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The International Festival of Contemporary Dance ARC FOR DANCE FESTIVAL is ringing in the second decade of its existence in a vibrant polyphony, focusing on the multiplicity of ‘voices’ that are created, propounded and broadcasted by the bodies of dance, and the ways in which such voices resonate with the viewers.

The festival is invoking a variety of dance idioms and highlighting their ability to articulate assertions, express demands, and fashion landscapes made up of complex rituals and multifaceted stimuli.

ARC_dialogues
04 – 05/ 05

Choreographers Fouad Boussouf, Flora Détraz, Sofia Mavragani, and Fotis Nikolaou reveal the complex ‘raw material’ of their choreographic work through a process which uses the screening of selected dance films in order to focus on the influences and considerations shaping the choreographers’ personal creative process.

As pointed out by event facilitator Chrysanthi Badeka, a choreographer and performer specializing in video dance and the relation between dance and digital arts, this module of the festival is focusing on the processes, movements and decisions constituting every discourse, whether the latter is unfolding between people and the arts or between the elements comprising a particular type of expression.

Reflections, confrontations, transmutations and hybrid fusions are spawned through free interactive work, as the latter is present at the basis of every creative act, and ARC_dialogues investigates their characteristics, while at the same time boldly proposing successive role reversals between ‘transmitter’ and ‘receiver’ in the discussions between the choreographer and the public.

Presentation & facilitation of discussion: Chrysanthi Badeka
Featured choreographers: Sofia Mavragani, Fotis Nikolaou (04/05), Fouad Boussouf, Flora Détraz (05/05)

Curtain time 9:30 pm
OLVIO Theatre
Iera Odos 67 & Falaisias 7, Votanikos
Tel. +30 210 3414118
Public Transport access:
Metro: Kerameikos

ARC_hood
10 – 12/ 05

ARC FOR DANCE FESTIVAL 11 sets out in the streets with the highly original dance work Origami, which will be presented at Zappeion in Athens and in the city of Elefsina. Its creators, Satchie Noro & Silvain Ohl, are inspired by the traditional Japanese namesake art of folding paper into shapes and translate it into an impressive interplay between human and container. A globalized and globalizing device of freight transport and capital circulation, the container is turned into an artifact generating new and fluid kinds of organic relationships, in expressive interactions with the dancing body.

Set on its own trailer, the 40-foot container doesn’t need any outer machinery or apparatus; it transforms and is being modified in each of its presentations since 2013 (Marseille & Val-de-Marne in France, Valparaíso in Chile). Origami develops in several stages of folding and unfolding and these various “folds” are created in collaboration with dancers, musicians, actors and other artists as “a theatrical space in progress.” During these “folds” dancing matter and metal volumes merge in conditions of aerial animation, suspension and movement.

As the creators of this unique dance work note,

…Dance as the driving force for metamorphosis.
From globalization to a human scale.
Origami takes on the container as a body.
Perspectives change…
Body merging with scenery.
Industrial romance
Poetic asylum…

Project, Concept: Satchie Noro & Silvain Ohl
Construction: Silvain Ohl & Eric Noël
Dance: Satchie Noro
Original Music: Fred Costa with the voice of Maia Barouh
Original Music in Chile: Carlos Canales
Lighting and Stage Managing: Thierry Arlot
Costumes: Karine De Barbarin

Residencies: Le Citron Jaune – Centre National des Arts de la Rue, Port Saint Louis du Rhτne; Les Noctambules – Les Arènes de Nanterre, Fabriques de culture Ile de France; Groupe F – Domaine de Boisviel, Mas Thibert.

Co-Produced by: Centro Cultural Teatro Container Valparaiso / Les Noctambules de Nanterre / Institut Francais de Santiago du Chili / La Briqueterie, CDC du Val-de-Marne / Le Centre culturel de La Norville / Le Théatre d’Arles, scène conventionnée pour les nouvelles écritures / With help from Arcadi Ile-de-France, Dispositif d’accompagnements / With support from Conseil Général de l’Essonne and la Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles d’Ile-de- France – Ministère de la culture et de la communication.

