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The program of ARC_MAIN FEST explores the many ways through which we move and are being moved, examines the rhythms, tempos, beats, the many variants of movement as they divide and interpolate time.
ARC14 focuses on thrill of shifting bodies as they engage with time; it celebrates the release into the feel of ever-changing realities; it suggests the reconciliation with the strains of duration.
ARC14 opens up to everybody’s experience of time, in the city, within the heavy demands of the present and beyond, in order to mend and heal a relation to time that has been broken, ailing.
ARC14 calls for artists and audiences to think forward and, also, in reverse: from TIME-TO-DANCE to DANCE-TO-TIME.

DAY 1_
27/05

Ever After | PREMIERE
Marianna Kavallieratos
Duration: 40΄

Marianna Kavallieratos studied dance and choreography at The Place - London Contemporary Dance School and continued her studies, with an Onassis Foundation scholarship, at SUNY Purchase (New York). In 1992, she began collaborating with director and visual artist Robert Wilson, at the Watermill Center (New York), performing in productions such as: T.S.Eliot, Une Femme Douce, Persephone, The Days Before DD&D III, Wings on Rock, Prometheus, Relative Light, Alceste (Christoph Willibald Gluck), Odyssey, Sonnets. Her choreographic projects include the productions: Stations, Recalculate, Auto Run, Moment, Normal Operation, I’m this...I’m that, Stay on It, DEATH. In the context of the project As One (Benaki Museum), that was staged in Athens by the Marina Abramovic Institute and the contemporary arts nonprofit NEON, she presented her feature performance “Skin”. More recently, she has appeared with the site-specific project “Stream”, which was presented in the Arsaki Arcade in Athens, as part of the public art project Removement Athens. Alongside her artistic work, she has taught contemporary dance and choreography at the Greek National School of Dance, at several drama schools and at Robert Wilson’s The Watermill Center in New York.
www.spillworks.com

“Ever After” began as a reflection on the concept, experience and history of death through the medium of dance – the dance macabre of the late medieval allegorical iconography; dance in Pieter Bruegel’s paintings; the post-mortem dance lament in romantic ballet; the slow death in the dashed hopes of modernist utopias; its dark memory in the aftermath of the end to grand narratives.
Setting no overly ambitious goals, and being constantly aware of the overwhelming universality and breadth of the subject, “Ever After”used the scale and kinetic materials of the dance group itself. It drew on the labyrinthine performative wanderings between different experiences, stories and pieces of information, in order to register in the present shared and diverging representations about death; in order to allow the traumatic relationship between humans and time to emerge. The very process of creating the piece, the rehearsals, the revisions, the small gestures that were excluded from the performance but included in the memories, the successive choices – all of these elements brought the piece to “life” gradually, through an arguably paradoxical but also redemptive process.
As noted by the choreographer: “In every attempt to capture the ‘after’ we keep coming back to the ‘before’ that explains the asymmetry between present experience and future expectation. We perceive ‘ever after’ as a metaphor for what never becomes known after the end of a piece’s life.”

Concept / Choreography: Marianna Kavallieratos
Dramaturgy: Anastassios Koukoutas
Music: Giorgos Poulios
Stage Design: Poulcheria Tzova
Costume Design: Konstantina Mardiki
Lighting Design: Eliza Alexandropoulou
Lighting Design Assistant: Tzanos Mazis
Assistant Choreographer: Aspasia Maria Alexiou
Photography: Alina Lefa
Production Coordinator: Maria Vasariotou
Performers: Gabriela Antonopoulou, Alexandros Vardaxoglou, Aris Papadopoulos, Ioanna Toubakari
Production: KLOKWORKS

