Ion

"Ion" explains why the European world of dance calls Christos Papadopoulos the rising star. His minimalist, poetic, artistic universe is a place you may inhabit. A performance that focuses on the microphysics of motion, the volume of detail that can derive from a kinetic pattern allowing the eye to wander, to travel through the boundless field of human relations.

The flight of birds, the coordination of fireflies, a series of microphenomena that comprise the world of nature become a starting point for the kinetic research of Christos Papadopoulos. Still, the choreographer does not merely represent the aforementioned enchanting coincidences; he moves on with a reductionist approach to kinetic patterns encountered all around us. In a minimalist language, which is a feature of his work up to now, he looks for the mechanisms or the algorithm that lies behind the function of coordination. A living system of 10 dancers tests our powers of observation with imperceptible changes and noiseless transitions, in order to reveal the fragility of human relations that validate the pace of life, the natural order of things.

So, while the title refers us directly to the phenomenon of ionization, we could say that the performance tends to work by association, highlighting elements that transcend form, the mechanism of choreography, the rigor of a system. Besides, what fascinates the choreographer is not the Empire of Signs, but how they connect, creating a unique cosmos. The appeal of coordination lies in the brevity of the phenomenon, its transience, the impression of randomness and the expectation of recurrence.

With his new work, "Ion", Christos Papadopoulos submits a multisensory experiment, which does not exhaust itself in easy attention-seeking mechanics. The choreography aims to foreground the minimal, the ecstatic serenity, like that crack through which light enters before the splendour of the skies is revealed to us. Christos Papadopoulos focuses on the repetitiveness of kinetic motifs, on stage space clarity defined by lighting and action. The choreographer relies on the primal elements that constitute his work: rhythm, movement, place and time. Still, the way he weaves the acts allows us to gradually discover the interaction of the movement with the other elements, light showcasing the movement of the bodies and the effect of music on the sound environment, which does not merely guide but also converses with the choreography.