In partnership with Centro Cultural Teatro Container

Assistance and support: Le Citron Jaune, Centre National des Arts de la Rue/ Les Noctambules de Nanterre / Brand & Nuance / Groupe F / Le Théatre Brétigny / Sud Side and their workplace / Ciudad Abierta.

Duration: 35’

10 / 05, 6:30 pm
ELEFSINA
Gyftea & Pindou

11/ 05, 6:30 pm
ELEFSINA
Kanellopoulou 1

12/ 05, 12:00 pm
ZAPPEION
Public Transport Access:
Metro: Syntagma

ARC_prime movers

18/05

Young creators Nandy Gogoulou, Int.P dance company (Maria Papakonstantinou, Marianna Karavida, Nicolas Chatzivassiliadis), Alexandra Kostopoulou, Alexandra Rogovska, Anastasia Valsamaki & Mina Ananiadi present their work and their particular kinetic language.

the move
The solo improvisation piece “the move” deals with our kinetic habits and the way they relate to thought. By carefully studying her personal everyday motions and the way these are transcribed into art work, choreographer/performer Nandy Gogoulou reflects on literality and metaphor in order to discover new mechanisms of consideration, of moving from one position to another. As she notes, “The result of my research is a solo that is constantly developing, shifting. The aim is to understand that one does not necessarily need to change his/her thoughts but possibly to see these very thoughts through another perspective.”

Concept/Performance/Sound Design: Nandy Gogoulou
Costume: Niki Psychogiou
Photos: Dimitris Mamaloukos
Video teaser: Nandy Gogoulou
Residency/Support: KID Residency (Malmö, Sweden)

Duration: 10′

Artemisia
The solo piece of Alexandra Kostopoulou is inspired by the great Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1656) and especially from one of her best known works titled “Susanna and the Elders”. The work depicts the sexual harassment that a young woman suffers from two old men, and handles the personal traumatic experience as a universal event of historical proportions. Gentileschi’s rape at a young age and her courageous, unusual fight for justice against her assailant are facts that have been connected to her paintings and career in many different ways. Kostopoulou turns to this strong female figure, who has painted the sufferings and rage of many like her, in order to develop her own contemporary dance story against patriarchy and its ever-recurring violence.

Choreography & Performance: Alexandra Kostopoulou
Original Music Composition: Lazaros Papageorgiou, Alexandra Kostopoulou
Costume: Olga Evangelidou
Light Design: Nikos Vlasopoulos
Promo Photos: Alexandros Christidis

Duration: 10′

About disappearing
“About disappearing” is a solo in progress originally created by choreographer/dancer Alexandra Rogovska as a tribute to Japanese choreographer and regenerator of the tradition of Butoh, Ko Murobushi.

In reference to her conceptual context as it involves notions of identity, disappearance, and the drive to change, Elie Pragout notes of the artist’s work: “Contrary to her mythological counterpart, the entomologist’s nymph is nothing but the promise of the butterfly, the link between two metamorphoses. What ultimately connects the two is, primarily, the notion of disappearance. Being the absolute vision, the nymph of myths disappears from view; the one of biology completely changes its form. They are both fleeting, transitory. They both leave the ruins of form in their wake: here the remnants of a shed cocoon, there a piece of clothing or the memory of a scent – the imprint of desire.”

Drawing on Ovid, the myth of Persephone, and Balzac, Rogovska investigates the agitation of form to the limits of no-recognition. She examines the problems of representation and (dis)similarity; the image of death in East and West; the inappropriate, funny, even grotesque movements of bodies that are reborn as something other, hidden and un-recognizable.

