KI OMOS KINEITAI 
THE MASTER AND MARGARITA

23.7.2019
Kalamata Dance Megaron - Studio | 19:30 | 60΄

Inspired by Mikhail Bulgakov’s homonymous novel:
—I do not understand what will happen from now on.
—Surely something utterly absurd!

A surrealist tale in which the Devil himself, vengeful and tired, appears with his escort to cure the lack of faith, rebalance logic with the absurd, the feasible with the impossible, and ultimately scorn the trust of humans in what they arbitrarily define as reality. A scaffolding, with people hanging from it, is being dismounted. A performance devoted to the constructivist movement, which stubbornly denied romanticism before eventually glorifying it.
Excerpts from the constructivists’ Realistic Manifesto:
“Above the tempests of our weekdays, across the ashes and cindered homes of the past, before the gates of the vacant future, we proclaim [that] efficacious existence is the highest beauty.
Life knows neither good nor bad nor justice as a measure of morals… need is the highest and most just of all morals.
Life does not know rationally abstracted truths as a measure of cognizance, deed is the highest and surest of truths.
Space and time are re-born to us today.”
(Moscow, three years after the October Revolution)

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Concept-Direction: ki omOs kineitai (Christina Sougioultzi, Camilo Bentancor, Hermes Malkotsis)
Performers: Camilo Bentancor, Anastasis Karahanidis, Antigoni Linardou, Hermes Malkotsis, Aggeliki Merenditi, Christina Sougioultzi, Chronis Tomboris
Original Music-Sound Design: Kleon Andoniou & Babis Paritsis
Set Designer-Visual Concept: Camilo Bentancor
Lighting Design: Maria Athanasopoulou
Costumes: Aggeliki Manesi & Fani Mouzaki
With the support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports

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The group ki omOs kineitai was founded in 2003 by dancer Christina Sougioultzi and circus performer Camilo Bentancor. Since 2008, the group regularly collaborates with dancer and choreographer Ermis Malkotsis. It is a collaboration of artists with diverse kinesiological backgrounds, a group of complex physical performances where dance, circus, and performance techniques meet and blend.
Within the structure of a performance, based on each performers’ movement and expression, circus techniques relating to the creation and use three-dimensional space and the performers’ expressive range are combined with the communication particularities of a performance.
The group’s aim is to formulate a distinct expressive manner by merging rather than juxtaposing each performer’s unique style, always in relation to a specific performance.

LE GALACTIK ENSEMBLE 
OPTRAKEN

23 & 24.7.2019
Kalamata Dance Megaron - Main Stage | 23.7 [22:00] / 24.7 [ 19:30] | 60΄

This is the Galactik Ensemble’s first Greek performance. Rather than pure circus skills, it is their research into the relationship between people and a hostile environment that inspires them. Their work draws from their desire to stage simple actions in ways that challenge the human body. Simply standing up, speaking, moving freely, resisting, and adapting to an external physical force lie at the heart of many existential questions.
The group has developed what they call ‘situation acrobatics’, which explore the direct, concrete relationship between humans and an unstable environment and the former’s ability to adjust. They present individuals and groups faced with unpredictable and risky situations.
The Galactik Ensemble creates pieces where movement does not appear as a well-honed skill but as a necessity, an urge. On stage they seek a quality of movement that can infiltrate the real world, be measured against it, and challenge the audience.

