Onassis New Choreographers Festival 9 — ONC 9

Six minutes of ecstasy. Over and over again. A scene from the 1735 opéra-ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau performed in the krump street dance style – a dance form and act of resistance that sprang from the Los Angeles ghetto in the late 1990s – features in a video installation, set inside the Onassis Stegi foyer, that sets the beat and tone for this year’s entire festival (Clément Cogitore, “Les Indes Galantes”). Because at least two wonderful things are happening here: no-one will be able to sit still when next they hear music by Rameau, and an act of public recourse is holding sway. The sanctum that is opéra-ballet hands the dance floor over to whom it rightfully belongs: to those who dance in the streets, demanding emancipation from violence, from fear, from power, and saving us all from the stereotypes of what dance, art, and life itself should (or should not) be.

Constantine Skourlis, Dafin Antoniadou, and Alexandros Vardaxoglou transport us into a science fiction, or rather, an ontological fiction setting with their transmedia installation (“DEEP HORIZON”).

“When was the last time you felt like a robot?” asks Manolis Saridakis before inviting us all to meet on the same dance floor in the work he created as part of the Europe Beyond Access program, and within the framework of Onassis Stegi’s ongoing commitment to making dance accessible to persons with disabilities (“Do Robots Have Emotions?”).

An experiment involving bodies, sounds, and objects is choreographed by Ioanna Paraskevopoulou (“MOS”).

A “pink manifesto” against the patriarchy proclaimed by five Amazons of Latin dance, camp, and kitsch is brought to you by Alexandros Stavropoulos (“On Wednesdays We Wear Pink”).

Lessons in 21st-century etiquette are given by Konstantinos Papanikolaou (“A User’s Manual”).

Two amplifiers, 14 speakers, and original songwriting all play their part in the piece by Fotini Stamatelopoulou (“optimal soft”).

And, last but not least, Ilias Chatzigeorgiou choreographs four street dancers in order to talk about another kind of masculine “pulse”, one brought to you by the pioneers of Greek hip hop (“A BOUNCE 4 MEN”).

Friday 11 - Sunday 13 March

“Les Indes galantes” | Clément Cogitore
16:30-23:00 | Main Lobby Foyer

“DEEP HORIZON” | Dafin Antoniadou, Alexandros Vardaxoglou, Constantine Skourlis
16:30-21:00 & 22:00-23:30 | Exhibition Hall -1 (Gallery Space Room)

“Do Robots have emotions?” | Manolis Saridakis
17:00 & 18:30 | Back of House

“MOS” | Ioanna Paraskevopoulou
17:30 | Upper Stage

“On Wednesdays We Wear Pink” | Alexandros Stavropoulos
19:00 | Main Stage

“A User’s Manual” | Konstantinos Papanikolaou
20:00 | Upper Stage

“optimal soft” | Fotini Stamatelopoulou
21:00 | Exhibition Hall -1 (Gallery Space)

“A BOUNCE 4 MEN” | Ilias Chatzigeorgiou
22:00 | Main Stage

Contemporary dance is an open discipline. Ready to embrace the effects of all that’s happening “out there” and “from the grass roots up”. Everything from Bronx hip hop and South Korean gangnam, Los Angeles krumping and New York breakdancing through to voguing balls and TikTok dance challenges – from bodies asserting new identities through to the dances of those out protesting, out fighting for all that is rightful and obvious but not yet a given. Because what’s important right now is to reawaken our senses. To see more. To hear more. To feel more. To take in ALL THE REALITY WE CAN GET. In the paraphrased words of Susan Sontag: “History is dancing – roaring by. The way we look at something is itself a product of historical consciousness.”

—Iliana Dimadi, Afroditi Panagiotakou, Konstantinos Tzathas