Cover up

Born in Athens in 1981, Ioannis Mandafounis studied dance at the National School of Athens and at the Conservatoire de Paris. Before becoming a freelance choreographer he was part of the Gothenburg Opera Ballet, the Nederlands Dans Theater II and in 2005 became member of the Forsythe company where he still guests on a regular base. In 2004 he forms the Lemurius company in Athens with which he creates and presents several works for festivals like the Kalamata International Festival or the Athens Dance Festival. Together with Fabrice Mazliah he creates in 2007 the duet P.A.D., shown in the Athens International Festival, in the Baden-Baden Kunsthalle, at the Mousonturm in Frankfurt and will be part of the 2009 edition of the Kunstenfestival in Brussels, and the work HUE produced by the Forsythe company for the Bockenheimer Depot which is presented as well at the "adc" in Geneva and at the Montpellier Dance festival. He creates works for the Greek National Opera, the Palluca Schule in Dresden, the Hohschule in Frankfurt, the Ballet Junior Genève where he gives also Budo workshops, an ancient form of martial art that he studied in Japan and teaches around.

Born in Geneva in 1972, Fabrice Mazliah studied dance in his hometown, at the École de danse de Genève, at the National Dance School of Athens and at the Rudra Béjart Atelier in Lausanne. Mazliah was part of the Harris Mandafounis Dance Company (Athens) and of the Nederlands Dans Theater, before joining in 1997 the Ballett Frankfurt directed by William Forsythe and continues since with The Forsythe company. Mazliah is also creating in parallel his own projects and choreographic works. Pieces like "The Magic of Understanding" (mousonturm Frankfurtk 1999), "My Left Pussyfoot" (TAT Frankfurt, 2000), "Vu d'ici" (TAT Frankfurt, 2001), "Du dire au faire..." (Manege d'Onex Genevak 2003), "Remote Versions" (2003) and "Double B(l)ind" (2004), both created in collaboration with Agnes Chekroun and Jone San Martin and produced by the Ballett Frankfurt for the Bockenheimer Depot, "Home" (Forum Meyrin Geneva, 2004) in collaboration with Roberta Mosca and the visual artist Gilbert Mazliah, "À part entière" (Ballet junior de Genève, 2005), "P.A.D." (commissioned by the Athens Festival, 2007) in collaboration with Ioannis Mandafounis, "HUE" (Bockenheimer Depot, 2007) with and for seven dancers of The Forsythe Company. Several of those works are shown across Europe, in festival and venues like Dublin Festival, adc Geneva, Rencontres de Carthage Tunis, Uzes Festival, Tanztendenzen Greiswald, Gravirty and Grace Limerick, Stuttgart Tanzplatform, Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt, Montpellier Danse, Rencontres Chorégraphiques Paris, Kunstentenfestivaldesarts Brussels, BougeB Festival De Singel Antwerp, Automne en Normandie Rouen. Fabrice teaches as well several ateliers and improvisation workshops for different kinds of student like the fine-arts school at The Beaux-arts in Geneva where he gives coaching workshops based on the notions of physicality within their installation projects.

Born in Israel in 1984, May Zarhy created her first piece for the National Choreography Biennale Shades in Dance 2001, Tel Aviv, Israel, before moving to the Netherlands in 2002 to study dance at the Rotterdam Dance Academy. In 2005, she assisted William Forsythe in the creation "3 Atmospheric Studies". In 2006 she received the Quercus Trust Scholarship. Member in Ex.e.r.ce07 in Montpellier France, directed by Mathilde Monnier and Xavier Le Roy, resident artist in PACT Zollverein Essen Germany in 2007, her pieces were shown in Korzo Theatre Den Haag, ITs Festival Amsterdam, Tanztendenzen Festival Greifswald etc. She is currently living and working as a freelance in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Thursday 24 March

After-performance talk with choreographers-dancers Ioannis Mandafounis, Fabrice Mazliah and May Zarhy.
Moderated by Nina Alcalay, dance theorist

Sunday 27 March
11:00-15:00

From visual image to physical feeling / from physical image to visual feeling
As a parallel event to their "Cover up" performance at the Onassis Stegi, Ioannis Mandafounis, Fabrice Mazliah and May Zarhy hold a dance seminar for dancers. Mazliah, Mandafounis and Zarhy develop through the years, in collaborations with several artists, a choreographic writing which questions, beyond the characteristics of each project, the status of the performer as well as the one of the choreographer. This workshop interrogates the notion of “spectacle” and the tension that lies between a visual image and the physical feeling it produces in the viewer.