts Festival Opening, and collaborations with Lisa Colette Bysheim, Sarah Vella, Pamela Kerr, Oded Ronen, Zoe Camilleri, and Gil Kerer.
He trained at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHDK) from 2020 to 2023, working with choreographers Ihsan Rustem, Oded Ronen, Gil Kerer, Mohammed Kaltuk, Joost Vrounraets, Antonin Rioche, Bryan Arias, Nadav Zelner, Ravid Abarbanel, and Dunja Jocic. His earlier education includes The Evening Space with Francesca Tranter and DIP in Livorno, Italy.

Levitate – Petros Nikolidis & Stefanos Giakoumakis 819 1024 akropoditi13

Levitate – Petros Nikolidis & Stefanos Giakoumakis

Greece

Levitate is a hybrid dance performance that combines live sound with physical expression, through the collaboration between choreographer–dancer Petros Nikolides and musician-composer Stefanos Giakoumakis. Based on a movement vocabulary that draws from street dance, contemporary dance, and live music production, the performance explores desire, inner conflict, obsession, and the moment of transcendence.
What is it that lifts us off the ground—and what pulls us back down again?
Through raw energy and sensitivity, the work invites the audience into an experience between collision and elevation—a ritual suspended between light and shadow.

Credits
Choreography, Concept & Performance: Petros Nikolides
Music Composition and Live Performance: Stefanos Giakoumakis
Dramaturgy: Andi Xhuma
Lighting Design: Maria Athanasopoulou

Duration: 17 min.
Trailer:

Petros Nikolidis

Petros Nikolidis is a dancer, choreographer, and performer based in Greece. He was born in 1997 in Thessaloniki and studied dance in Paris, where he primarily focused on street styles. He graduated from Juste Debout School in 2019 and returned to Athens due to the pandemic. Since then, among other projects, he has participated for four consecutive years in the Athens & Epidaurus Festival, collaborating with various choreographers and directors such as Dimitris Papaioannou, Antonis Foniadakis, Giannis Kakleas, Andi Xhuma, Anastasia Valsamaki, and Ilias Chatzigeorgiou. At the same time, he has created his own works, including the short dance film “AGKATHI”, which has competed in various festivals worldwide; the dance performance Levitate (2025, Dance Laboratory Rhodes, Embros Theatre, Roes Theatre); and the dance performance Kinèpha, which premiered at the 1st Urban Forest Jazz Festival (2025). He is also assistant choreographer and co-creator of the performance “CHRYSI EPOHI” by Konstantinos Rigos (2025). Throughout his career, he has received distinctions in Street Dance Battles in Greece and abroad. Petros strives to remain multidimensional and to expand his horizons across all aspects of art.

Stefanos Giakoumakis

Stefanos Giakoumakis is a musician, composer, and producer born in Athens in 1998. He studied at the Department of International, European and Regional Studies at Panteion University. In parallel, he completed his studies in modern jazz music and electric guitar, while also attending thematic courses in art history, music history, and composition. In recent years, he has been exploring the role of music as a narrative tool. He has composed original music for theatre performances, contemporary dance productions, and art installations, frequently performing his own works live. He has also served as Production Director of the contemporary dance festival Dance Laboratory Rhodes (2023, 2024, 2025), while participating as a producer in film shoots and live performances. His works have been presented, among others, at: Kalamata Dance Festival, Fringe Istanbul Festival, Patras Art Festival, Dance Laboratory Rhodes, Our Festival, Buzau International Arts Festival, Duets and others.

Solar – En Dynamei Ensemble 819 1024 akropoditi13

Solar – En Dynamei Ensemble

Greece

The performance will be followed by an open discussion with the audience.

A meditation on the things that keep us on our feet, addressing the sublime feeling that the “real” movement of different bodies can convey in a state of transcendence.
“Solar” is air, it’s the here-and-now (in other words, the future), it’s a feast, the earthly touches that are nothing but accidental. “Solar” is joyful; a sun that can light up everything; something you’re doing for the first time.
“Solar” opens up a space for the collective and individual quest for common ground, fostering coexistence and the acceptance of the other, the different, the uncanny, and the incomprehensible. It is a collaborative, hands-on “study” of how acceptance affects our lives, relationships, and happiness – and vice versa.
Drawing material from the thirty members of the En Dynamei Ensemble, we create a score of movement. Building on the specificity of each participant and their diverse perceptions, we create a performance dedicated to existence, an awakening of the deepest life drive.
What is it that allows us to seek, claim, or offer in life?
Each existence has the need to interact, create relationships, move, or connect through a continuous rhythmic process. The world is organized as a complex nervous system with undivided qualities and textures. Every part of this nervous system stretches out toward more life. The world is in constant flux. The world is being created as we speak.

