Athens • 9 and 10 October 2021
Acropolis Museum - National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST) - Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) - Greek National Opera
Brussels • 9-11 December 2021
Reggio Emilia • July 2022
The Greek National Opera Ballet presents MicroDances at three emblematic venues in Athens on 9 and 10 October. A five-hour wandering through dance along the axis of Syggrou Avenue, from the Acropolis Museum at Makrygianni to the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST) at Fix and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) at Delta Falirou.
MicroDances is held as part of the project An Ideal City, which aims to research and explore the possibilities of dance as a public art that is rooted in the urban web of three cities: Athens, Reggio Emilia and Brussels. The project An Ideal City was launched in October 2020 and will be completed in July 2022. It is the fruit of the collaboration of three European dance organisations, Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto (Reggio Emilia), Les Halles de Schaerbeek (Brussels), and the Greek National Opera Ballet and it is co-funded by the EU programme Creative Europe, which aims at supporting Europe’s cultural and creative industry. The GNO Ballet programme is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) to the Greek National Opera.
MicroDances consists of short dance performances, from 6 to 10 minutes long, designed for one or three dancers and for small spaces. They were commissioned from artists from very different backgrounds and with very varied influences, who were called upon to create a rich and diverse choreographic environment. In the first phase of the programme works by eight Greek and thirteen foreign choreographers will be developed in an organic relationship with select museum/cultural venues in three cities. In the second phase they will be rearticulated according to each different city’s public space and the special way it converses with bodies and history.
On 9 and 10 October audience members will have the possibility to follow a five-hour route with 21 stops that will be divided into the four institutions hosting the works: the halls of the Acropolis Museum, the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST), the parking, Stavros Niarchos Park and Lighthouse of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), as well as the Foyer, the backstage of the Stavros Niarchos Hall, and the rehearsal rooms of the Greek National Opera.
The route will start every day from the Acropolis Museum at 11.00, 12.00 and 13.00, it will continue to the EMST and will conclude at around 16.00, 17.00 and 18.00 respectively, at SNFCC and GNO’s venues. Audience members will be transported from one venue to the other by a minibus leased by the GNO.
The relationship between spectacle and spectator is thus redefined dynamically and according to the specificities of each venue, the elements of each choreography and the succession of all the parts of the overall wandering experience – a narration that runs through the city, the stories, and the different bodies it is made of.
An Ideal City aims at bringing out the public art of dance in three European urban landscapes with a strong historical and symbolic character, Athens, Reggio Emilia and Brussels. More specifically, with this project the three organisations aim to:
- experiment through an alternative presentation and enjoyment of dance performances in urban spaces with very different atmospheres
- explore the body’s possibilities to narrate the multiple urban and social transformations
- create performances that can be transformed according to different locations, perspectives and cultural contexts, as well as through the process of being “translated” by different participants, viewers and interlocuters.
An Ideal City is curated by Gigi Christoforetti (Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto), Christophe Galent (Les Halles de Schaerbeek), Konstantinos Rigos (Greek National Opera Ballet).
The project’s scientific committee consists of three curators, who take part in the overall evolutionary design, its interdisciplinary dimensions and the multiple urban applications and structural changes of its two phases of implementation: Costanza Meli in Reggio Emilia for Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto, Pauline de La Boulaye in Brussels for Les Halles de Schaerbeek and Nadja Argyropoulou in Athens for the Greek National Opera Ballet.
Venues and works
A – Acropolis Museum, Dionysiou Areopagitou St.