With financial support from the Ministry of Culture and Sports

Marianna Kavallieratos studied dance and choreography at The Place - London Contemporary Dance School and continued her studies, with an Onassis Foundation scholarship, at SUNY Purchase (New York). In 1992, she began collaborating with director and visual artist Robert Wilson, at the Watermill Center (New York), performing in productions such as: T.S.Eliot, Une Femme Douce, Persephone, The Days Before DD&D III, Wings on Rock, Prometheus, Relative Light, Alceste (Christoph Willibald Gluck), Odyssey, Sonnets. Her choreographic projects include the productions: Stations, Recalculate, Auto Run, Moment, Normal Operation, I’m this...I’m that, Stay on It, DEATH. In the context of the project As One (Benaki Museum), that was staged in Athens by the Marina Abramovic Institute and the contemporary arts nonprofit NEON, she presented her feature performance “Skin”. More recently, she has appeared with the site-specific project “Stream”, which was presented in the Arsaki Arcade in Athens, as part of the public art project Removement Athens. Alongside her artistic work, she has taught contemporary dance and choreography at the Greek National School of Dance, at several drama schools and at Robert Wilson’s The Watermill Center in New York.
www.spillworks.com

DAY 2_
28/05

Funky Turn and/or Legally Live | PREMIERE
Zoi Dimitriou
Duration: 40΄

Zoi Dimitriou graduated from the Greek National School of Dance, then studied under Trisha Brown (New York) and concluded her Master’s degree with distinctions in the Practice of the European Dance Theater at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (London). She has been choreographing since 2006 and her accolades include choreography awards such as: Robin Howard Foundation Award 2008, Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund Award 2009, Company of Angels CfC 2010, Sadler’s Wells and The Place. She has participated in Aerowaves and has received multiple commissions (e.g. Greek National Opera Ballet, The Place, Onassis STEGI, Athens and Epidaurus Festival, etc.). Her works have been presented in prominent stages such as: Fast Forward Festival 4 / Onassis STEGI, ROH2, Arnolfini, BE Festival, Lilian Baylis, Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Kalamata International Dance Festival, Operaestate Veneto Festival, Teatro alla Scala - Milano, Europe in Motion Festival, Spring Loaded / The Place et al. She has participated in European research programs such as Choreoroam, Big intensive (Sadler’s Wells), Europe in Motion, and is supported by the Arts Council of England. She is a researcher/lecturer at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and has taught internationally in significant institutions such as: ImPulsTanz Festival, Sasha Waltz Company, Independent Dance, National Academy of Dance in Rome, School of Arts and Sciences, etc.
www.zoidimitriou.com

Through sampling technologies and digital techniques, the smallest gesture can assume a life of its own and become the basis for the constant re-birth of new iterations and reverberations. “Funky Turn and/or Legally Live” is a dance performance piece that adopts a media epistemology and supports the view that the artwork in the era of technical reproduction cannot escape the technological sovereignty that determines its aesthetic dimension. What is the place of origin and how can we—if at all—keep track of its many travels and echoes in the future?
Tracing a genealogy of movement material inspired by dance/pop culture and using appropriation techniques, Dimitriou attempts to bring some of these images to life with a technologically inspired vocabulary of movement and explore how their gestures can be further charged semiotically and expressively. Within the fast changing pace of our world’s virtual realities, Dimitriou is interested in slowing down and persistently amplifying the detail – a course that speaks of the desire for a return to a perhaps lost future.

Concept / Choreography / Artistic Direction: Zoi Dimitriou
Dramaturgy / Text: Zoi Dimitriou
Performer: Zoi Dimitriou
Composition and Sound Design: Sam Hayden
Set Design: Maro Michalakakos, Ilektra Stampoulou
Costumes: Ilektra Stampoulou, Zoi Dimitriou
Lighting Design: Tasos Palaioroutas
Graphic Design Supervision / Video: Marilena Aligizaki
Producer: Rena Andreadaki

Special thanks to: Alexia Beziki, Voltnoi Brege, Sakis Bwana, Dimitris Exarchos, Joe Kelleher, Nicholas Minns, Paddy Randal, Serena Ruth, Peter Von Salis, Simone Sistarelli, Yorgos Valais, Jacopo Zecchi.

“Funky Turn and/or Legally Live” is funded by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports. Supported by Kinitiras and Trinity Laban.

