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
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.

LIVE MUSIC PERFORMANCE
Blues Εscape Βand Dancing the blues

24.7.2019 
Kalamata Dance Megaron - Forecourt | 20:30

A blues-rock band from Kalamata

John Forrow	vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards
George Hoholis	vocals, guitar
Paris Chatziadam	bass
Giannis Chalkidis	drums

           
The band plays a wide range of blues-rock, from Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry rock-and-roll, via old blues classics by MuddyWaters and Robert Johnson, to blues champions like BB King, Eric Clapton, and more modern exponents of the genre, such as Joe Bonamassa and Rory Gallagher. They also intersperse the covers with some of their own original material. They are a regular feature of Kalamata nightlife.

In co-production with the International Kalamata Music Days organised by the Municipal Conservatory of Kalamata.

 

 

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Blues Escape is a blues band formed in 2016 by guitarists John Forrow and George Hoholis, both teachers at the Municipal Conservatory of Kalamata. Having worked together on various projects since meeting in 2010, they decided to create a Chicago blues style band as something different for the city of Kalamata. They were joined by Giannis Chalkidis, an experienced and exciting drummer, with the charismatic Paris Chatziadam on bass adding the final touch.

LALI AYGUADÉ COMPANY.
ENTRE DOS

24.7.2019
Kalamata Central Square | 21:00

 

An object is created and after a while it degrades. A person is born with a flexible body, which ages until it loses its capacity to move. A sculpture is also a human body. A body with emotions and moves.
In 2015, Lali Ayguadé was invited by the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona to bring to life her interpretation of the Foundation’s exhibition Miró i l’objecte. As a result, Entre dos leads the audience on a journey through transformation and identity, where dance is one of the many resources Ayguadé uses to translate her thoughts. Interacting with the audience and the space, Entre dos is a living witness to Ayguadé’s creative process and invites us to discover raw emotions and the virtuosity of the body.

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Concept-Performance: Lali Ayguadé
Music: Ars Nova Copenhagen
Booking-Company Production: Big Story Performing Arts
With the support of Joan Miró Foundation. Piece created for the exhibition Miró i l’objecte (24 November 2015).

The performance Entre dos is presented at 25th Kalamata International Dance Festival with the support of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) through the Programme for the Internationalisation of Spanish Culture (PICE), in the framework of the Mobility grants.

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Lali Ayguadé (Barcelona, 1980) is a Catalan performer and choreographer. She has worked with the Akram Khan Company, Hofesh Shechter, Roberto Olivan, and Baró d’Evel, among others. She founded her own company in 2013 and has since created full-evening pieces, such as Kokoro and iU Mi, which are the two first parts of a trilogy. Another highlight is Incognito, which inspired part of the Oscar-nominated short film Timecode.

 

EVA GEORGITSOPOULOU
MITERRA

24.7.2019
Kalamata Central Square | 21:00

 

miTerra. My Mother, my Earth. A creation inspired by and dedicated to a mother’s journey. A physical representation of the female body, which can transform, stay alive, and create a land for a new life. A body made to create new pathways, to be exposed, to be aware or not, to be strong and vulnerable, to simply exist.

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Choreographer-Performer: Eva Georgitsopoulou

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Eva Georgitsopoulou is a Greek dancer based in Berlin. She studied Law and graduated from the National School of Dance in Athens. She has worked for projects by Noa Zuk, Shlomi Bitton, and Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. She has also collaborated with the Oktana Dance Theatre, the Hellenic Dance Company, Cia Sonia Rodriguez, Inside The Body Performing Arts, Frantics Dance Company, Judith Sanchez Ruiz, Edivaldo Ernesto, and, since 2016, as a performer, with the Aerites Dance Company/Patricia Apergi. Her own creations have been staged in Greece and Germany.

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.

LALI AYGUADÉ
From lightness to gravity

24 → 28.7.2019
Kalamata Municipal Stadium 

Lali Ayguadé is a Catalan performer and choreographer. The core of her workshop is the study of transformation through physicality. The workshop comprises two main parts: a technical one, with warm-up and sequences to prepare the dancers for the class challenges, and a second part, with a focus on improvisation based on specific tasks. The objective of the workshop is that the participants learn to use the floor emphasizing their work on the feet, strengthening in this way their base and support for movement. Participants will also train to control their weight center and they will explore ways to find freedom in their movement through phrases and improvisations. Rhythm and voice will also be studied in terms of investigating a theatrical physicality.

Lali Ayguadé, was a full time member of Akram Khan Company for several productions and she has also collaborated, among other renowned creators, with Hofesh Shechter, Roberto Olivan, Marcos Morau and Baró d’Evel. Since 2013, she is the director of her company, with which she has presented “Kokoro” and “iU an Mi”, pieces standing between reality and imagination, merging theatricality with dance. She has also created “Incognito”, which inspired part of the “Timecode” short film, winner of Palma d'Or in Cannes in 2016, Goya and Gaudí awards in 2017 among others. Moreover, she has directed pieces for other companies such as Tanz Bielefeld and Bhodi Project.

The workshop From lightness to gravity by Lali Ayguadé takes place at 25th Kalamata International Dance Festival with the support of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) through the Programme for the Internationalisation of Spanish Culture (PICE), in the framework of the Mobility grants.

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).