June Programme 2024
2 SUN 19:30 (90’)
Poso s’agapo
Cantus Choral Music Centre Angelina Nicolaidou
Cantus Choral Music Centre “Angelina Nicolaidou” organises a concert titled Poso s'agapo, dedicated to the memory of maestro Angelina Nicolaidou. Songs from the Greek and international repertoire by Mikis Theodorakis, Manos Hatzidakis, Manos Loizou, Marios Tokas, Vasos Argyrides, Stelios Pissis, Santiago Veros, Bob Chillcot etc. will be performed.
Featuring all choral sections of Angelina Nicolaidou: Cantus children's choir, Cantus Novus mixed choir and women’s vocal ensemble Cantus Novus Femina.
4 TUE 20:30 (60’) The Netherlands *
The End - part 2 I Arno Schuitemaker
The End - part 2 takes you to extremes. With an intriguing mix of movement, electronic music, light, and video, the performance explores a world of shifting relationships. What do togetherness, connection, and solidarity mean at this moment? What brings us closer to each other? How can mutual transparency strengthen interaction?
The hyperphysical performances by choreographer Arno Schuitemaker always make an overwhelming impression and are praised for the inventive forms he creates with themes where the intimate and the universal meet. In an equally exciting and subtle way, The End - part 2 blurs the difference between seeing and being seen. The performance feels like a collection of short stories in which energy, stillness, sensitivity, distortion, and longing confront each other. The three performers expose different sides of themselves and, ultimately, lift physical boundaries—even in opposition, our individual spaces can be shared.
The End - part 2 is a production by SHARP/ArnoSchuitemaker in co-production with La Place de la Danse - CDCN Toulouse/Occitanie as part of the “accueil studio” programme, CCN de Caen and Normandie as part of the “accueil studio” programme, and Montpellier Danse as part of the residency programme at I'Agora Cité Internationale de la Danse. Supported by Performing Arts Fund NL, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, Ammodo, and Fonds 21.
Concept and creation: Arno Schuitemaker
Created with and performed by: Ivan Ugrin, Mark Christoph Klee, Angelo Petracca
Dramaturgy: Guy Cools
Video: Gilbert Nouno
Lighting design: Jean Kalman
Music: Aart Strootman
Stage design: Jean Kalman, Arno Schuitemaker
Costumes: Victor Klijsen
Technical producer: Maarten van Burken
Video technician: Daan Hazendonk
Technicians: Sander Schaart, Ruben Lijbers
Outside eye: Miguel A Melgares
Publicity image: Lonneke van de Palen
In his contemporary and radical performances, Arno Schuitemaker breaks the boundaries between dance, performance, visual art, and club culture. This makes him one of the most intriguing makers of the moment. A “must-see of the year”, as Scènes wrote about his previous performance 30 appearances out of darkness, the work premiered at the Holland Festival. The way you sound tonight won the Swan award for the most impressive dance production of the season. His performances have been seen on renowned stages in more than 30 countries.
www.arnoschuitemaker.com
@arnoschuitemaker
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners and dance professionals.
10 MON 20:30 (75’) Denmark* 18+
CARCASS I Himherandit Productions I Andreas Constantinou
Dare we face the inevitable? That sooner or later we have to leave this place, like all our loved ones? With Carcass, Himherandit Productions deals with the end of life in a gripping, brutal, and fragile performance, which also has space for quirky humour. In front of a massive mirror, six performers and their bodies find a life-affirming answer to what cannot be put into words.
Carcass is not about what might await us after death. Or about faith or religion. In our Western culture, we tend to hold death at arm’s length. Carcass wants to shed light on how we accept that some day it must end. On how we let go of our fears and remember to live life while we are here. Despite this gloomy and deeply moving subject, HIMHERANDIT Productions manages to create an experience full of life.