Zoi Dimitriou graduated from the Greek National School of Dance, then studied under Trisha Brown (New York) and concluded her Master’s degree with distinctions in the Practice of the European Dance Theater at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (London). She has been choreographing since 2006 and her accolades include choreography awards such as: Robin Howard Foundation Award 2008, Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund Award 2009, Company of Angels CfC 2010, Sadler’s Wells and The Place. She has participated in Aerowaves and has received multiple commissions (e.g. Greek National Opera Ballet, The Place, Onassis STEGI, Athens and Epidaurus Festival, etc.). Her works have been presented in prominent stages such as: Fast Forward Festival 4 / Onassis STEGI, ROH2, Arnolfini, BE Festival, Lilian Baylis, Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Kalamata International Dance Festival, Operaestate Veneto Festival, Teatro alla Scala - Milano, Europe in Motion Festival, Spring Loaded / The Place et al. She has participated in European research programs such as Choreoroam, Big intensive (Sadler’s Wells), Europe in Motion, and is supported by the Arts Council of England. She is a researcher/lecturer at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and has taught internationally in significant institutions such as: ImPulsTanz Festival, Sasha Waltz Company, Independent Dance, National Academy of Dance in Rome, School of Arts and Sciences, etc.
www.zoidimitriou.com

Things move but they do not say anything
Poliana Lima (BRA)
Duration: 40΄

Poliana Lima (Brazil, 1983) is a choreographer, dancer, and teacher living in Madrid. She was trained in classical ballet and contemporary dance in São Paulo and is the artist of Spain at Aerowaves 20/21. In 2011 she created her first short piece, Palo En La Rueda (Stick in the Wheel). In 2012 she started working with Lithuanian choreographer Ugne Dievaityte. Their piece Es Como Ver Nubes (It is like Watching Clouds) was awarded the audience’s prize at the 26th Choreographic Contest of Madrid, 2nd prize at the One Piece Contest, and 1st prize at the Vila Real Dance Festival in 2014. Their piece Flesh toured a variety of national and international festivals and theaters, such as: Fringe Edinburgh Festival, Spring Forward Aerowave, Mercat de Flors, Dansa Valencia, New Baltic Dance Festival, Window of Dance (Madrid in Dance), and the Korzo Theatre. In 2014 she launched her first ensemble, Atávico (Atavistic), which was awarded the first prize at the 28th Choreographic Contest of Madrid, as well as the audience’s and the critics’ awards. As an artist she is associated with the Conde Duque Centre in Madrid, where she premiered several of her works. “Things move but they do not say anything” premiered in September 2020 at the Teatros del Canal. In 2021, in addition to ARC for Dance Festival, it will also be staged at the Days of Dance Festival in Oporto, Portugal, and at the National Dance Centre of Paris, France.

“Things move but they do not say anything” is a dance piece about the language of bodies and the body of language. Performed by an all-female cast, the piece develops via dancers who do not interact with each other – at least, not physically – and also via the sounds produced by them as they move in co-presence, in unison.
These dressed in glitter and bathed in changing lights bodies always face the (an) audience as they stand and shake and twist and turn while holding their position. The almost archaic feel of a powerful female presence is conveyed through their ritualistic move – the way they repeat and shift and repeat again. Rhythm and gradual transformation give the piece an organic feel as if someone is at the presence of natural growth, weather phenomena or swarm move.
The choreography alludes to collective empowerment and the poetry of bodies channeling voices of the past and intuitions of the future, bodies making and spreading demands, stories, presence, time.