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Performers: Mathieu Bleton, Mosi Espinoza, Jonas Julliand, Karim Messaoudi, Cyril Pernot
Technical Management: Victor Fernandes
Stage Management: Charles Rousseau
Set Construction: Franck Breuil
Lighting Design: Adèle Grépinet
Lighting Technician: Romain Caramalli
Sound-Music Design: Denis Mariotte
Sound Technician: Eric Sterenfeld
Graphics-Communication: Maëva Longvert
Artistic Collaboration: Matthieu Gary & Marie Fonte
Acrobatics Supervision: Dimitri Jourde
Production-Distribution: Léa Couqueberg
Production Management: Emilie Leloup
Production: Le Grand Gardon Blanc & Galactik Ensemble
Co-production: Plateforme 2 Pôles Cirques en Normandie: La Brèche à Cherbourg – Cirque Théâtre d’Elbeuf, Scène Nationale de Châteauvallon, Le Tandem, scène nationale, Les 3T-Scène conventionnée de Chatellerault, Houdremont Scène Conventionnée, La Courneuve, Les Subsistances, Lyon, CircuxNext.
Le Galactik Ensemble benefits from the Aide à la production de la DRAC, Île-de-France, Aide à la création artistique pour le cirque – DGCA / Ministère de la Culture, the support of SACD / Processus Cirque, ADAMI, and the Aide à la diffusion d’œuvres sur le territoire parisien de la Mairie de Paris.
With the support of Arcadi, Île-de-France, Le Monfort Théâtre, Paris, Théâtre de L’Agora, Evry, La Nouvelle Digue, Toulouse, CIRCa, Auch, La Grainerie, Balma, La Cascade, Pôle National des Arts du Cirque, Bourg-Saint-Andéol, Le Carré magique, Pôle National des Arts du Cirque en Bretagne, Lannion.

The performance Optraken is presented at 25th Kalamata International Dance Festival with the support of the French Institute. 

 

 

 

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Mathieu Bleton, Mosi Espinoza, Jonas Julliand, Karim Messaoudi, and Cyril Pernot began collaborating ten years ago. They met at the National School for Circus Arts (École Nationale des Arts du Cirque de Rosny-sous-Bois, France, ENACR) while training as acrobats and have since developed their craft as performers and writers through a wide variety of experiences.

PHOTO EXHIBITION 
Josef Nadj Mnémosyne

In Mnémosyne, Josef Nadj takes on photography as a performative art, linking and weaving the two arts together. He works with a paradox where the time of the show flows, inevitably, with the flow of life, whereas a photograph, like death, stops time and immobilizes movement. The genesis of a photographic image, with its successive stages—from composing the scene (preparing the set and props, placing and posing of the figures) to shooting and developing the image—in other words the transformation of a staged, three-dimensional scene, into a two-dimensional photograph, is precisely the aim and subject of this piece. In Mnémosyne, this interplay of knowledge and know-how also sheds light on how photography has contributed to the philosophical and aesthetic aspects of knowledge, and how it has influenced our sense of vision, i.e. shaped our view of the world, intervening in history and especially art history.

 

 

Understanding dance above all as a site for encounter, this is how Josef Nadj defines his work. Beyond his role as choreographer, Nadj is an artist without borders and without barriers. Dancer but also visual artist and photographer, his vision of humanity is poetic and passionate. 

Constantly in search of new forms, ceaselessly willing to explore humanity as closely as possible to the human truth. Across his career, from Canard pékinois (1987) to Mnémosyne (2018), Nadj has relentlessly pursued exigent and passionate choreography, where gravity and compassion take turns, where depth and humour alternate. Whether he is visiting atypical authors (Beckett, Kafka, Michaux) or bringing painting along with him on stage (in a performance with Miquel Barceló), Nadj flourishes in complete corporal freedom. Oscillating between reality and fantasy, tradition and modernity, he explores the essential: man’s relationship with himself. Because for Nadj, dance is fundamentally a humanist act.
Over the years, the works of Nadj have become reference points in contemporary dance. Acclaimed nationally (Carte Blanche at the Grande Halle de La Villette in Paris in 2014; Associated Artist at the 2006 Avignon Festival, which officially designated him as “creator without borders”), his work is also recognized and celebrated around the globe. Nadj has been enthusiastically received by 400,000 audience members in the most important international venues across five continents. Drawing his inspiration from the depths of the great myths of humanity, passionately intertwining both artistic disciplines and cultural references, Nadj is elaborating a universal language. From 1995 to 2016, Nadj was director of the Centre chorégraphique national d’Orléans. In 2017, he established his new company Atelier 3+1 in Paris.

PHOTO EXHIBITION
Kalamata Photography Association Bodies in the Light

19 → 28.7.2019  
Kalamata Dance Megaron - Studio Lobby | 19:00-22:00

Photography meets dance. Every ‘click’ captures that magic moment in which the body discovers new ways to express itself, to move and be moved, while the photograph becomes a body dancing in the light.