Creation & Performance: Alexandra Rogovska
Music: Ryoji Ikeda, Mika Vainio, Alva Noto, Philip Jeck

Duration: 20′

Curtain time: 9:30 pm
OLVIO Theatre
Iera Odos 67 & Falaisias 7, Votanikos
Tel. +30 210 3414118
Public Transport access: Metro: Kerameikos

ARC_prime movers

19/05

Verge
Young choreographers Anastasia Valsamaki & Mina Ananiadou present the work “Verge” as an investigation into the limits between the body and the world. Right on the verge of this contact the relation between individual identity and the others is being enacted and reconfigured constantly.

Considering space as the only independent variable and movement as a constant factor, “Verge” examines how space can modify intention and the way in which things are being addressed; it also examines by extension how various spatial relations can affect the very nature of action and the relation between the two performers so that a series of new and unpredictable ways of coexistence are being energized.

Co-creation & Performance: Anastasia Valsamaki, Mina Ananiadou
Originally created by: Mina Ananiadou
Photo credits: Alekos Bourelias

Duration: 20′

Puzzle(D)
Based on three performers and a basic principle—“By obeying our bodies we exist, we inhere, we coexist. We create and break bonds. Or we let them become something else within the circular flow of our stories”—“Puzzle(D)” deals with the enigma of continuation that presupposes change.

The flow of movements and stories incorporates beginnings and endings in a perpetual change of bodies, situations, structures and relations.

Choreography: Int.P
Performers: Maria Papakonstantinou, Marianna Karavida, Nicolas Chatzivassiliadis
Music: Ted Regklis
Lights: Pavlos Mavridis
Photos: Giorgos Myriagos
Video: Dimitris Mamaloukos

Duration: 20′

Curtain time: 9:30 pm
OLVIO Theatre
Iera Odos 67 & Falaisias 7, Votanikos
Tel. +30 210 3414118
Public Transport access: Metro: Kerameikos

ARC_loop
18-19 & 23-25/ 05

roots in the sky_Despina Lloyd Goula

Choreographer Despina Lloyd Goula presents two variations of an impressive dance-dialogue-with-buildings under the common, eloquent title “roots in the sky”.

Using the contemporary artistic language of “vertical dance” that is emerging wordwide, Goula investigates the unexpected experience of seeing dancing bodies when they are suspended in mid-air and in contact with specific and yet often disregarded architectural surfaces; she explores movement that uses elements of rock climbing and involves the relationship of bodies, which when tethered with ropes and other relevant equipment (harnesses and abseil devices) struggle for their freedom and risk their safety.

Dance emerges via its unique relation to each space and is experienced as something original, inimitable, fascinating. Bodies tell, in duet, the story of the primordial human wish to detach from the umbilical cord of materiality, from the connection to temporality and decay. Such bodies tend towards the experience of weightlessness that goes beyond all things human and call forward stories for superheroes and free spirits that we encounter in popular culture around the world. As the choreographer notes: “Naturally, vertical dance is a duet with your rope. With another person, it allows you to break the course of the rope that always pulls you back, creating an exciting game of two bodies defying gravity and finding ground/setting roots in the sky.”

Creation: Despina Lloyd Goula
Performance: Despina Lloyd Goula & Lisa Spaull (18 & 19/ 05), Despina Lloyd Goula & Femke Luyckx (23, 24 & 25/ 05)

Duration: 10’

18 & 19/ 05, 8:30 pm
OLVIO Theatre
Iera Odos 67 & Falaisias 7, Votanikos
Tel. +30 210 3414118
Public Transport access:
Metro: Kerameikos

23 & 24 & 25/ 05, 8:30 pm
Cosmote e-Value building, opposite KIVOTOS Theatre
Megalou Vasileiou 6-8, Kerameikos.
Τel. +30 210 3427426
Public Transport access:
Metro: Kerameikos
Electric Railway: Thiseio
Bus/Trolley: Kampa

ARC_hothouse 1
23/ 05

Fouad Boussouf
The French-Moroccan choreographer, dancer and teacher Fouad Boussouf founded Massala Dance Company in 2010, bringing together hip-hop, contemporary dance, North African traditional dances and new circus. Using the themes, styles and techniques of his widely acclaimed piece “Näss” (People) as a basis, Boussouf will teach a workshop that will provide professional dancers with new choreographic tools and a rich alternative vocabulary. Exercises will include movement, floor work, work with space, in relation with the other, work with sound and music, work with gravity, as well as visualisation exercises to boost individual imaginations and enhance existing abilities.