Idea, Choreography and Direction: Poliana Lima
Choreography Assistant: Lucas Condró
Lighting design: Carlos Marquerie
Sound Design: Arne Bock
Costume Designer: Anaïs Zebrowski
Costume Assistant: Diego Carrasco Pulido
Audiovisuals: Álvaro Gomez Pidal, Alexis Delgado Búrdalo
Performers: Cláudia Bosch, Laura Cardona, Ada Continente, Carla Diego, Natalia Fernandes, Cris Manso, Danielle Mesquita, Clara Pampyn, Almudena Perez, Isabela Rossi, Maddi Ruiz de Loizaga y Ainhoa Uzandizaga
Press: Cultproject
Production: Isabella Lima
Technical Coordination: Cristina Bolívar
Co-production: Teatros del Canal, Teatro Municipal do Porto / DDD - Festival Dias da Dança, CND/Pantin y Porosus Fonds de Dotation

Poliana Lima (Brazil, 1983) is a choreographer, dancer, and teacher living in Madrid. She was trained in classical ballet and contemporary dance in São Paulo and is the artist of Spain at Aerowaves 20/21. In 2011 she created her first short piece, Palo En La Rueda (Stick in the Wheel). In 2012 she started working with Lithuanian choreographer Ugne Dievaityte. Their piece Es Como Ver Nubes (It is like Watching Clouds) was awarded the audience’s prize at the 26th Choreographic Contest of Madrid, 2nd prize at the One Piece Contest, and 1st prize at the Vila Real Dance Festival in 2014. Their piece Flesh toured a variety of national and international festivals and theaters, such as: Fringe Edinburgh Festival, Spring Forward Aerowave, Mercat de Flors, Dansa Valencia, New Baltic Dance Festival, Window of Dance (Madrid in Dance), and the Korzo Theatre. In 2014 she launched her first ensemble, Atávico (Atavistic), which was awarded the first prize at the 28th Choreographic Contest of Madrid, as well as the audience’s and the critics’ awards. As an artist she is associated with the Conde Duque Centre in Madrid, where she premiered several of her works. “Things move but they do not say anything” premiered in September 2020 at the Teatros del Canal. In 2021, in addition to ARC for Dance Festival, it will also be staged at the Days of Dance Festival in Oporto, Portugal, and at the National Dance Centre of Paris, France.

DAY 3_
29/05

Why should it be more desirable for green fire balls to exist than not?
Georgia Vardarou
Duration: 40΄

Georgia Vardarou graduated from the Greek National School of Dance and then attended the 4-year study program at P.A.R.T.S. (BE). After graduating from P.A.R.T.S., she worked as a dancer alongside choreographer Salva Sanchis (2008-2013). She also worked with choreographers Cecilie Ullerup Schmidt, Lance Gries and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Rosas (2014-2016). For the past few years she has been working with Marc Vanrunxt. As a choreographer, she first focused on exploring personal movement and its content. Thus she created the project “Hardcore Research on Dance”. Later on, she choreographed the group projects “Phenomena” and “New Narratives”. Her work has been presented at theaters and dance festivals all over Europe, including: Dance Umbriella/London (UK), ImpulsTanz/Vienna (AT), Julidans/ Amstardam (NL), Onassis STEGI/Athens (GR), Athens & Epidaurus Festival/Athens (GR), Festival Sâlmon/ Barcelona (ES), Springdance/Utrecht (NL), Kaaistudio’s/Brussels (BE), STUK/ Leuven (BE), Schouwburg/Amsterdam (NL), Festival la Democrazia del Corpo/Florence (IT), Monty/Antwerp (BE), La Caldera/Barcelona (ES), C-mine/Genk (BE), MDT/Stockholm (SE) et al. She lived, studied and worked for 13 years in Brussels, where her work was sponsored by the Flemish community. In 2017, she moved to Barcelona, where she is a resident artist in La Caldera and El Graner. She is a member of the Kunst/Werk (BE) company as a satellite artist.

“In Why should it be more desirable…? Vardarou restores the primacy of dance by inserting into the space between performer and audience — where the dance happens — an ambiguous dimension in which we can search, consciously or unconsciously, for what we desire.”
— writing about dance, Nicholas Minns, 1/11/2019
“Why should it be more desirable for green fire balls to exist than not?” is a solo dance piece in collaboration with visual artist David Bergé. Images and movements imbricated with each other, create a space for the audience to read between the projections, the dance and their ephemeral relation to each other.

