ΖΙΤΑ DANCE COMPANY
ALASKA by Iris Karayan 

17.07.2017
KALAMATA DANCE MEGARON - STUDIO | 20:00

• Duration 50'

ALASKA
IRIS KARAYAN
ΖΙΤΑ DANCE COMPANY

Concept, Choreography Iris Karayan
Music Nikos Veliotis
Space Design Yorgos Maraziotis
Dramaturgy  Myrto Katsiki, Sotiris Bachtsetzis
Lighting Tassos Palaioroutas

Performed by Nondas Damopoulos, Chara Kotsali, Georgios Kotsifakis, Katerina Liontou, Ioanna Paraskevopoulou

Produced by Onassis Cultural Centre
Line Production ΖΙΤΑ dance company

Premier and showings: Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens (26-29.2.2016) and DañsFabrik 2016 - Festival de Brest (Focus Athènes), Le Quartz - Scène Nationale de Brest, France (4.3.2016).

Tour Sponsor: Onassis Cultural Centre

Five bodies move in close contact with each other. They build a mechanism that operates through alternating conditions of tension and ease, friction and calmness, clarity and blurriness. More than a year after its first showing at Onassis Cultural Centre, ALASKA is reworked and presented in a new form creating a different condition of viewing. It is a choreography designed on the surfaces of the bodies and in between spaces created through proximity and distance. Watching every detail of the movement like a close-up, ALASKA seems to create a micro-choreography: a detailed, continuous, analytical mechanism constructed by overlapping actions and movements created by five bodies. The pattern of the movement itself evolves in a slow and continuous way allowing the exposure of different qualities and rhythms, intensions and meanings. The structure of the work follows a general path of alternation between periods of relative stability and periods of flux. Symmetrical repeating patterns and intervals of pauses that accumulate in time give the sense that they could explode into any direction at any moment. The dancers create a reciprocal condition of exchanging stimuli through their physical contact. The starting point of the work is the sense of touch as a way of constant negotiation within a group of five. The qualities of contact vary according to the intentions of touch that differ using different levels of resistance, weight, speed, pulse, and space. The movement material itself requires that the focus of the dancers move to the action itself and the way it is performed. ALASKA aims to create and question conditions of togetherness. Five bodies move through the sense of touch (re)defining the nature of their relations with others, opening and closing in between spaces, creating images and producing meanings that remain open to negotiations.
IRIS KARAYAN

Iris Karayan is a dancer, choreographer and teacher living in Athens. She studied at the Greek State School of Dance (2001) and completed a Master of Arts in Performance and Culture: interdisciplinary perspectives at Goldsmiths College, UK (2007). She is the founding member and choreographer of ZITA dance company. Her works have been presented in Greece and around Europe. She teaches Choreography at the Greek State School of Dance since 2008. She has been part of the Onassis Cultural Centre’s educational program.
www.iriskarayan.com

Screening: 
Working Dancers 
A film by Konstantina Bousmpoura and Julia Martinez Heimann 

KALAMATA DANCE MEGARON - FORECOURT
17.07.2017 / 22:00

• Duration 76'

Working Dancers
A film by KONSTANTINA BOUSMPOURA
and JULIA MARTINEZ HEIMANN

Αrgentina - Greece 2016
In Spanish with English subtitles

Screening, followed by a discussion with the director Konstantina Bousmpoura and the choreographer Sofia Mavragani about the film and the experience gained from the “Working Bodies, Τhe Dancer as Workforce” Workshop.

Screenwriters, Directors Konstantina Bousmpoura & Julia Martinez Heimann
Director of Cinematography José Pigu Gómez
Editing Victoria Lastiri
Music Analía Rosenberg
Sound Nicolás Volonté
Producers Julia Martinez Heimann & Konstantina Bousmpoura
Executive Producers Νancy Kokolaki & Νikos Moustakas
Assistant Producer Panos Bisdas
Production Managers Ariana Aisenberg & Roxy Ruzzante

Cast Angélica Berdini, Agustina Sario, Bettina Quintá, Cristian Setién, Cristina Gómez Comini, Daniel Payero Zaragoza, Darío Rodríguez, Diego Franco, Enrique Martín Gil, Ernesto Chacón Oribe, Juan Guillermo Velázquez Cardona, Juan Cid, Julieta Gros, Luciana Benosilio, Leonardo Ressia, Magalí Del Hoyo, María del Mar Codazzi, María Kuhmichel, Mariela Queraltó, Martín Rebello, Pablo Fermani, Rafael Peralta, Ramiro Soñez, Victoria Hidalgo, Victoria Viberti, Virginia López, Yamila Guillermo, Yésica Alonso