HIMHERANDIT'S artistry fluctuates between genres of performance art, physical theatre, immersive theatre, dance, and large-scale video installations. The company develops projects that push, provoke, and engage audiences into the discourse around social subjects that are often difficult to approach. Over the course of the last ten years, the company has supported the development of queer art in Denmark with professional productions, community engagement projects, The GENDER HOUSE Queer Art Festivals and, most recently, the opening of Q&A Studios - Queer Art Studios Aarhus, which is both home to the company and a residency centre that supports local, national and international queer art makers.
https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=himherandit%20productions
https://www.instagram.com/himherandit/?hl=da
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners and dance professionals.
14 FRI 20:30 (60’) Greece*
Silence Ι Rootlessroot Ι Linda Kapetanea & Jozef Fruček
If something has been brutally banished from our current age of technology and information, that is silence. The ever-present barrage of human activity causes endless noise. In addition to silence, the capacity to listen also seems to be fading away. However, what is silence? What dimensions can it assume?
In their latest piece, the RootlessRoot duo create a world dedicated to silence and its power. They explore an unknown universe where silence communicates with all those listening carefully to it, with all those conversing with it and utilising what it has to offer to them. Silence is treated as an absolute condition, confronting those who participate in it with the mystery of their own selves and the world at large. Sometimes as a place of reflection, critical thinking, and memory, other times as a place of faith, prayer, and encounter with the divine, silence becomes the space for movement before the actual movement or action. Drawing material from philosophy, theology, poetry, literature, and painting, the duo investigates the condition of silence as a medium of self-knowledge and experiencing of the world. Via improvisations and exercises, the movement research will dictate the choreographic material and theatrical elements of this production.
Concept & choreography: Linda Kapetanea, Jozef Fruček
Music composition: Vassilis Mantzoukis
Set and costume design: Paris Mexis
Assistant to the set and costume designer: Alegia Papageorgiou
Lighting design: Perikles Mathiellis
Sound design & sound engineer: Christos Parapagidis
Scientific associate: Kostas Vrachnos
Texts edited by: Ioanna Nasiopoulou
Props construction: Ilianna Skoulaki
Photographs: Elina Giounanli
Performers: Maria Bregianni, George Dereskos, Linda Kapetanea, Anastasis Karachanidis, Christos Strinopoulos, Alexandros Vardaxoglou
Executive production: POLYPLANITY Productions / Yolanda Markopoulou, Vicky Strataki
Executive production assistant: Nikos Charalampidis
Co-production: Athens Epidaurus Festival, RootlessRoot
Funded by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports
RootlessRoot was founded by Linda Kapetanea and Jozef Fruček in Athens in 2006. Τhey have created 27 performances (solos, moving installations, medium and large-scale performances), which they have presented in more than 30 countries and in various theatres and festivals. They have collaborated with Akram Khan for his solo DESH, with the Staadsteater Kassel Dance Company, DOT504, the Helsinki Dance Company, and other companies and creators. In Greece, they have collaborated with the Onassis Stegi, the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, and the Greek National Opera Ballet. They are widely known for the Fighting Money Practice, which focuses on human motion/development and healthy aging, and which they teach worldwide.
Linda Kapetanea, Artistic Director of the Kalamata Dance Festival, is a dancer, choreographer, and contemporary dance teacher, who has performed and taught worldwide. She graduated from the Greek National School of Dance and continued her training as a postgraduate student in New York, with a scholarship from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation. In 2002, she received the best performance award from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. Between 2002 and 2006, she collaborated with the Ultima Vez dance company and Wim Vandekeybus on the performances Blush, Sonic Boom, and Puur and the films Blush and Here After. From 2006 to 2012, she taught at the Greek National School of Dance. In 2007, Kapetanea and Jozef Fruček founded the RootlessRoot dance company as a vehicle for their own artistic productions and research on human movement. They have since presented 26 works in more than 30 countries (in Europe, Asia, and North America) to international acclaim. Together with Fruček, Kapetanea developed the Fighting Μonkey Practice, which they teach in prestigious educational institutions in Greece and abroad.
