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improvisation

Improvisation – Federica Porello 819 1024 akropoditi13

Improvisation – Federica Porello

OBJECTS DANCE
Improvisation workshop

“We don’t play with things nor with images, we play with objects that at the same time bend and resist to our desires. We are with them in a state of union and separation. To play with things is to be in union with them in the very place of our separation”.
Francis Ponge

Object dance is based in the inter-relation between objects and movement. A dialogue between the physical properties of objects (texture, form, weight), and a vocabulary of actions from which the dance emerge. The “things” with which we’ll work are objects without history nor meaning (pieces of wood, threads, elastics…), that have the capacity to give us a tangible experience of connecting with others, to expand our notion and perception of our individual body and to reveal stories and meanings thanks to their connection to the body and movement.
The workshop proposes tools for improvisation based on listening to the rhythms of each body and exploring the range of physical possibilities in relation to muscle tone, articulation, dynamics of movement, fragmentation of the actions of the individual body and the “group body”.
The objects will be our partners, an extension of our bodies and our landscape.

Ages: 14+
Level: All

 

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Federica Porello

(Genova, 1981)
Federica Porellois a dancer and pedagogue based in Catalunya. She studied at P.A.R.T.S. (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios) in Brussels. After finishing her education in 2006, she worked with the choreographer Marlene Freitas, the theatre company Tg STAN, the visual artist Anne Katherine Dolven, the puppeteer Merlin Borg, the choreographer Albert Quesada, and the shadow theater company Le Théâtre de Nuit. In 2012 she co-founded the Group LaBolsa, with seven independent artists who shared complementary concerns towards movement investigation and staging improvisation. In 2013, she joins the Catalan company Mal Pelo as interpreter and artistic assistant; in 2016 the company ZOO/Thomas Hauert, while regularly developing collaborations with dancers and musicians for the creation of interdisciplinary performances. In her work she investigates hybrid performative languages, linking movement improvisation and objects manipulation. This research brought to the development of the Objects Dance, a set of tools for improvising with objects, and the creation of the trio performance WeWood, the solo Nowhen, and the quartet VICINI. The last one is strongly influenced by the desire to explore how a poetic gesture can have a political impact, and how to use dance as a means of expression and resistance.

Improvisation for people with and without disabilities – Anna Vekiari 1024 1024 akropoditi13

Improvisation for people with and without disabilities – Anna Vekiari

Living Statue
Improvisation workshop for people with and without disabilities

This year’s workshop inspired by the art of tableau vivant will focus on the creation of static and moving images. The use of negative space and contact will be our most important tools throughout the workshop. At the end of the workshop there will be an open presentation in an outdoor space. For the smooth running of the workshop, attendance is required on all days.

OPEN PRESENTATION
We invite you to the open presentation of the workshop “Living Statue” by Anna Vekiari on Sunday 20/07 at 19:30 at the 4th Elementary School.
(Free entrance)

Ages: All
Levels: Disabled and non-disabled people who have movement experience (professional dancers, actors, special education professionals, group facilitators, etc.)

Photo credit:

Anna Vekiari

Artistic Director of EXIS, Dance Instructor, Dancer, Dance Therapist
Anna Vekiari was born and raised in Athens. She is the founder and artistic director of the professional inclusive contemporary dance company EXIS and co-owner of ISON Theatre – Dance, the first workshop for inclusive education (disabled and non-disabled) for theatre and dance in Athens. She graduated from the Anna Petrova Higher Professional School of Dance in 2010. She is a senior dance therapist at the Greek Dance Therapists Association and a Polestar Pilates instructor. She has attended seminars and dance classes in Greece and abroad. She has worked as a choreographer and assistant director in theatrical performances and has attended the theatrical lighting design workshop with Katerina Maragoudaki. In the summer of 2012 she attended the DanceAbility Teacher Training with Alito Alessi, improvisation/contact improvisation method for inclusive groups, in Vienna and since then she has been working as a dance teacher in an inclusive context with children and adults. She has collaborated with various associations MDA (Association for the Care of People with Neuromuscular Diseases), SamSkP (Association of People with Multiple Sclerosis), PEGKAP – NY (Panhellenic Association of Parents and Guardians of Mentally Retarded Children), Prototype Center of Haidari etc. and with special and general education schools. In the academic year 2020-2021 she collaborated with KEA-AMEA (Centre for Vocational Rehabilitation of People with Disabilities) as a choreographer in the framework of the action “Performing Arts Workshops for Social Inclusion” for the promotion of universal accessibility for people with disabilities in culture, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture. She has worked with groups and inclusive organisations in Greece and abroad. In February 2023 she was accepted to the Alleyne Dance Mentorship Programme for young choreographers. In 2015 she created the professional inclusive contemporary dance group EXIS in which she choreographs and organizes seminars (Akropoditi Dance Festival, Lyric Stage, Mill of Performing Arts, Cumana Dance, Forward Theatre etc.). Currently she has been participating in European projects and collaborating with inclusive dance groups and inclusive institutions from abroad.