Sponsors - Co-producers (Greece - Argentina): INCAA (Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales), Κinisi & BadCrowd, Authorwave (Post-production)

Working Dancers In Buenos Aires a group of acclaimed dancers stands for their labor rights and founds the first Contemporary National Dance Company under their collective leadership. Original folklore songs, Latin American contemporary music and stunning choreographies reveal the beauty and strength of dance through the life and struggle of a group of dancers.

Konstantina Bousmpoura She studied at the Athens University of Economics, and Social Anthropology at the University of Seville. She holds a diploma in Latin American Studies from the University of Salamanca. Since 2007 she has worked in filmic ethnography and direction of documentaries in Buenos Aires and Athens. Her research subject is dance, work and politics.

Julia Martinez Heimann
She studied Image and Sound Design at the University of Buenos Aires. She holds a degree in Social Anthropology from the Latin American School of Social Sciences. She works in public education. Director and producer of documentaries and cultural series for the Cinema and the Television in Buenos Aires.

The Revolutionary Dances of Isadora Duncan
Dance Seminar by Barbara Kane with Françoise Rageau and Sandra Voulgari 

14.07.2017
| MESSENIA ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM | 10:00-12:00 (seminar)
Kalamata Castle | 19:30-21:00 (seminar)

15-18.07.2017
| MESSENIA ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM | 10:00-12:00 (seminar)
Zoumbouleio Megaron | 17:00-19:00 (seminar)

19.07.2017
| MESSENIA ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM | 9:30-11:30 (seminar) 
Kalamata Castle | 19:30-21:30 (seminar)

20.7 Κalamata Castle (21:00) Public Presentation of B. Kane’s Evening Seminar.
21.7 Archaeological Museum of Messenia, Kalamata, The Museum is dancing,
Touring-Presentation of B. Kane’s Day Seminar.

The Revolutionary Dances of Isadora Duncan
throughout her creative and meaningful life

Barbara Kane's Dance Seminar
with Françoise Rageau and Sandra Voulgari

Ιn collaboration with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Messenia, Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports
(General Co-ordinator and Management: Dr. Evangelia Militsi-Kechagia, Archaeologist, Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Messenia, Scientific Curator: Maria Tsoulakou, MSc Archaeologist, Ephorate of Antiquities of Messenia)

Isadora Duncan was born with a purpose and thinking to express change in life and to challenge the norms of the 1900’s in Western thought. The philosophy of Ancient Greece informed her dance creations. As early as 1903 Isadora Duncan began creating dances that reflected societal conflict; she wanted the creation of a new world free of exploitation, poverty and war.
She danced the Revolution of a new age free from bodily restraint, dances that expressed sorrow and joy, dances that explored resistance and hope.
Barbara Kane's Seminar with Françoise Rageau and Sandra Voulgari will explore these dances from the early works about the sea/water to the later works about the people who become aware of their oppression and fought for their freedom. Themes that will be presented at the Archaeological Museum of Messenia, Kalamata: Water and our respect and how over many centuries the sea has destroyed
so many lives / given also toο many tο our lives. Themes for the Castle presentation reflect revolt, awareness of the oppression of life, combined with hope and a vision that we carry on into the 21st Century. Dances of Revolt and Hope, strength and sorrow, hope and confidence combined in movement expression via the Dance and technique of Isadora Duncan.

Οpen to dance students (7 years old and up) and dancers. Also available for anyone at any age (no dance experience needed).
Limit of participants: 18 people

Barbara Kane studied with pupils of Irma and Anna Duncan, Lillian Rosenberg (1969-1974), Julia Levien (1976-1998) and Hortense Kooluris (1976-1991). Performing with the Isadora Duncan Centenary Dance Company 1976 to 1979. In 1979 Barbara moved to England and in 1985 set up the Isadora Duncan Dance Group based in Gent, Belgium, Paris and London with the support of Jetty Roels and Françoise Rageau. Barbara had a curiosity for all Duncan Dance developments in Europe and sought out and took classes with pupils of Lisa Duncan (Madeleine Lytton and Odile Pyros), with pupils of the Elizabeth Duncan School and of the Duncan School in Moscow. Barbara has always felt that Duncan Dance belongs in the community and throughout her career has included Duncan classes for adults, children and elderly people with and without disabilities. Barbara has retired as a performer but continues to teach the Duncan Dance.