Credits
On Stage:
Stefanos Lentzis, Panos Mantziris, Michalis Dolopoulos, Alekos Hatsios
Artistic Direction: Eleni Dimopoulou
Concept: Vitoria Kotsalou
Texts Creation / Writing: En Dynamei Ensemble
Choreography: Vitoria Kotsalou
Music: Anargyros Deniozos
Set Design: Richard Anthony
Lighting Design: Nysos Vassilopoulos
Text Editing: Vitoria Kotsalou, Sofia Bletsou, Eleni Dimopoulou
Assistant Choreographer: Aris Papadopoulos
Sound Design / Audio Editing: Tanya Jones
With the voices of :
Maria Dachlythra, Eleni Dimopoulos, Margarita Kainada, Theano Konta, Nikos Kyparissis, Dimitris Lyras, Thanos Nanasis, Panos Matziris, Giorgos-Zisis Bilionis, Theano Papavasileiou, Haris Serdari
Production: Onassis Stegi

Duration: 50 min.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/840379796/1f2534edd2 

 

Το έργο παρουσιάστηκε στο πλαίσιο Μ power festival του ιδρύματος Ωνάση το 2023.

En Dynamei Ensemble

En Dynamei Ensemble is a theater group comprised of young artists with and without disabilities, operating since 2008 as a non-profit entity led by artistic director Eleni Dimopoulou. The purpose of the group is to support and facilitate its members to join society as equals, using art as a means of integration. Using the research of new methods of communication as their main tool, the group organizes and presents fully developed artistic proposals in the fields of visual and media arts, theater, dance, and music. En Dynamei Ensemble maintains a collaboration with renowned art professionals and leading institutions in Greece and abroad. The group’s performances have received rave reviews from audiences and critics alike, claiming a spot next to the most groundbreaking works of the Greek artistic production.
https://endynamei-ensemble.gr/

Vitoria Kotsalou

Vitoria Kotsalou is a psychologist, and a self-trained dancer, performer and choreographer based in Athens. Her eclectic training, not bound by one tradition, and constant research on many different disciplines carve out new fields of engagement for dance mediation. As a choreographer and artist, she perceives dance as a way of being, a means of thinking and interacting with the world, and as a tool of connection to the intelligence that governs nature. Vitoria is one of the founding members of the non-profit organization R.I.C.E. and the RSOD Dance School on the island of Hydra. She is a close collaborator of choreographer Michael Klien and a member of En Dynamei Ensemble since 2014. As a choreographer she has composed the works Day out of Time (2017), Mount (2019), Rite of Spring – A Map (2021), Solar (with the En Dynamei Ensemble – 2023), and Bare (2023). As a dancer she has made important collaborations with Androniki Marathaki, Mariella Nestora and Agni Papadeli Rossetou. She teaches dance to children, adults and mixed ability groups, and also choreographs theatre performances. Vitoria approaches dance as a phenomenon that is directly connected to every aspect of society. Her devotion to the possibility of dance as a force for change extends to thinking through movement and coming into contact with an intelligence that exists in (and connects) all living organisms. Drawing inspiration from the study of different artistic practices, philosophical approaches and collaborations, her thinking extends to social choreography through which she simultaneously observes the world and designs works that convey the possibility of changing or expanding our perception.