Choreographer Georgia Vardarou notes:
“How playful can contextualization of an image be by means of the language of dance? Do meanings become malleable next to a body moving? How can a body narrate? Does context reveal or thin the meaning of what we see on stage? What is happening in the space between the performer’s and the audience’s perception? This space between our different perceptions is perhaps where dance is happening.
According to Carl Gustav Jung, UFOs provoke conscious and unconscious fantasies. Perhaps dance movements can also be seen as a way to reflect on whether one sees what one sees because it’s actually there or because ‘an archetype creates the corresponding vision.’ Jung’s Flying Saucers is a book that I am currently reading for this project, the title of which is semi-drawn from the aforementioned book and refers to the general fact that it is more desirable for something (in the case of the book: flying saucers) to exist rather than not exist. If we assume that this kind of desire is part of the mechanism of watching dance then we could also assume that while watching dance we are constantly searching for something, consciously or unconsciously.”

Choreography & Performance: Georgia Vardarou
Set Design: David Bergé
Lighting Design: Ana Rovira
Outside Eye: Marc Vanrunxt
Photographs by: David Bergé, Elina Loukou, Agni Papadeli Rossetou
Technique: Eleni Chaidemenaki
Thanks to: Salva Sanchis
Co-production: Dance Umbrella Festival, London (UK)
Residencies: Graner,Barcelona, La Caldera-Barcelona (ES)
Production: Kunst/Werk, Antwerp (BE)

Georgia Vardarou graduated from the Greek National School of Dance and then attended the 4-year study program at P.A.R.T.S. (BE). After graduating from P.A.R.T.S., she worked as a dancer alongside choreographer Salva Sanchis (2008-2013). She also worked with choreographers Cecilie Ullerup Schmidt, Lance Gries and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Rosas (2014-2016). For the past few years she has been working with Marc Vanrunxt. As a choreographer, she first focused on exploring personal movement and its content. Thus she created the project “Hardcore Research on Dance”. Later on, she choreographed the group projects “Phenomena” and “New Narratives”. Her work has been presented at theaters and dance festivals all over Europe, including: Dance Umbriella/London (UK), ImpulsTanz/Vienna (AT), Julidans/ Amstardam (NL), Onassis STEGI/Athens (GR), Athens & Epidaurus Festival/Athens (GR), Festival Sâlmon/ Barcelona (ES), Springdance/Utrecht (NL), Kaaistudio’s/Brussels (BE), STUK/ Leuven (BE), Schouwburg/Amsterdam (NL), Festival la Democrazia del Corpo/Florence (IT), Monty/Antwerp (BE), La Caldera/Barcelona (ES), C-mine/Genk (BE), MDT/Stockholm (SE) et al. She lived, studied and worked for 13 years in Brussels, where her work was sponsored by the Flemish community. In 2017, she moved to Barcelona, where she is a resident artist in La Caldera and El Graner. She is a member of the Kunst/Werk (BE) company as a satellite artist.

DAY 4_
30/05

Dare to be together | PREMIERE
Alex Kyriakoulis
Duration: 10΄

Alex Kyriakoulis is an award-winning choreographer, director and multidisciplinary artist. Born in Athens, he has lived and worked in Belgium and France for the last 10 years and is the artistic director of La Verità Dance Company (BE). He studied dance at the Greek National School of Dance and at Rallou Manou Dance School. In 2015 he was distinguished as Best New Choreographer in France, in the context of the European competition Les lendemains qui dancent, and since then his projects have been supported by international theaters and organizations such as: Scene Nationale Dunkerque / Le Bateau Feu (FR), Centre Chorégraphique National Roubaix (FR), EPCC La Barcarolle - Spectacle vivant audomarois (FR), Choreographisches Centrum Heidelberg (DE), TROIS C-L - Centre de Creation Choregraphique Luxembourgeois (LU) et al. His works have been staged at theaters and dance festivals in Belgium, Cyprus, England, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands. A highlight in his choreographic career was when Flemish composer and member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium Jan Van Landeghem commissioned him to choreograph and direct his show Chanson de fou, which was presented in Catholic churches across Belgium. He has collaborated with the Conservatorium Mechelen (BE) and the Ballet du Nord (FR), and for the past 7 years he has been a permanent member of the faculty at Bornem Dance Academy (BE).