 

 

Founded in January 2017 and coordinated by Nikos Iliopoulos, the Kalamata Photography Association nurtures the practice of and artistic expression through the art of photography. Since its establishment, the group has collaborated with various institutions in Messenia as well as with groups, associations, and photography clubs across Greece.

IOULIA ZACHARAKI
WETHERICECREAM WEATHERISCREAM

23.7.2019
Kalamata Central Square | 21:00

 

I sweep the air,
I catch a mosquito,
I blow a butterfly,
a feather falls,
stuck onto hands,
the mind wonders,
the body sleepwalks,
like an outraged whale,
damned mosquitos,
living vampires,
losing their sight,
in their dreams,
intoxicated,
they transform.

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Born in Chania, Greece in 1994, Ioulia Zacharaki has always loved dancing. What she loves most is contemporary dance, despite not being able to explain exactly what it is. She loves creating imaginary landscapes and living through them, like in a dream. She is also intrigued by the body’s construction and capabilities, both in daily life and in dance, and strives to combine them.

 

ANNA CALSINA FORRELLAD & QUENTIN MANFROY 
INVITATION TO…

23.07.2019
Kalamata Central Square | 21:00

 

“On the threshold of history, before the invention of writing, we would have invented dreams. Man would have begun, in certain places, to manipulate images. To manipulate the remains of the visible and reverse the proportion of light.”
[Jean-Louis Schefer, from the documentary Le Labyrinthe – Le Temps, la Mémoire, les Images by Philippe Grandieux (1989)]

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Performer: Anna Calsina Forrellad
Music: Quentin Manfroy

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Anna Calsina Forrellad studied dance and fine arts in Barcelona. Since 2008, she has participated in numerous creations with James Thierrée, Boris Gibé, Carlos Pez, Camille Boitel, Claire Ruffin, Lali Ayguadé, and Rootlessroot. A long-term collaboration with Lisi Estaràs led her to participate in several plays, currently in Monkey Mind, supported by ballets C de la B. She works closely with Murielle Felix for the creation of short films, such as Le réveil. She is currently creating a piece with Groupe Pluton supported by Workspacebrussels and Buda Kortrijk.

Quentin Manfroy studied flute at the Brussels Conservatory and improvisation with Fabrizio Cassol. He has worked in classical music ensembles (Sturm und Klang), in more eclectic groups (Maak, Matthieu Ha), and with traditional musicians (the Gnawas of Marrakesh, Tunisian singer Ghalia Benali). He has won several international awards and is guest professor at several conservatories.

FRANCISCO CÓRDOVA
Body Action

21 → 27.7.2019
Kalamata Municipal Stadium 

Francisco Córdova, Mexican performer, choreographer and pedagogue, has an educational background in contemporary dance, theatre, direction and stage lighting. He will be giving a workshop on Body Action, a training method he has developed, based on the construction of physical actions. Participants are invited to learn to move through a common language and not through the usual dance codes. The method decodes therefore and deconstructs the established and predetermined languages of the dance. The class is a representation of the function of control and physical intuition and its purpose is to create physical, mental and emotional states through the intense physical work. For doing so, it takes the body to its maximum capabilities through the opening to physically controlled risk. The participants are guided to learn to assume information regarding their intuition, to find truth in their body and to contact their own way of moving.

Francisco Córdova, is director of the Physical Momentum company, director of ATLAS México Festival and director of the training program of Techniques of Movement (TDM) in Mexico and Barcelona. From 2006 he has been developing his methodology Body Action leading numerous workshops in companies, festivals and international arts centers in Europe, Asia and Latin America (DELTEBRE / SEAD / FONTYS / KIBBUTZ, etc.) He has earned various awards, residencies and artistic grants in Latin America, Asia and Europe and he is mentioned as one of the young precursors of new trends of the training of stage performance. Member of several companies and staging projects for 14 years, he has developed as performer, choreographer and teacher participating in meetings and festivals in more than 25 countries around the world.

LECTURE Jozef Fruček
The Ageing Body

23.7.2019
Kalamata Municipal Stadium  | 13:00 - 15:00 

Jozef Fruček, co-founder along with Linda Kapetanea of RootlessRoot Dance Company and Fighting Monkey Practice, which is being taught in universities, conferences and open research platforms all over the world, gives a 2-hour lecture to dancers and performers on the role of rhythm and coordination in the biological cycles of the human body as well as the importance of conscious and anorthodox practice for the long preservation of youthful vigor in a physical and mental level.

