Cementary

Patricia Apergi conducts her choreographic research in situ, studying movement forms born out of the urban fabric in order to incorporate them later into scenic space. This procedure allows the choreographer to enrich her vocabulary with elements not automatically recognized as “dance”, but which nevertheless act as tessera of everyday life itself, set inside the theater. In this way, the stage functions as a continuation of the cityscape, trying to reconcile “inside” and “outside”, entering into an unusual dialogue with the constantly transforming realities of the city. In the words of the artist herself: “The creative process is necessarily fueled by social action, since this intensifies the need for expression and action.”

Given the themes that thread through her work, Patricia Apergi has been described by the international press as “a choreographer of the crisis generation”. And the truth is, from “Era poVera” to her more recent “Planites”, Apergi thinks creativity can never remain unaffected by the societal setting in which it unfolds. And so – whether through a violent and catastrophic relationship between body and city (or between the city’s body and its citizens), or through its unseen homeless inhabitants – she seeks to create a prismatic understanding on stage of the phenomena that manifest, or find their release in the everyday urban landscape.

Beyond entering into dialogue with contemporary urban realities, Apergi’s work is characterized by a peculiar kind of “Greekness”. This element has nothing to do with a folkloric, post-modern meshing of old and new, but rather reveals the very fragmentary element that lies inside Greek identity: the dichotomy between a glorious past and the splintered contemporary culture of modern-day Greeks. As such, the movement vocabulary itself springs from cracks that exist in Greece’s contemporary dance landscape. It is an amalgamation of dance-theater elements with a latent narrative bent, combined with completely ephemeral local urban idioms. Her aim is to highlight that the language of dance is constantly in the making, open to experimentation and cross-pollination. In her own words: “[Everything] can be danced. Even the news.”

“My city finds me opposite. I learned to read the cement, I played with my friend’s trash, and bounded my dance with railings. My city finds me there. There where the road was colored. There where good mornings are recycled. And I take up only a meter of space and my own breath. Along with some contemporary prohibitions and a few fines. I followed the cigarette butts and am waiting for change. The city gave wise proportions to its perversion. Dressing itself up like a capital. And allowed me to belong inside its grey zone. Now I’ll celebrate the upending of its image with a waltz. Because now the city finds me alongside it. It will buy out the crisis in red lights. And pink stencils will wetten its walls. Meet you at Mavili Square, under Mount Lycabettus and over your offices.” [Extract from an interview the choreographer gave to Dimitris Kyriazis. Source: www.lifo.gr]

Thursday 2 March

After performance talk with the participants
Moderated by: Giorgos Mitropoulos, journalist