“Dare to be together” is a dance study on the evolution of human relations and the corresponding changes in the psychology of the people involved.
Although humans seem to be functioning better and moving forward through relational processes, through proximity and exchange, the demand for individuality seems to always come up, almost inevitably, claiming satisfaction and the reins in every encounter.
While it is true that each and every one of us essentially enters and leaves the complex ritual of existence alone, it is equally true that everyday living becomes possible thanks to the many ways in which we are aware of others and share with them the characteristics of our unique experience.
Choreographer and multidisciplinary artist Alex Kyriakoulis is reflecting on the boldness of coexistence and union, on the synapses fueled by touch and the significations triggered by embraces; his choreography sheds light on the manifest need of the body to “become” with other bodies, even if it only happens “in-between”, in the space that lies between the two fundamental points of loneliness – birth and death. As the choreographer points out with regard to the particular conditions of isolation we are currently experiencing: “A teacher of mine had once told me that ‘humans come and go alone.’ So, let us figure out the way to change the intervening course of our lives.”

Choreography: Alex Kyriakoulis
Performance / Co-creation: Katerina Mageraki, Petros Tsofillas, Noni Boufi
Set Design / Stage Manager: Paraskevi Chionidou
Lighting Design: Alex Kyriakoulis
Music / Cello: Alexandros Kasartzis
With the support of: Dance Cultural Centre

Alex Kyriakoulis is an award-winning choreographer, director and multidisciplinary artist. Born in Athens, he has lived and worked in Belgium and France for the last 10 years and is the artistic director of La Verità Dance Company (BE). He studied dance at the Greek National School of Dance and at Rallou Manou Dance School. In 2015 he was distinguished as Best New Choreographer in France, in the context of the European competition Les lendemains qui dancent, and since then his projects have been supported by international theaters and organizations such as: Scene Nationale Dunkerque / Le Bateau Feu (FR), Centre Chorégraphique National Roubaix (FR), EPCC La Barcarolle - Spectacle vivant audomarois (FR), Choreographisches Centrum Heidelberg (DE), TROIS C-L - Centre de Creation Choregraphique Luxembourgeois (LU) et al. His works have been staged at theaters and dance festivals in Belgium, Cyprus, England, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands. A highlight in his choreographic career was when Flemish composer and member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium Jan Van Landeghem commissioned him to choreograph and direct his show Chanson de fou, which was presented in Catholic churches across Belgium. He has collaborated with the Conservatorium Mechelen (BE) and the Ballet du Nord (FR), and for the past 7 years he has been a permanent member of the faculty at Bornem Dance Academy (BE).

Enchanté | PREMIERE
Natasa Frantzi
Duration: 15΄

Natasa Frantzi is a dancer, choreographer and dance instructor based in Belgium. She studied dance at the Greek National School of Dance. As a dancer she has worked with dance companies in Greece and abroad, including: Unterwegstheater (DE), Compagnie Hybrid (BE), Greig Bourgoyne (UK), Lisi Estaras (BE), Michalis Nalbantis, Maria Anthymidou, Aliki Kazouri, Maria Gorgia, Stavros Apostolatos, Christina Vassiliou, as well as with the Hellenic Dance Company, in repertoires by Ultimavez, Richard Alston and Martin Lawrence. As a choreographer, founder and artistic director of La Verità Dance Company, she has been distinguished as Best New Choreographer in France, in the context of the European competition Les lendemains qui dangent (FR). She has collaborated with the Conservatorium Mechelen (BE) orchestra, the Ballet Du Nord (FR) and the Conservatoire Saint Omer (FR). She has been supported by international theaters and organizations, such as: Scene Nationale Dunkerque / Le Bateau Feu (FR), Centre Choregraphique National de Roubaix (FR), EPCC La Barcarolle - Spectacle vivant audomarois (FR), et al. Over the past 2 years, she has been a member, choreographer and instructor at Platform-K (BE), a professional dance company made up of dancers with disabilities (Down Syndrome, autism, etc.), which stages performances and tours around Belgium and across Europe in collaboration with other dance companies and choreographers, including Les ballets C de la B, Michiel Vandevelde, Benjamin Vandewalle.