Do Robots have emotions? – Manolis Saridakis 1024 1024 akropoditi13

Do Robots have emotions? – Manolis Saridakis

Greece

“The performance you’re going to see has to do with robots. I chose this topic because I feel like a robot sometimes too,”
notes Manolis Saridakis about his first choreography – a quite startling work thanks to its disarmingly incisive concept.
By means of his disarmingly incisive concept, Manolis Saridakis touches upon the exceptionally timely topic of robots, weaving critical issues concerning control, as well as both artificial and emotional intelligence, into his own endeavors with regard to autonomy and freedom of expression. The choreographer himself appears on stage, programing each “robot” to perform – both individually and all together – a dance of their own. He then transports them into a virtual bar/club setting where he gives a new command: “feelings on demand”! On the dance floor, Screwdriver cocktails in hand, each robot will tackle the emotion it has been assigned, upending their interrelationships in the process, and leading us into the climactic scene of this sci-fi adventure by the programmer and choreographer Manolis Saridakis.
The piece by Manolis Saridakis was selected for Onassis New Choreographers Festival 2022 – ONC9. The professional development of artists with learning disabilities has been supported in various ways by Europe Beyond Access, but this is the first time such a commission and presentation are being undertaken in Greece.
The dance piece “Do Robots have emotions?” by Manolis Saridakis was created as part of the Europe Beyond Access program, and within the framework of Onassis Stegi’s ongoing commitment to issues of accessibility when it comes to the arts in general, and dance in particular. The fact that persons with disabilities still do not have access to professional dance training in Greece renders the support this program provides artists particularly important. Medie Megas, Dancer, choreographer, and dance/choreography history teacher mentoring Manolis Saridakis during the creation of this work during the Europe Beyond Access program.

Choreographer’s note
The performance you’re going to see has to do with robots. I chose this topic because I feel like a robot sometimes too. I conducted an interview and did research to learn about robots: about how they move and how they help people. I had a few questions: Do robots have a mechanical heart? Is a robot brain the same as a human brain? Are robots ever bored when they do chores? Are robots doing whatever they want or whatever humans want? I hope seeing my performance makes you happy.
–Manolis Saridakis

“Can Robots Develop Feelings?” is the first performance ever choreographed in Greece by a person with learning disability and autism.
The performance will follow a presentation in the form of an interactive activity focusing on how the interaction of dance and disability is perceived in Greece and abroad. Personal experiences, images and common references will be shared amongst the creators themselves and the audience looking back into the history, exploring the impediments and most significantly the invaluable importance of accessibility of disabled persons to the art of dance and choreography.
Who can be qualified as a dancer and who as a choreographer? What is having accessibility to art actually entitled to? And last but not least, what kind of alterations need to be made for the art of dancing to embrace everyone regardless any kind of limitation?
The evening will finish with an open discussion during which all attendees will have the chance to pose their own questions relevant to the performance and the presented matters.

Credits
Concept: Manolis Saridakis
Choreography: Manolis Saridakis, in collaboration with the dancers
Dancers: Olympia Antonena, Eirini Kourouvani, Christos Christakopoulos, Manolis Saridakis
Dramaturgy – Mentoring: Medie Megas
Costumes: Marilena Kalaitzantonaki
Lighting Design: Konstantinos Bethanis
Make-up: Alexandra Rentzou
Original Music: Christos Christakopoulos
Additional Music: “Techno Eskalation!!!” by Max Minimal also features in the performance
Executive Producer: Christos Papamichael – Liminal,
Executive production on tour: Polina Manolia – Liminal
Production Manager, Coordinator of Artistic Activities for Europe Beyond Access: Christina Liata – Onassis Stegi
European Programs Coordinator: Dora Vougiouka – Onassis Stegi
Special thanks to: Niki Saridaki, Fotini Gioti, Giannis Makris, Manolis Andriotakis, Rodia Vomvolou

Production Credits
Commissioned & Produced by: Onassis Stegi Athens
via Europe Beyond Access, a project co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union

Supported in touring by: Onassis Stegi’s “Outward Turn” program

Duration: 20 min.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/731688663/23ec28085e

 

 

Manolis Saridakis

Manolis Saridakis lives in Athens, is 35 years old, and works in dance, theater, and music. He received his training as a contemporary dancer and choreographer as part of Onassis Stegi’s iDance, Europe Beyond Access, and Unlimited Access programs, held both in Greece and beyond, alongside contemporary and African dance workshops given by the Liminal arts organization. Manolis has appeared in Onassis Stegi productions (“Sweet Abyss”, “Deep Fusion Butterfly Band”, and more) and in a large number of theatrical performances staged by ARTOGETHER (Art of People With and Without Disabilities). He starred in the documentary film “I Am a Dancer” directed by Stavros Petropoulos, and produced by Onassis Stegi. He is studying découpage at the Theotokos Foundation, music at the National Conservatory of Athens, and qigong at the “Spring of the Young Forest” School for Martial Arts.