Important information:

Workshop language: English
Maximum number of participants: 20

Reservations accepted until May 20 by phone at +30 210 5230582

10 am – 1 pm
DANCE CULTURAL CENTRE (DAN.C.CE)
Pireos 76 (3rd floor), Kerameikos
Τel. +30 210 5230582
Public Transport Access:
Metro: Kerameikos / Monastiraki / Omonoia
Electric Railway: Thiseio
Bus / Trolley: Asomaton

ARC_hothouse 2
24/ 05

Flora Détraz
Choreographer Flora Détraz has consistently engaged with the moving power of sounds and the relationship between voice and the perception of movement. In her workshop for ARC11 she will use the creation process of her piece “Muyte Maker” as the starting point for an exploration on how artists can sing and dance simultaneously. In a joyous and relaxed atmosphere, participants will dive into various body states and examine the aural conditions of figure activation and dissociation.

Important information:

Workshop language: English
Maximum number of participants: 20

Reservations accepted until May 20 by phone at +30 210 5230582

10 am – 1 pm
DANCE CULTURAL CENTRE (DAN.C.CE)
Pireos 76 (3rd floor), Kerameikos
Τel. +30 210 5230582
Public Transport Access:
Metro: Kerameikos / Monastiraki / Omonoia
Electric Railway: Thiseio
Bus / Trolley: Asomaton

ARC_MAIN FEST

How does dance ‘heed’ the world and how does it facilitate our shift from per-ception to con-ception?

How does dance capture rhythm as it relates to time, repetition, movement and pause? How does tempo fit in with the extemporaneous? And to what extent does dance embody the ‘noise’ – the non-sensical voice of the random?

What does digital reality sound like and how does it reverberate in the ‘real’ world through our physical bodies?

Is memory auditory or somatic? What triggers it and what determines its syntactic structure when expressed?

Building on the main theme and premises of its previous, 10th anniversary edition, which focused on the multidimensional co-formation of the contemporary, ARC 11 tunes in to the ‘noise’ produced by dance as it constructs its own language, rhythms, tonalities, and volumes. It tunes in to the articulation of movement and calls upon us to comprehend the new dimensions that result from such polyphony.

23/05

evil unicorns*
based on a false story | PREMIERE
“A lie that everybody believes is no different than the truth. It has exactly the same consequences…”

Premiering at ARC11, the second piece created by the duet kóka&panú and staged in collaboration with Tasos Karachalios draws its inspiration from the world of the finite human senses as well as the virtual, digital, intermediary reality which emerges in the worlds of the internet, advertising and fake news. The stage transforms into a recording device of events based on movement, sound, images. Traces of the past are shaped into memories which are being fundamentally altered, adapted to the need for survival.

Three people stumble between past and present, the fictional and the real, the known and the uncanny, the material and the metaphysical; they use the radical memory of the body in order to recapture truth and its poetics.

*evil unicorns is a term some Google engineers once coined to denote unverified posts on obscure topics, full of lies, that pop up from time to time on the web and find their way into Google’s search results.