Jozef Fruček has a background in professional sports, martial arts, and theatre, and has dedicated his professional life to the research of movement, which promotes personal development along with healthy aging. He studied at the Academy of Music and Drama Arts in Bratislava and later received a PhD in Voice and Movement. He has explored the aspects of effective communication, voice, and breathing for public speaking, performing arts, and psycho-hygiene. In 2006, together with Linda Kapetanea, he founded the RootlessRoot company and started implementing their research, Fighting Monkey Practice, which reflects their unique approach to human movement based on cross-motion analysis. He teaches and gives lectures at universities and various athletic and arts centres across Europe, the United States, Asia, and Australia.
Strobe lighting effects are used during this performance for 4 minutes.
https://www.instagram.com/rootlessroot_rtr/
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners and dance professionals.
16 SUN Italy*
AMAE I Eliana Stragapede and Borna Babić
20:30 (30’)
AMAE questions and investigates the need for co-dependency in human relationships. The desire to be passively loved, seeking the other’s indulgence. The wish to completely surround and feel at one with the other, trying to neglect and avoid confrontation with the outside objective reality. From a certain perspective, this might be perceived as a very warm and human behaviour, being in harmony with others and being able to rely on them. From another point of view, it might seem to encourage self-indulgence, dependence, and control. How far can this need bring us, so that from love we start hurting, from taking care we become obsessive, and from supporting we end up controlling?
Concept, choreography, performance: Eliana Stragapede & Borna Babić Dramaturgy: Margherita Scalise
Music composition: Nenad Kovačić
Voice: Teresa Campos
Original music: Nicholas Britell
Audio editing: Giuseppe Santoro
Costumes: Nina Lopez-Le Galliard
Lighting design: Benjamin Verbrugge
Eliana Stragapede and Borna Babić, both graduates of the Codarts, are freelance performers, choreographers, and teachers based in Brussels. Right after school, they both began working professionally with Marina Mascarell and Club Guy & Roni and since then, they have danced with renowned choreographers and companies. After working for Tanzmainz in Germany, Eliana has been part of the dance theatre company, Peeping Tom since 2020. Meanwhile, she has also been working with Club Guy & Roni in the Netherlands. Borna has been working with Olivier deSagazan, and he is part of Ultima Vez / Wim Vandekeybus since 2019. Their performance ΑΜΑΕ was awarded the first prize at the Choreography and Production Awards - The Copenhagen International Choreography Competition 2022 for the Nederlands Dans Theater and Holstebro Dansekompagni. Furthermore, it was awarded the Partner Awards by Codarts and Dansateliers at the Rotterdam International Choreographic Competition 2023.
Disclaimer: This work was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.
https://www.instagram.com/elianastragapede/
https://www.instagram.com/borna_b/
Eliana Stragapede
Borna Babic
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners and dance professionals.
16 SUN Italy*
Save the Last Dance for Me Ι Alessandro Sciarroni
21:30 (20’) On Stage
In Save the last dance for me, Alessandro Sciarroni works together with the dancers Gianmaria Borzillo and Giovanfrancesco Giannini on the steps of a Bolognese dance called Polka Chinata. It is a courtship dance originally performed by men only and dating back to the early 1900s: physically demanding, almost acrobatic, it requires that the dancers embrace each other, and whirl as they bend to their knees almost to the ground.
The work was created in collaboration with Giancarlo Stagni, a Filuzziani dance master who revived this ancient tradition thanks to the rediscovery and study of some documentation videos dating back to the 1960s. Sciarroni discovered this dance in December 2018, when only five people practiced it in Italy. For this reason, the project consists of a performance by the two dancers and a series of workshops that aim at spreading and reviving this popular tradition in danger of extinction.
Invention: Alessandro Sciarroni with Gianmaria Borzillo & Giovanfrancesco Giannini
Artistic collaboration: Giancarlo Stagni
Music: Aurora Bauzà e Pere Jou (Telemann Rec.)
