Government support for dance
Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis has recently expressed the government’s interest in doing more for the country’s dance scene. «We are interested in what is happening with dance and we want to help. Up until now, the state has done the bare minimum,» he said at a recent press conference. New doors seem to be opening for contemporary Greek dance in view of the 6th Dance Festival, which the Association of Greek Choreographers will organize from March 16 through May 31. The news that the Embros Theater stage will host Greek dance companies for two months of every year – in what was described as a «step for them to stop being homeless» – was the highlight of the press conference, which then turned into an evaluation of last year’s events. Those included a review of funds earmarked for the 2005-2006 period to 30 dance companies (of which payments of the second installment have begun), the continuing support of Kalamata’s International Dance Festival, the decision to establish the Hellenic Dance Company which will operate as part of the National Ballet School and the upgrade of the National Opera Ballet School. According to Voulgarakis, the ministry’s aim is to «have an overall policy regarding dance, which will apply both to local productions by contemporary dance companies as well as the promotion of their work abroad.» He added that all this will be realized via the National Center of Theater and Dance. This year’s Dance Festival promises to be a celebration of contemporary Greek dance, with all its various strains. «We will focus on local production and want to establish a field of communication with our audience,» said Petros Gallias, president of the Association of Greek Choreographers. Over 20 dance groups will present their latest productions at the Argo, Thiseion, Roes, Hytirio and Contemporary Athens theaters. The program will also be divided up into sections for New Members, Independent Presences and the celebration of International Dance Day on April 23 at the Benaki Museum, where cartoonist Elli Solomonidou-Balanou will also be honored.