Jozef Fruček has a professional sports, martial arts and theatre background and he has dedicated his professional life in the research of movement which promotes personal development along with healthy ageing. Jozef studied in Bratislava at the Academy of Music and Drama Arts and later he got his PhD and Art.D on Voice and Movement. He has explored the aspects of effective communication, voice and breathing for public speaking, performing arts and phycho-hygiene. In 2006, together with Linda Kapetanea, they founded Rootlessroot company and started implementing their research, Fighting Monkey practice, which reflects their unique approach on human motion based on cross motion analysis. He teaches and gives lectures in universities and various athletic and arts centers across Europe, US, Asia and Australia.

DANCING OUR WAY  
Live and Alive on Stage

23 → 28.7.2019 & performance 28.7.2019 | 18:30
"Thodoros Angelopoulos" Amphitheatre

Project Director: Sofia F. Droumpali
Lecturers: Dr. Marο Galani, Anastasia Nikolitsa, Sofia F. Droumpali

Following last year’s successful Dancing My Way project, this year’s Dancing Our Way project invites and challenges dancers, educators, and therapists to attend and experience the unique ability of movement and dance to promote inclusivity and create community and relationships between disabled and non-disabled people. The project will include one day of open experiential/educational seminars and four days of closed workshops culminating in an interactive live event on stage. The project is conducted by PHARIS (Kalamata Dance Festival – Kalamata Municipal Dance School) in collaboration with the Centre for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of Kalamata.

Dr. Maro Galani
Primitive expression
Awakening of body memory and pleasure of physical existence in the dance therapeutic context for people with disabilities and their family, caretakers, special needs educators, and dancers.

23.07.2019: 9.30 - 11.00 & 17.00 - 18.30

Anastasia Nikolitsa
The caregiver’s body: perception, understanding, and coping with what is not said
Contact between the caregiver and person with disability inevitably stirs and brings out vulnerable parts in both parties. We will understand and discover new ways of coping, to prevent burnout.

23.07.2019: 11.30 - 13.00 & 19.00- 20.30
Cost of two seminars 10 euro

Sofia Droumpali
Live and Alive on Stage
A live improvisation and interactive event on stage, in which the audience will be part of the communication and emotional interconnection between disabled and non-disabled people through movement and dance. A photographic exhibition, creative responses, and live reflections from the audience will guide the experience.

28.07.2019:18.30, Free entrance

Maro Galani, PhD
Maro Galani is a choreographer, dance therapist, and adjunct lecturer at the University of Patras, where she teaches Rhythmic, Dance and Theatrical Game. Her PhD dissertation, titled Rhythmical and Theatrical Game for Children with Special Needs, was carried out at the National Academy of Sports and National Academy of Theater and Film Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria. She holds a MSc in Creative Writing from the University of Western Macedonia and a post-graduate certificate in Primitive Expression. She has served as a dance expert for the Hellenic Ministry of Education.

Anastasia Nikolitsa
Anastasia Nikolitsa studied dance, dance movement psychotherapy (Laban Centre, City University of London), character-analysis, vegetotherapy (Hellenic Institute of Vegetotherapy and Character Analysis, Athens), and traumatherapy CRM (Institute of Traumatherapy, Athens). She has taught in universities (London) and vocational schools (Athens). Since 2003, she has been working in Athens with adults with psychosomatic symptoms, autoimmune diseases, personality disorders, PTSD, and Complex Trauma. Her books The power of the unprotected child and Dance Movement Psychotherapy: history, theory, methodology, tools were published in 2018.

Sofia F. Droumpali
Sofia Droumpali studied contemporary dance and ballet (pre-professional) at PHARIS in her hometown Kalamata and trained as a professional dancer (Rallou Manou/Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports), teacher (University of Patras), and dance movement psychotherapist (MA, Goldsmiths University of London). She currently practices Dance Movement Psychotherapy with young people and children with autism, complex needs, and trauma in London. Since 2017, Sofia has directed dance projects about inclusion for people with disabilities in collaboration with PHARIS (Kalamata, Greece).