Participation fee: 70 €
Down payment: 20 €
Registration & Information: Sandra Voulgari
+30 6973 077 158
mail @ kalamatadancefestival.gr
* Reservation +30 6931 512 683

Working Bodies
The Dancer as Workforce | Workshop with Sophia Mavragani and Konstantina Bousmpoura

ΖΟUΜBΟULΕΙΟ MEGARON
15 - 17.07.2017 | 12:00 - 15:00 

Working Bodies
The Dancer as Workforce

Workshop with Konstantina Bousmpoura
and Sofia Mavragani

Focused on the status of the dancer as an employee, Konstantina Bousmpoura (anthropologist/documentarist) and Sofia Mavragani (choreographer) create a workshop studying the meaning and the social dimensions of work (labour). The aim of the workshop is to provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between humans and labour in the modern society: which is the anthropocentric aspect of labour?
The workshop provokes questions and processes simulations of working situations conceptually as well as practically. The methodology used is based on observation and recording meanings and techniques drawn from anthropology as well as on bodily play techniques as they emerge through Sofia Mavragani’s research on the playful body.
The workshop draws upon the documentary Working Dancers which is based on the seven year ethnographic research of Konstantina Bousmpoura and records the struggle of a group of dancers from Buenos Aires for labour rights.

Οpen to working artists and non-artists, unemployed people and young people who are concerned about their working future.
Limit of participants: 15 people
A strict priority list will be kept.

 

Konstantina Bousmpoura studied Economic Science at the Athens University of Economics, and Social Anthropology at the University of Seville. She holds a diploma in Latin American Studies from the University of Salamanca. Since 2007 she has worked in filmic ethnography and direction of documentaries in Buenos Aires and Athens. Her research subject is dance, work and politics. In 2009 she won the first prize in Certamen de Creación Joven Sevilla, with the documentary Feeling from Outside, based on foreign flamenco dancers in Seville. The documentary was screened in many international festivals (XIV Βiennial of Young Αrtists from Europe and the Mediterranean, Skopje 2009, Festival de video y danza-Habana, Festival de video y danza -Ecuador, Anthropofest-Czech Republic, Ethnofest-Athens). Her last documentary Working Dancers (Argentine-Greece, 2016) screened in international and Greek festivals also participates in international academic projects (Political Imagination Laboratory-University of Perugia, Everyday Revolutions-University of Manchester). Her article “Working Dancers: Contemporary Dance Activism in Argentina” is included in the book artWork: Art, Labor and Activism (to be published in late 2017th). She is a member of ACÁ, an educational and artistic organization based in Buenos Aires. workingdancers.com, vimeo.com/12421171

Sofia Mavragani graduated from Athens School of Economics (BΑ in Business Administration, 2000) and from EDDC-European Dance Development Centre, ArtEZ-University of Arts, Arnhem, NL (Bachelor in Dance Making, 2005). Her works, known for their socio-political focus, have been presented at several festivals and venues in Greece and abroad: Athens & Epidaurus Festival, Megaron-The Athens Concert Hall, documenta 14, Kalamata International Dance Festival, Dimitria Festival (Thessaloniki), MIRfestival (Athens), Park your ID festival (Maastricht), Dance Days International Festival (Chania), State Theatre of Northern Greece, Apollon Theatre (Syros), Τeatro Belisario (Buenos Aires), Teatro Lagrada (Madrid), Cacoyannis Foundation (Athens) etc. Being fondly interested in the field of education and exchange, she develops experimental workshops on improvisation and composition, such as the overnight workshop Out of Order and the research project playforPLACE, which has been held in 17 cities in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Oceania. She is a founding member of FINGERSIX, an international artistic network, and of the non profit-organization FINGERSIX/Athens. sofiamavragani.com

17.7 Kalamata Dance Megaron - Forecourt (22:00) Screening of Working Dancers,
a film by Konstantina Bousmpoura and Julia Martinez Heimann.

Free participation
Reservation is required
Registration & Information: Νatassa Aretha
+30 6934 164 243
mail @ kalamatadancefestival.gr