Concept: kóka&panú
Created & performed by: Konstandina Efthimiadou (kóka), Panagiotis Manouilidis (panú), Tasos Karachalios
Music: Panú
Text: kóka&panú, Kostas Vrachnos
Lighting design & construction: Dimitra Aloutzanidou
Set design & costumes: kóka&panú
Video: Nefeli Papaioannou
Photos: Nickolas Chryssos
Sound engineer: Federico Bustamante
Sound mixing and mastering: Leonidas Beilis, Polytropon
Production: kóka&panú

Supported by Baumstrasse and Akropoditi Dance Centre
Supported by Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Hellenic Republic

24/05

JunkDance | PREMIERE
This original work by Xenia Koghilaki focuses critically on the production of easily consumed, highly commercialized and widely accepted choreographies like the ones that emerge within mass culture and the industry of spectacle.

Could we talk about a phenomenon of “junk dance”? asks the choreographer and investigates the cultural debris, the many kinds of moving and dancing litter that is being constantly (re)produced in social media, following the emaciation of the body of dance.

Three performers selectively transfer movements from a popular video clip’s choreography on stage. They thus strip them of meaning and endow them with a new state of indeterminacy and ambiguity, akin to the experience of the virtual. What is the value and importance of movement as a decorative and descriptive element of an audiovisual product? Is it possible that the removal of a foundational meaning facilitates the presence of newfound interpretations?

Concept, Choreography: Xenia Vlachou-Koghilaki
Performers, Co-creators: Nefeli Kadinopoulou Asteriou, Venetsiana Kalabaliki, Efthimios Moschopoulos
Sound design: Lambros Pigounis
Light Design: Nisos Vasilopoulos
Promo Photos: Giorgos Liamis

Duration: 20′

25/05

The Playground | PREMIERE
Dancer and choreographer Stefanos Bizas investigates with this new work our inner restrictions set by various systems (educational, social, political, moral) in our effort to capture and understand truth in its most liberating aspects.

Restricting, diluted criteria and creative myths are examined as the incongruous materials in the intense game that is contemporary life.

Choreography: Stefanos Bizas, with the valuable assistance of Yiorgos Pelagias
Performers: Yiorgos Pelagias, Stefanos Bizas
Soundtrack: Mikkel Larsen & Stefanos Bizas

a) Interior of the Cave 1 & 2 by Steve Reich
b) The 12 Inches (with Tom Waits) by Frank Zappa
c) Armenia by Einstürzende Neubauten
d) Ludwig van Beethoven Moonlight Sonata by Arthur Rubinstein
Vocals: Hilary Briggs
Lighting design: Raphael Solholm
Costumes: Maria Ipsen

Warms thanks to the entire Danish Dance Theatre team and personal thanks to Yiorgos Pelagias, Hilary Briggs, Mikkel Larsen and Giannis Millas for their precious contribution to the creation of this work.

Duration: 20′

26/05

It’s better in the Bahamas | PREMIERE
“The world has broken down.

So we are looking for another place where we would happily move, tomorrow if possible. But it seems that this place is made of the leftovers of our canceled expectations.

Of course, no one has been there yet to tell us what this is like.”

Dancers and creators Natasha Sarantopoulou and Ioanna Antonarou, who shone in the Prime Movers section of ARC10, return to this year’s core section of the festival, with the premiere of a dance piece where humor and ingenuity are masterfully employed in the staging of an obscure and undefined ‘tomorrow’ that is already here.

Concept – Performance: Natasha Sarantopoulou, Ioanna Antonarou
Dramaturgy: Alexandros Mistriotis
Assistant: Foivos Petropoulos
Music composition: Pavlos Katsivelis
Light design: Eliza Alexandropoulou
Set & Costumes design: Dimitra Liakoura
Photography: Alina Lefa

Special thanks to: Christina Maraboutaki, Giorgos Hanos, Christos Xyrafakis, Anastasis Karachanidis, and Alimos Municipality for the courtesy rehearsal space

Supported by Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Hellenic Republic

ARC_flow
25 & 26/ 05

Live streaming

Seeking to address the issue of ‘broadcasting’ as it relates to dance, and thus contribute to the discourse on the significance of presence, the economy of experience in the internet era and the politics of accessibility, the festival is live-streaming the performances from KIVOTOS Theater.

For more info visit official site.