Every time we introduce ourselves to someone, in a professional, romantic or casual setting, an innermost mechanism is triggered that makes us pick and choose which of our character features we will render obvious to them. This constant reinvention of the self in its interaction with others, especially at a time when the image becomes more representative than the substance, is a highly stressful process that ultimately tends to replace the real experience. In the words of Jorge Bucay (freely translated here):

Once upon a time there was… “a time”
That was narrated with such power
And repeated so many times
That it became reality.

What happens when, in this interchanging plethora of selves, we end up losing our core identity?
“Enchanté” attempts to explore this difficult question through a kinetic study. It proposes a journey with a single point of departure but many different destinations, as these arise through the contextual and instinctive reactions of the dancers to concrete situations. The language produced each time by the body itself, whether realistic or surreal, is essentially narrating different stories, with or without logical association. In its highly desirable freedom of expression, multiple “realities” clash, at times cancelling each other out, caught up in the continuum of volatile polymorphism that might actually constitute the dead-end utter fragmentation of content.

Idea / Choreography: Natasa Frantzi
Performance / Co-creation: Apostolos Kousinas, Natasa Frantzi
Set Design: Paraskevi Chionidou
Lighting Design: Alex Kyriakoulis
With the support of: Dance Cultural Centre

Natasa Frantzi is a dancer, choreographer and dance instructor based in Belgium. She studied dance at the Greek National School of Dance. As a dancer she has worked with dance companies in Greece and abroad, including: Unterwegstheater (DE), Compagnie Hybrid (BE), Greig Bourgoyne (UK), Lisi Estaras (BE), Michalis Nalbantis, Maria Anthymidou, Aliki Kazouri, Maria Gorgia, Stavros Apostolatos, Christina Vassiliou, as well as with the Hellenic Dance Company, in repertoires by Ultimavez, Richard Alston and Martin Lawrence. As a choreographer, founder and artistic director of La Verità Dance Company, she has been distinguished as Best New Choreographer in France, in the context of the European competition Les lendemains qui dangent (FR). She has collaborated with the Conservatorium Mechelen (BE) orchestra, the Ballet Du Nord (FR) and the Conservatoire Saint Omer (FR). She has been supported by international theaters and organizations, such as: Scene Nationale Dunkerque / Le Bateau Feu (FR), Centre Choregraphique National de Roubaix (FR), EPCC La Barcarolle - Spectacle vivant audomarois (FR), et al. Over the past 2 years, she has been a member, choreographer and instructor at Platform-K (BE), a professional dance company made up of dancers with disabilities (Down Syndrome, autism, etc.), which stages performances and tours around Belgium and across Europe in collaboration with other dance companies and choreographers, including Les ballets C de la B, Michiel Vandevelde, Benjamin Vandewalle.