Styling: Ettore Lombardi
Technical direction: Valeria Foti
Tour technician: Cosimo Maggini
Curator, promotion, consulting: Lisa Gilardino
Administration, executive production: Chiara Fava
Communication: Pierpaolo Ferlaino
Alessandro Sciarroni is an Italian artist active in the field of Performing Arts with several years of experience in visual arts and theatre research. His works are featured in contemporary dance and theatre festivals, museums, and art galleries, as well as in unconventional spaces involving professionals from different disciplines. In 2019 he was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance by the Venice Biennial. His work starts from a conceptual Duchamp-like matrix, making use of a theatrical framework, and he can use some techniques and experiences from dance, as well as circus or sports. In addition to the rigour, coherence, and clarity of each creation, his work tries to uncover obsessions, fears, and fragilities of the act of performing, through the repetition of a practice to the limits of the physical endurance of the interpreters, looking at a different dimension of time, and to an empathic relationship between the audience and the performers. His works have been presented worldwide: Europe, South and North America, the Middle East, and Asia. Among the main events he took part: the Biennale de la Danse in Lyon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, Impulstanz Festival in Wien, the Venice Biennale, the Festival d’Automne and the Festival Séquence Danse at 104 in Paris, Centrale Fies, Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Crossing The Line in New York, Hong Kong Art Festval, Juli Dans Festival in Amsterdam, TBA Festival Portland, Festival Panorama Rio de Janeiro. He exhibited his work at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, The Walker Art Center Minneapolis, Punta della Dogana-Palazzo Grassi in Venice and the MAXXI Museum in Rome. Alessandro Sciarroni is an associate artist of CENTQUATRE-Paris and Triennale Milano Teatro 2022-2024. His shows are produced by Marche Teatro in collaboration with various national and international co-production partners depending on the projects. Some of the historical partners are Centrale Fies, Comune di Bassano del Grappa – Centro per la Scena Contemporanea, Amat, la Biennale de la Danse – Maison de la Danse de Lyon, La Biennale di Venezia, Mercat de les Flors – Graner (Barcelona), Fondation d’Entreprise Hermèsin the frame of New Settings and the association corpoceleste_C.C.00# of which he is the artistic director.
©Passages Transfestival-Metz 2023 | Photo: Raoul Gilibert
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners and dance professionals.
23 SUN 20:30 (60’) Greece*
Larsen C - Christos Papadopoulos
Larsen C: a work of art in movement inspired by the slowness of melting glaciers in order to speak of the fierceness of life.
“Glacier” or “ice shelf”. This is the scientific name of the enormous, 10,000-year-old immobile body of Larsen C water in Antarctica. Larsen C, twice the size of Wales, moves so slowly that it cannot be detected by the human senses. It is as if the pulse of its movement were absorbed by space and time. In Christos Papadopoulos’ namesake choreography, human bodies resonate to the same perpetual rhythm, in a dreamlike sequence where they progressively appear as eerie as the polar landscape. Christos Papadopoulos becomes, yet again, an observer of the movement of the minimum which, in its interiority and repetition, produces life. Larsen C is a party in homage to the silent transition of bodies. It is “a metaphor”, as the choreographer himself states, “of life that goes on invincible.”
Concept & choreography: Christos Papadopoulos
Cast: Maria Bregianni, Georgios Kotsifakis, Sotiria Koutsopetrou, Tasos Nikas, Alexandros Nouskas-Varelas, Ioanna Paraskevopoulou
Music & sound design: Giorgos Poulios
Set design: Clio Boboti
Lighting design: Eliza Alexandropoulou
Costume design: Angelos Mentis
Dramaturgy consultant: Alexandros Mistriotis
Choreography consultant: Martha Pasakopoulou
Assistant set designer: Filanthi Bougatsou
Production management: Rena Andreadaki, Zoe Mouschi
Tour lighting head: Alexandros Mavridis
Set and sound technician: Marilena Kalaitzantonaki, Aggeliki Vassilopoulou Kampitsi, Stefi Elettra Pantavos
Tour manager: Konstantina Papadopoulou
International Distribution: KeyPerformance
Christos Papadopoulos studied Dance and Choreography at SNDO (School for New Dance Development) in Amsterdam, Theatre at the Drama School of Greece’s National Theatre, and Political Sciences in Athens. He is a founding member of the dance group The Lion and the Wolf. His first works, Opus and Elvedon, received critical acclaim when presented at the Porta Theatre in Greece. Elvedon was the first choice of Aerowaves 2016 and was later presented in Paris, Amsterdam, and other European cities. Opus was chosen by Aerowaves 2018, and soon after began its international tour. Ion (2018), commissioned by Onassis Stegi and co-produced by Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, and Le Lieu Unique, Nantes, continues to tour successfully. Larsen C (2021), an international co-production, has already been presented to more than 25 venues and festivals across Europe. In 2023, he created the work Mellowing for the prestigious dance company Dance On and, later on, Mycelium for the Lyon Opera Ballet and the Biennale de la Danse Lyon. These works are touring worldwide. In June, Christos Papadopoulos will present a solo piece for Georgios Kotsifakis – LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura and, in September 2024, a new work for NDT 1. In May 2025, his new project will premiere at Onassis Stegi, in Athens.
