Open Jam – Improvisation in movement and sound led by Niki Stergiou.
We invite you to an improv jam – an open space for practice, exploration and experimentation – to move and converse through dance and music.
The jam is open to everyone, musicians and dancers, regardless of movement experience, to create a musical-kinetic improvisation together, with free participation.
The importance of personal development and coexistence within a diverse group
Dance Improvisation workshop for people with and without disabilities
Movement is the mirror of personality. It influences and creates changes in the psyche. It is the result of heredity, nurture, and social influences. According to Laban, “Behind our every movement is an intention. “When I am able to recognize it, then its expression becomes conscious and empowers the individual and his presence. Our meetings are aimed at getting in touch with the subjective preference for movement, self-awareness and recognition of the innate qualities and dynamics of the body. We will also explore the movement elements that “were not developed as much as others”. We will create a personal movement map. Key components of the research we will do are Intention, Weight, Flow and Time. The workshop draws from Laban and DanceAbility methods. It aims at awareness and insider contact with subjective movement preferences, co-educating through the inclusive nature of the. It focuses on the uniqueness of each body and expands personal and social skills. We will attempt a simultaneous exploration of “inside-self”, with “outside- group”. We focus on connection and work with solos, duets, small and large group.
The workshop is for people with and without disabilities, with previous experience in movement
OPEN PRESENTATION
We invite you to the open presentation of the workshop “The importance of personal development and coexistence within a diverse group” by Anna Vekiari on Wednesday 17/07 at 4th Elementary School (Nik. Mandilara 22, Ermoupoli) at 18:30.
(Free entrance)
Ages: 15+
Levels: The workshop is for people with and without disabilities, with previous experience in movement
Photo credit:
Anna Vekiari was born and grew up in Athens. She is the founder and the artistic director of the professional inclusive dance company Exis and the co-founder of ISON Dance Theater – the first training facility for performing arts for disabled and non-disabled performers in Athens. She graduated from the Professional Dance Academy “Anna Petrova” in 2010. She is a dance therapist from the Greek Dance Therapy Union and a Polestar Pilates Instructor. She is a certified DanceAbility teacher, a method of contemporary dance and improvisation for inclusive dance groups created by Alito Alessi. Since 2012 she teaches classical, contemporary and improvisation dance to children and adults with or without disabilities, in an inclusive concept. She has collaborated with many Associations for disabled people like MDA for Neuro-Muscular conditions, PEGKAP for learning disabilities and the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation in Greece, KEA-AMEA – Vocational Rehabilitation Center for People with Disabilities, many schools for disabled children and several inclusive organisations and dance festivals in Greece and abroad. In 2021 she was the artistic director of the Erasmus plus project “CONTACT”. Contact project focuses on contact and inclusion through dance and music. She collaborates with inclusive As a dance therapist she has collaborated with EPAPSY – Association for Regional Development and Mental Health and currently collaborates with IASIS ΝGO DAY CENTER for Mental Health.
BARE UNDERWATER
Movement workshop in water
The workshop explores the sea as a field that enables us to activate very different fields of movement, embodiment, and imagination. In the workshop we will explore concepts, movements, patterns, and ways of being that develop or unfold from being within and friction with water. Manoeuvring, breathing, floating, and dreaming are the key elements through which we will begin to penetrate different modes of dance/embodiment/movement/existence. Axes that have emerged from years of dance research in the water will lead us to develop strategies for exploring navigation of thought body. The workshop will expand in out of water practice as well, where we will have the opportunity to engage with how the water dance (amneotics) practice informs our dance practice on land.
Ages: Adults
Level: Skilled swimmers
Photo credit:
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 from many different disciplines carve out new fields of engagement for dance immediation. As a choreographer and artist, she operates dance as a way of being, a means of thinking and assimilating the world, and as a field of connection to the intelligence that governs the nature of things.
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 En Dynamei Ensemble-2023), 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 of life, that has the potential to touch all socio-political aspects of society. Her passion, belief, and experience in the possibility of dance a force, that enables different ways of being, communicating, and forming relationships, expands 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 the way it is perceived.
Momentum and stillness
Improvisation Workshop
A significant part of our dance education focuses on the exact positioning of our body in space. An admirable virtue indeed. Still there is the thrill of speed and momentum that often defies the sobriety of stillness. How can we be open to a vibrant dialogue between these two parameters of movement? Can we appreciate the unique qualities of Apollonian precision on one hand and Dionysian momentum on the other? Is there a clear boundary between them?
5 days to ask and explore, to move and be still.
Level: All
Ages: All
Photo credit:
She was born in Athens in 1967. She graduated from the State School of Dance and continued her studies in New York, her main interests being in improvisation and release technique.