Knight Rider
Parthenon Gallery Atrium
Choreography: Yannis Nikolaidis
Sound design: Manolis Manousakis
Costumes: Ioanna Tsami
Dancer: Margarita Kostoglou
Active Motivation
Parthenon Gallery
Choreography: Elena Kekkou
Music, live performance: Antonis Vlachos
Choreographer’s assistant: Dimitra Vlachou
Dancer: Elena Kekkou
Eppur si muove 01
Archaic Acropolis Gallery / The Antenor Kore
Choreography: Francesca Lattuada
Music: Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 7, 2nd Movement: Αllegretto
Costumes: Bruno Fatalot
Dancer: Clément Haenen
Forget Me Not
Archaic Acropolis Gallery / Hekatompedon (East pediment)
Choreography: Konstantinos Rigos
Music: Giorgos Koumendakis, Saxophone: Guido de Flaviis
Choreographer’s assistant: Fotis Diamantopoulos
Dancers: Danilo Zeka / Vangelis Bikos
A Near Life Experience (excerpt from a creation of 2003)
Entrance hall
Choreography: Angelin Preljocaj
Music: Air (Jean-Benoît Dunckel, Nicolas Godin)
Dancers: Ivana Mastroviti, Hélias Tur-Dorvault
Β – National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST), Suggrou Avenue, Fix
Pensieri di carta
Amphitheatre
Choreography, original music: Hélias Tur-Dorvault,
Musical arrangements: Alessandro Grisendi
Dancer: Martina Forioso
The Bell Jar
4th floor
Choreography, set and costume design: Fernando Melo
Music: Machinefabriek, Thomas Köner
Dancer: Grace Lyell
Inside
4th floor
Choreography, set and costume design: Norge Cedeño Raffo
Music: Erik Satie
Dancer: Estelle Bovay
bodies. ever. stitches
Roof (Terrace)
Choreography: Cecilia Bengolea, Music: Stitches, “Brick in Υo Face”
Choreographer’s assistants: Dimitra Laoudi, Valeria Lanzara
Dancers: Emilia Gaspari, Marita Nikolitsa / Areti Noti
C – Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), Syggrou Avenue 364
Fragments
Parking lot
Choreography: Persa Stamatopoulou
Music: Apostolis Koutsogiannis
Costume coordination: Yorgos Mesimeris
Choreographer’s assistant: Irina Akrioti-Kolioubakina
Dancers: Stelios Katopodis, Thanassis Solomos
HARPY
Lighthouse / Bridge
Choreography: Michalis Theophanous
Costume coordination: Yorgos Mesimeris
Choreographer’s assistant: Fotis Diamantopoulos
Dancer: Arieh Bates-Vinueza
Turn the Tide
Lighthouse / Terrace
Choreography, set and costume design: Toberto Tedesco
Music: BowLand
Dancers: Serena Vinzio, Matteo Fiorani
Blue Tits
Lighthouse / Terrace
Choreography: Lenio Kaklea
Choreographer’s assistant: Dimitra Laoudi
Dancers: Zoi Schinoplokaki, Yannis Gantsios
Butterfly
Stavros Niarchos Park
Choreography: Yorgos Papadopoulos
Music: Apostolis Koutsogiannis
Costume coordination: Yorgos Mesimeris
Dancer: Yorgos Papadopoulos
Eppur si muove 02
SNFCC Agora, GNO entrance
Choreography: Francesca Lattuada
Music: Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 7, 2nd Movement: Αllegretto
Costume design: Bruno Fatalot
Dancers: Arianna Ganassi, Antonio Tafuni
D – GREEK NATIONAL OPERA (SNFCC), Syggrou Avenue 364
Platform02
GNO Foyer
Choreography: Ina Lesnakowski
Music: Loscil
Set design: Carlo Cerri
Dancer: Saul Daniele Ardillo
Phantasmagoria
GNO Foyer
Choreography: Markella Manoliadi
Music: Gabriel Fauré, “Après un rêve”
Singer: Artemis Bogri
Choreographer’s assistant: Dimitra Laoudi
Dancer: Ariadni Filippaki
Carne da eroe 2.0
GNO Ballet Studio 1
Installation: Roberto Zappalà
Music: Camille Saint-Saëns: “The Dying Swan”, Chinese market noises
Dancer: Giulio Pighini
The Wound / Archive of Western Images
Stavros Niarchos Hall Backstage
Concept, direction, choreography, set and costume design: Pietro Marullo
Sound designer: Jean-Noël Boissé
Assistant to the set design: Diana Ciufo
Assistant to the dramaturgy: Marianna Cifarelli, Dancer: Arianna Kob
Shelter
Stavros Niarchos Hall Backstage
Concept: Saul Daniele Ardillo, Simone Giorgi
Choreography: Saul Daniele Ardillo
Music: Pasquale Catalano
Dramaturgy: Simone Giorgi
Installation: Adam_Signature
Dancer: Minouche van de Ven
Afterimage
Stavros Niarchos Hall Backstage
Choreography, set design: Philippe Kratz
Music: Pablo’s Eye
Video design: Ooopstudio
Dancer: Thomas Van de Den
Kepler
Stavros Niarchos Hall Backstage
Choreography: Diego Tortelli
Music: Noise music, Beach house
Set: Diego Tortelli, Alessandro Tortelli
Video design: Alessandro Tortelli
Costumes: Diego Tortelli (in collaboration with Nuvia Valestri)
Dancers: Leonardo Farina, Sandra Salietti Aguilera, Jamal Uhlmann
* The venues may change for technical reasons.
Ticket reservations
Due to the special nature of the performances and the COVID-19-related restrictions, only limited places will be available for the public. Ticket reservations will be made at ticketservices.grfrom Tuesday 5/10/2021 on a first come, first served basis.
Ticket information for the Acropolis Museum is available at: https://theacropolismuseum.gr/en/plan-your-visit#eisitiria
Ticket information for EMST: https://www.emst.gr/visit
Audience members who will attend MicroDances must present a valid certificate of vaccination against or recovery from COVID-19. Mask wearing is necessary throughout the route and presentations.
Collaboration
In collaboration with the Acropolis Museum, the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST) and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC).
Lead Donor of the GNO Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)
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