Somiglianza
KOR’SIA
Duration: 15΄

Antonio de Rosa and Mattia Russo, together with Giuseppe Dagostino, and with the collaboration of Agnès Lopez Rio, are KOR’SΙA. The company was nominated for the Best Dance Show at the 2018 Max Awards and, in 2019, KOR'SIA was selected as one of the 20 most promising companies of the Aerowaves Europe network. KOR’SIA has toured its 5 creations at festivals such as: Les Synodales, Dantzaldia Festival, Bologna Gender Bender Festival, Agitart Festival of Figueres, PRISMA Festival (Panama), Madrid in Dance, Tanzplattform Bern, Lucky Trimmer Festival Berlin, Birmingham Festival. KOR'SIA has performed at the Spanish Pavilion of the Milan Expo, the Palazzo Ca 'Zanardi of the Venice Expo, the Luciano Pavarotti Theater in Modena, the Museum of the University of Navarra, the Bolzano Studio Theater, the OperaEstate Festival in Bassano del Grappa, the RomaEuropa Festival, the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao, the Prado Museum, the Museum of Science and the Cosmos in La Laguna, the Matadero in Madrid, the Staatstheater in Darmstadt, the Bordeaux Opera, and the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv.  As choreographers of KOR’SIA, Mattia Russo and Antonio de Rosa, made their debut in 2018 with Jeux - Nijinsky for the Victor Ullate Ballet; Siciliana, for the Teatro Massimo in Palermo; Engel in Blau - Paul Klee for the Konzert Theater in Bern; Pagliaccio for the Ballet of the Rhine Opera. KOR’SIA is in residency at the Teatros del Canal since 2017.

“Somiglianza” is a performance with a dreamlike, captivating and eccentric atmosphere, which uses elements from the world of cinema and photography to translate in a sarcastic vein “L’après-midi d’un faune,” on the music of Claude Debussy, the first choreographic composition with which Vaslav Nijinsky opened the doors to modernity. The two choreographers—here also in the role of performers—merge the classic iconography and the world of dreams, sarcasm and glamour with exquisite elegance. The paradox of stillness, introduced by Nijinsky to express the excesses of the flesh and of desire, is transformed into a game of static and dynamic balance that evokes that of the American Aqua-Musicals, when Esther Williams was a huge hit in the late ’40s.
The faun, tall and majestic, in a long tunic of white lace, is crowned with flowers like an androgynous Farinelli, while the Nymphs, a bit like mermaids and a bit like pin-up girls, lose their gender as they are interpreted by dancers of both sexes. The performance of De Rosa and Russo is a sort of pop dream; small and short snapshots with a glamorous character, where the sublimation of sexuality and sensuality occurs through the combination of elegance and poetic levity.

Choreography: KOR´SIA Antonio de Rosa, Mattia Russo
Music: Claude Debussy, Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Costumes: KOR´SIA and Vanesa Soria Lima
Set Design: KOR´SIA
Lighting Design: Mattia Russo, Antonio de Rosa
Text: Celia Zaragoza
Performers: Astrid Bramming, Giulia Russo, Alejandro Moya, Mattia Russo, Antonio de Rosa

Antonio de Rosa and Mattia Russo, together with Giuseppe Dagostino, and with the collaboration of Agnès Lopez Rio, are KOR’SΙA. The company was nominated for the Best Dance Show at the 2018 Max Awards and, in 2019, KOR'SIA was selected as one of the 20 most promising companies of the Aerowaves Europe network. KOR’SIA has toured its 5 creations at festivals such as: Les Synodales, Dantzaldia Festival, Bologna Gender Bender Festival, Agitart Festival of Figueres, PRISMA Festival (Panama), Madrid in Dance, Tanzplattform Bern, Lucky Trimmer Festival Berlin, Birmingham Festival. KOR'SIA has performed at the Spanish Pavilion of the Milan Expo, the Palazzo Ca 'Zanardi of the Venice Expo, the Luciano Pavarotti Theater in Modena, the Museum of the University of Navarra, the Bolzano Studio Theater, the OperaEstate Festival in Bassano del Grappa, the RomaEuropa Festival, the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao, the Prado Museum, the Museum of Science and the Cosmos in La Laguna, the Matadero in Madrid, the Staatstheater in Darmstadt, the Bordeaux Opera, and the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv.  As choreographers of KOR’SIA, Mattia Russo and Antonio de Rosa, made their debut in 2018 with Jeux - Nijinsky for the Victor Ullate Ballet; Siciliana, for the Teatro Massimo in Palermo; Engel in Blau - Paul Klee for the Konzert Theater in Bern; Pagliaccio for the Ballet of the Rhine Opera. KOR’SIA is in residency at the Teatros del Canal since 2017.