Upon her return in Greece, she danced with various dance companies, Edafos company, Sine Qua Non and Tzeni Argyriou being her long-time collaborators. In theatre she has co-directed Macbeth (W. Shakespeare), Mandragora (N. Machiavelli) at the Theatre of Neos Kosmos and has collaborated with various directors as a choreographer.
“The dancing bear rises…to reincarnate society.” Tyrone O’Ros
From sunrise to sunset, a number of dancers devote the day to being in a state of dance. Each of them do so individually in selected public spaces in the centre of a city.
This practice originated as a personal need, as a way of seeking and testing the perception of dance on a personal, social, and environmental perspective. An act dedicated to the union of dance and life, an opportunity for tracing the poetry that exists both inside us and around us. A dialogue with limits and nature, calling into question the various ways in which dance emerges.
The body in dance opens out a multiplicity of meaning – its generosity offers a different kind of awareness. The dancer is within the action of his own practice inscribing new possibilities of presence. As with the qualities of ‘a gift’ the dancer demands nothing, seeks not to gain praise, but makes an embodied offer that generates reflection. This reflection implicates the body and presence of the spectator / passerby, the landscape, and the wider context of movement we are contained in.
The audience is invited to visit the dancers using an uploaded/printed map. They may visit the dancers throughout the whole day, and stay with them for however long they wish, witnessing the event.
An integral part of the practice is that there is a support team composed of volunteers (not necessarily dancers), who individually visit the dancers throughout the day, offering water, fruits, and support.
Workshop – Process
The proposed workshop will introduce students to the research and ideas behind Day Out of Time, prepare and guide them through 3 hour and 6 hour ‘Day Out of Time’ trials, and finish with a ‘Day Out of Time’ performance, in which participants will go into ‘Day Out of Time’ for the duration of a whole day, with the possibility of inviting an audience.
At the research level, ‘Day out of Time’ is a practice that can be experienced by anyone interested. The preparation includes discussion and assimilation of the philosophical as well as practical research and approach, introducing some practices that which are crucial for endurance and the handling of experience in such a dense environment as the center of a city and how to tackle the performance aspect while remaining honestly within a practice.
The overall preparation process will be adapted to the program and needs of the dancers and the allocated time.
Dance never stops, and we dancers go on in and out of his melody and expression. Perhaps our deeper ability as dancers is to receive dance, not to create it.
Day out of Time so far
Day out of Time took place for the first time on the island of Hydra in the summer of 2014 during the R.I.C.E. (www.riceonhydra.org). Since then, Vitoria Kotsalou has performed Day Out of Time, either alone or with other dancers seven times, in public places, within the framework of the Akropoditi DanceFest in Syros, at the RICEAN School of Dance in Hydra (2015-2018), in public places in Athens and during Vitoria’s residency at La Caldera in Barcelona in 2018. In summer 2017 ‘Day Out of Time’ was performed at the Athens Festival with 21 dancers taking part in the center of Athens.
Ages: Adults
Level: Open
Photo credit: Kiranna Gkioka, Eleanna Kotsikou
Vasiliki Tsagkari has studied education at the University of Athens and dance at city of Bristol college in the UK. Then, from 2005 to 2010, she traveled in Europe and the U.S, attending classes and intensive workshops, designing, and following her own nomadic dance study program. She has trained in contemporary dance, and she has studied somatics, improvisation and instant composition with many different international teachers.
She works as an independent dance artist for almost twenty years. She has performed with improvisation groups in the Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany, and Greece. From 2006 to 2009 she has been living and working with the artists’ collective ARM in Maastricht, in the Netherlands. She has created five solo projects and has done a series of collaborations as well as group projects that have been presented in festivals, theatres, and performance spaces but also in public space, in Greece, the Netherlands, Germany. She has ongoing and long-term collaborations with Vittoria Kotsalou, Dafni Stefanou, Iris Nikolaou, Aggeliki Papadatou. She has collaborated with musicians Kaspar Koenig, Cyrille Flamment and Michalis Siganidis.
She is a certified Skinner Releasing teacher since 2016. She teaches contemporary dance, improvisation and Skinner Releasing to children and adults.
Recently she lives in Messinia, southwest Greece, where she takes care of an olive grove. Physical work close to the earth and the observation of natural elements throughout the cultivating process, have opened up a field of research that informs and influences a lot her approach to dance.
USA
“To The Left of Center” celebrates our quirks. In a series of four sections the dance explores individuality along with community playfulness and support. It is a witty display of experimentation within time and space. We are reminded not to take ourselves to seriously but to make it fun along the way.
