Greek dance scene jumps to the stage
All the latest trends in modern Greek dance will make a powerful appearance at the Second Greek Contemporary Dance Platform, which kicks off tomorrow. A joint collaboration between the Athens Concert Hall and the Association of Greek Choreographers, the platform will take place at the Athens Concert Hall. Following the success of the first platform, held two years ago, it will run to Sunday and feature performances by 30 Greek dance companies. «This is a continuation of the experiment we conducted in collaboration with the Association of Greek Choreographers two years ago,» said Athens Concert Hall artistic director Nikos Tsouchlos at a recent press conference. He added that the Dance Platform will become a regular institution, running every two years. Striking a different note from the first platform, when all performances were held in one space, this year’s event will spread to two of the concert hall’s venues. Nine companies have been selected to present 35-minute shows at the Nikos Skalkottas Hall – three companies per night, tomorrow until Saturday – while another 21 will hold 15-minute performances at the Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall, until Sunday. The Second Greek Contemporary Dance Platform will start off with the Landscape dance company’s solo «Human Landscape,» which explores the human soul. The solo will be followed by the Myia group’s «Free Your Self» and then by Sinequanon, who will perform parts of their production «Secret Supper,» which features live music. All three performances will take place at the Nikos Skalkottas Hall tomorrow, while at the same time the Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall will host Proschima’s «Action 1.3,» Airesis’s «And Now the Three of Us!» Temporary Synthesis’s «Circle Lake,» Yelp’s «Faux Pas» and Choreftes’s «Microcosmos.» Friday’s half-hour shows will include the Kinitiras Dance Spectacle’s dance theater performance «Lysistrata’s Cry,» which uses Aristophanes’ comedy «Lysistrata» as a starting point, and «Horizon» by the Synergy of the Arts. The program will end with the Griffon company’s «Fractal,» a search for female identity and a look into the transition from childhood to adulthood. On the same evening, parallel shows running at the Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall will feature the Persa Stamatopoulou Modern Dance Company’s «Meat,» Here, Elsewhere, Everywhere’s «Desire,» «Shapes – Colors – Movement» by the Niki Kontaxaki’s Classical & Modern Dance Ensemble, the Artemis Ignatiou Art Dance Theater’s «Cold Water,» Evanemos’s «The Present» and 14th Day’s «DOC-umentation.» Performances at the Nikos Skalkottas Hall will end on Saturday, with the Natassa Zouka Dance Theater’s triptych about sleep, memory and love, «The Look of the Earth,» and Iros Aggelos’s «Edward II,» which is based on Christopher Marlowe’s play of the same title. Quasi Stellar’s show «Hermaphrodite,» scheduled for that day, has been canceled due to technical difficulties. On Saturday, the Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall will host shows by the Seresta Dance Company, the Dancers of the North, Oneiro, the Dalika Dance Theater and Eldor. The platform will end on Sunday, with shows by the Amagalma, Met’Embodion and Magma companies, as well as the Enniamorfo Dance Company and the Lathos Kinisi dance company, in the same hall. Unlike the first platform, where 40 companies had presented their work without any process of selection, this time a five-member committee of international dance experts (Israel’s Ora Brafman, Romania’s Andrea Grecu, Britain’s Donald Hutera, France’s Sonia Schoonejars and Germany’s Katja Werner) decided on the nine groups to perform the half-hour shows. Tsouchlos stressed the importance of creating a dialogue between Greek artists and the international dance scene. He added that, apart from the committee itself, dance experts from around the world have been invited to see the performances and get a taste of the contemporary Greek dance scene. «In between the platforms, which will run every two years, the Greek dance scene will make its presence felt at the Athens Concert Hall,» Tsouchlos said. «We are working on it now and we will soon make an announcement,» he added, before explaining that the concert hall is very interested in the choreographers’ perception of music. «Each choreographer has a different emotional perception of music. Through them you can see where the musical perception of the whole dance scene is heading.» Unfortunately, it is not possible for the public to attend all of the platform’s performances, since shows at both halls start at the same time. Late-afternoon rehearsals have been scheduled for every day of the platform, to which admission is free, but they are reserved for the dance experts from abroad, journalists and friends of the companies’ members. Athens Concert Hall, 1 Kokkali & Vas. Sofias, tel 210.728.2333.