instagram: Christos Papadopoulos (@christos____papadopoulos)
facebook: Christos Papadopoulos (https://www.facebook.com/christos.papadopoulos.9400)
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners and dance professionals.
25 TUE 19:30 (70’)
Imago I Travis Clausen-Knight & James Pett
The magnificent duo Travis Clausen-Knight & James Pett which captivated everyone during the last Celebrity Ballet Gala: Contemporary, is returning to Cyprus with their own production: IMAGO accompanied by live piano and violin.
IMAGO is a captivating duet that exposes the intricate and often hidden dysfunctions in relationships within a coded nod to the Language of Flowers. Starting with a delicate duo of piano and violin, IMAGO invites the audience to feel and embrace the subtle journey portrayed in dance.
Through twelve ever-changing chapters, IMAGO depicts a profound journey of two men as they navigate environments of duplicity, denial, and acceptance, culminating in an ending left for the audience to determine. IMAGO brings to light our nature to obscure the truth with beauty, in fear of being hurt or in fear of having to accept.
A deeply moving and insightful exploration of the human condition that will leave a pondering on its themes long after the performance has ended. Its triad of a compelling narrative, stirring original score by Sean Pett, and electrifying dance performance make IMAGO a
gripping experience for audiences within and beyond the dance field.
Choreography & performance: Travis Clausen-Knight & James Pett
Composer & Musician: Sean Pett
Premiere: November 2022
About: James Pett & Travis Clausen-Knight, founders of PCK Dance, are accomplished choreographers and dancers with successful individual careers in prestigious companies like Company Wayne McGregor, Michael Clarke Company & Richard Alston Dance Company. Renowned for their provocative and intensely powerful movement language, they focus on the intricacies of the human experience, creating poignant & thought-provoking works that resonate deeply on a personal & emotional level.
Celebrity Gala: In February 2023, the very first "Celebrate the Love" ballet performance captivated audiences, exploring the theme of love through the mesmerizing artistry of ballet. In October 2023, the breathtaking Freedom Celebrity Ballet Gala took place at Kourion, celebrating freedom in a magnificent outdoor setting. This was followed by Celebrity Ballet Gala: Contemporary, February 2024, and a concert of famous neoclassical piano composer, Ilya Beshevli. And now, the Celebrity Gala team is excited to proceed with expanding horizons of cultural life in Cyprus by bringing the finest performers and art forms from around the world to the island.
Duration: 70 minutes (no interval)
* Cyprus Contemporary Dance Festival 2024.
Organised by: Deputy Ministry of Culture (Department of Contemporary Culture) and Rialto Theatre.
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners and dance professionals.
Free transportation from Nicosia to Limassol: Departure from Cyprus
Handicraft Centre (Athalassa Avenue) Departure time: 19:00
Information: 99 618225
The following performances will be presented at Nicosia Municipal Theatre as part of the Festival:
CARCASS I Himherandit Productions I Andreas Constantinou (12/6) &
Silence I Rootlessroot Ι Linda Kapetanea& Jozef Fruček (15/6)