Credits:
Choreographers: Cathy Allen, Lexee Howes and Keely Drace
Music: Sophie Cheeseman, Max Richter (Vivaldi), Sebastien Roux (Quatuor: III. Presto), Climbing Poe Tree (Breath Box), Ola Szmidt (Road Less Traveled)
Dancers: Sophie Camp, Keely Drace, Kristina Hakobyan, Lexee Howes, Mayra Munos, Niyah Pratt, Teddy Richard, Nadia Roberts
Duration: 15 min.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/D-HAtUrRWBQ
Greece
Ο καινούργιος δίσκος των los tre με τίτλο “Free spirit” μόλις κυκλοφόρησε.
Οι Los Tre μετράνε 11 χρόνια ζωής και μετά από 6 κυκλοφορίες και πάρα πολλές εμφανίσεις ανά την Ελλάδα θεωρούνται πλέον ένα από τα πιο hot ονόματα της instrumental αθηναϊκής σκηνής. Η μουσική τους είναι μια μίξη από ήχους της δυτικής Αφρικής, της λατινικής Αμερικής, της παραδοσιακής μας μουσικής, της funk, τoυ jazz αυτοσχεδιασμού και της ψυχεδέλειας των 70’s. Το live των Los Tre χαρακτηρίζεται από την εκρηκτικότητά του, την ελευθερία του.
Founded in 2012, Los tre, started as a jazz-funk guitar trio, but the direction of their music shifted through the years. Los tre’s music is a combination of music traditions around the globe such as West-African, Cuban, Ethiopian, Arabian and Greek played with electric sound, combined with the psychedelia of the 70’s and the power and freedom of improvisation music.
Angelos Angelides: guitar
Vassilis Papastamopoulos: bass
Leandros Fratnik: drums
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WKK5pic5iE, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl2OLS6qtdE
We invite you to an improv jam – an open space for practice, exploration and experimentation – to move and converse through dance and music.
The jam is open to everyone, regardless of movement experience, and to musicians, to create a musical-kinetic improvisation together.
The open jam will be led by Konstantinos Gerardos.
Switzerland
Thomas Hauert is a dancer and choreographer whose sophisticated, improvisation-based research on movement has a strong relation to music – either actual music or the musicality of the movement itself. In his solo, his dance interacts with the baroque madrigal Si dolce è’l tormento composed by Claudio Monteverdi on a text by Carlo Milanuzzi. Hauert interprets this musica l poem of impossible love as the expression of a conflict between the bliss of pursuing an ideal and the torment of knowing that this ideal will stay unreachable – a tension which is a universal motor of life but takes as many forms, as many interpretations, as there are individual visions of this “perfect country”. In German, an untranslatable word exists to describe this exquisitely painful feeling of inextinguishable longing: Sehnsucht.
Credits
Concept, choreography & dance: Thomas Hauert
Light: Bert Van Dijck
Costume: Chevalier-Masson
Music; Claudio Monteverdi Si dolce è’l tormento, Salvatore Sciarrino 12 Madrigali
Production: ZOO/Thomas Hauert
Coproduction: Charleroi danse – Centre Chorégraphique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (BE)
With the support of Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles – Service de la danse / Pro Helvetia – Fondation suisse pour les arts / Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie / Ein Kulturengagement des Lotterie-Fonds des Kantons Solothurn / Wallonie-Bruxelles International
Duration: 30 min.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/236393563
Having worked as a dancer with a.o. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, David Zambrano and Pierre Droulers, Thomas Hauert (CH) founded his company ZOO in Brussels in 1998. Cows in Space, his first piece was immediately awarded at Rencontres de Seine-Saint-Denis/Bagnolet. The company has since created more than 20 works, which have been performed all over the world. In addition to his work for ZOO, Thomas was also commissioned to create work for other companies including Zurich Ballet, Toronto Dance Theatre, Candoco Dance Company and Ballet de Lorraine. Complementing his choreographic work, Hauert has developed an internationally recognized teaching method based on the movement research conducted with his company. He regularly teaches workshops worldwide. In 2012-13, he was a guest professor for dance and performance at Institute for Theater Studies, Freie Universität Berlin. Since 2013 he is the artistic director of the new bachelor degree in contemporary dance at the Manufacture/University of Performing Arts in Lausanne.
“The dancing bear rises…to reincarnate society.” Tyrone O’Ros
From sunrise to sunset, a number of dancers devote the day to being in a state of dance. Each of them do so individually in selected public spaces in the centre of a city.
This practice originated as a personal need, as a way of seeking and testing the perception of dance on a personal, social, and environmental perspective. An act dedicated to the union of dance and life, an opportunity for tracing the poetry that exists both inside us and around us. A dialogue with limits and nature, calling into question the various ways in which dance emerges.
The body in dance opens out a multiplicity of meaning – its generosity offers a different kind of awareness. The dancer is within the action of his own practice inscribing new possibilities of presence. As with the qualities of ‘a gift’ the dancer demands nothing, seeks not to gain praise, but makes an embodied offer that generates reflection. This reflection implicates the body and presence of the spectator / passerby, the landscape, and the wider context of movement we are contained in.