Contemporary Dance and Improvisation – Penelope Morout 819 1024 akropoditi13

Contemporary Dance and Improvisation – Penelope Morout

Sculpting Body-Images
Contemporary Dance and Improvisation masterclass

Sculpting Body-Images is a movement workshop of intense physicality, shaped to bring awareness to the conscious act of offering, seeing and perceiving the body in relation to interchangeable elements. All participants are invited to engage into a mapping process: through tasked-based improvisation (body & voice) and game-like situations inspired by Fighting Monkey Practice (founded by Linda Kapetanea & Jozef Frucek), we will recognize-deconstruct-reconstruct personal patterns, identify compositional modes of working, and reflect upon the relationship between what is presented and how it is presented. We will work both alone and in couples or groups. There will be physical contact in order to manipulate the body and we will focus on stimulating the nervous system, increasing stamina and developing motor skills that improve agility through coordination, rhythm and elastic footwork skills.
Building upon the idea of a caring, judgment-free community, where all members are encouraged to embrace their individuality and weave their unique artistic voice, we will approach physical exploration with curiosity, playfulness and generosity.
SBI is a story-telling practice: it is about approaching the moving body from a 360° view and consciously choosing how, what and why we want to communicate with the world. All stories matter: they nourish our interaction with others and our connection with ourselves.

Ages: 17+
Level: Open Level (due to the workshop’s intense Physicality, a familiarity and/or previous experience with movement (dance, sports, physical activities etc.) is recommended, but not mandatory)

 

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Penelope Morout

Founder of CROSS IMPACT Company, is an interdisciplinary dance artist, intrigued by creating hybrid projects through the fusion of various performing and visual art mediums. Graduated from the National School of Dance (Athens) and the National Technical University of Athens – School of Architecture, with a Master’s degree in Theatre Practices from ArtEZ University of the Arts (NL), her artistic identity lies on a durational creative process, during which academic and artistic research are intrinsically connected with her movement practice. Her latest performance EMOTIONAL DOGS was realized under the auspices and the financial support of the Greek Ministry of Culture and, continuing having the support of the latter as well as of THE J.F. Costopoulos Foundation, is scheduled to tour during 2025.
Penelope works constantly between Greece and abroad as a performer, choreographer, dance teacher and scenographer. As a filmmaker she has participated in exhibitions and video dance & dance animation festivals worldwide. As an educator, she has shaped her own movement practice “Sculpting Body-Images”, which she shares around the world (PERA GAU School of Performing Arts, Munus Encuentro Mexico, Nunart Guinardó Barcelona, Points to Play Mulhouse, Akropoditi International Dance and Performing Arts Festival Syros, Unplugged Dance Lefkada, Kalamata International Dance Festival). Penelope implements in her teaching methodology elements inspired by “Fighting Monkey”, a practice by Linda Kapetanea and Jozef Frucek, with whom she has been training for 15 years.

Open Jam – Dance and Music Free Improvisation 1024 1024 akropoditi13

Open Jam – Dance and Music Free Improvisation

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.

Dance Improvisation for people with and without disabilities – Anna Vekiari 1024 1024 akropoditi13

Dance Improvisation for people with and without disabilities – Anna Vekiari

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

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.

Movement in water – Vitoria Kotsalou 1024 1024 akropoditi13

Movement in water – Vitoria Kotsalou

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

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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 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.

Improvisation – Stavroula Siamou 1024 1024 akropoditi13

Improvisation – Stavroula Siamou

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

 

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Stavroula Siamou

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.

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Day out of Time

“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

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.

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Pre-event – Opening of the Festival

To The Left of Center – Red Desert 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

 

los tre live

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

Open Jam – Dance and Music Free Improvisation 1024 1024 akropoditi13

Open Jam – Dance and Music Free Improvisation

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.

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