The audience is invited to visit the dancers using an uploaded/printed map. They may visit the dancers throughout the whole day, and stay with them for however long they wish, witnessing the event.
An integral part of the practice is that there is a support team composed of volunteers (not necessarily dancers), who individually visit the dancers throughout the day, offering water, fruits, and support.
Workshop – Process
The proposed workshop will introduce students to the research and ideas behind Day Out of Time, prepare and guide them through 3 hour and 6 hour ‘Day Out of Time’ trials, and finish with a ‘Day Out of Time’ performance, in which participants will go into ‘Day Out of Time’ for the duration of a whole day, with the possibility of inviting an audience.
At the research level, ‘Day out of Time’ is a practice that can be experienced by anyone interested. The preparation includes discussion and assimilation of the philosophical as well as practical research and approach, introducing some practices that which are crucial for endurance and the handling of experience in such a dense environment as the center of a city and how to tackle the performance aspect while remaining honestly within a practice.
The overall preparation process will be adapted to the program and needs of the dancers and the allocated time.
Dance never stops, and we dancers go on in and out of his melody and expression. Perhaps our deeper ability as dancers is to receive dance, not to create it.
Day out of Time so far
Day out of Time took place for the first time on the island of Hydra in the summer of 2014 during the R.I.C.E. (www.riceonhydra.org). Since then, Vitoria Kotsalou has performed Day Out of Time, either alone or with other dancers seven times, in public places, within the framework of the Akropoditi DanceFest in Syros, at the RICEAN School of Dance in Hydra (2015-2018), in public places in Athens and during Vitoria’s residency at La Caldera in Barcelona in 2018. In summer 2017 ‘Day Out of Time’ was performed at the Athens Festival with 21 dancers taking part in the center of Athens.
Ages: Adults
Level: Open
Photo credit: Kiranna Gkioka, Eleanna Kotsikou
Vasiliki Tsagkari has studied education at the University of Athens and dance at city of Bristol college in the UK. Then, from 2005 to 2010, she traveled in Europe and the U.S, attending classes and intensive workshops, designing, and following her own nomadic dance study program. She has trained in contemporary dance, and she has studied somatics, improvisation and instant composition with many different international teachers.
She works as an independent dance artist for almost twenty years. She has performed with improvisation groups in the Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany, and Greece. From 2006 to 2009 she has been living and working with the artists’ collective ARM in Maastricht, in the Netherlands. She has created five solo projects and has done a series of collaborations as well as group projects that have been presented in festivals, theatres, and performance spaces but also in public space, in Greece, the Netherlands, Germany. She has ongoing and long-term collaborations with Vittoria Kotsalou, Dafni Stefanou, Iris Nikolaou, Aggeliki Papadatou. She has collaborated with musicians Kaspar Koenig, Cyrille Flamment and Michalis Siganidis.
She is a certified Skinner Releasing teacher since 2016. She teaches contemporary dance, improvisation and Skinner Releasing to children and adults.
Recently she lives in Messinia, southwest Greece, where she takes care of an olive grove. Physical work close to the earth and the observation of natural elements throughout the cultivating process, have opened up a field of research that informs and influences a lot her approach to dance.
Contemporary Dance Masterclass
My class is based on the development of communicative skills.
A new inner journey among senses and harmony through 4 elements. The language of the body can express any and every feeling, the body becomes the fire, water, air, earth. A technical and physical approach jam-packed with improvisation and set material.
These tools are designed to develop clarity of mind to connect with the body in a more sensitive way.
Be yourself and give yourself!
Ages: 15+
Level: Professional and non-professional dancers
Photo credit: Eros Brancaleon
Claudio Scalia was born in Catania.
He deepened his studies by traveling in Italy and abroad, coming into contact with different artistic realities. From 2019, he directs the “ocram dance movement company”. For ocram he created Africa in 2018, H(and)s and Placebo in 2021, Espresso in 2022.
From 2022 he is an associated artist for the three-year period 2022/24 of the Scenario Pubblico National Choreographic Dance Center. As a choreographer, he participated in the SzòlòDuo Festival in Budapest, the Black Box Festival in Plovdiv, the Florence Dance Festival, the Gdansk Festival Tanca in Gdańsk, Blois Danse Festival in Blois, SoloCoreografico in Frankfurt.In 2021, he won the choreographic prize at the International Solo Dance Competition Italy in collaboration with the Solo Tanz Theater festival in Stuttgart.
Since 2019 he is the choreographer for the Narnia Festival and the artistic director of the training project for young dancers “Evergreen”.
He took part in the 2020 edition of NuoveTraiettorie XL – training courses for young authors | Anticorpi XL Network action coordinated by the Cantieri Danza Association.
