Personally my journey started as a track and field athlete
where I was competing in 200 meters and long jump. When I was seventeen I started to do contemporary dance and ballet. I went to the UK, in Newcastle to study contemporary dance where I also began to do circus arts, with speciality in Chinese pole, ropes and aerial hoop at the National Center of Circus Arts in London. I am a student at the contemporary dance practice program at Deree and also work as a pole dance instructor.
Visiting the Benaki museum I saw many pieces
that draw my attention but there were two that actually inspired me to think a
piece that I could see myself creating.
There was a book which was called “dance the walk”. I did not open it
read it or not even see the pictures but just saw the title and it immediately
made me create stories and possibilities in my head.
“Dance the walk”
There was another piece that inspired me; it
was a video from National Technical university of Athens. There were two
different works in that video. The one I based my ideas was the “choreogenic I “
What made me stop and keep watching the
video was not the story or the reason they created this piece but showing a
duet dancing and having three different cameras and angles to show the
movement. That made me think about the thought behind these three different
angles having the same people dancing but from different perspectives. How
people receive the same movement/image with different meaning and purpose.
These two sources inspired me to think of a
piece with four people in the place walking/dancing as themselves. How it would
be to give the same tasks without any restrictions to these four people and how
each and every one would make them look in the space. Not only from the
dancer’s perspectives but also from the audience. How people would react to see
the same task or idea happening from different people and especially dancers.
Having in one piece different ways of seeing and doing things and actually make
them work nicely together. For that reason, I tried to find as much as I could
dancers who would have different way of dancing and moving through space. From
the same task and movements in space to see the different point of views. That
is why I chose to have the simplest moves, not sequences and lots of
improvising. That is the reason why dance the walk make me realize that the
simplest movement as walking can tell a very powerful story.
In the choreography classes we had a variety of
tasks to accomplish, some of them were useful as well for the piece I work on. In
one session, we had to find a task for ourselves to work on and then give the
same task to one of our colleges. The idea I chose was “one picture different
angles”. The interesting part of this task was my way of thinking versus
my college. I thought about the same movement but in different levels. For me
the change of levels remind me different way of looking at things or the way
they look. My college on the other hand thought about the same movement
but from different directions. That task lead me back to my piece and what I already
thought about perspective and made it real.
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| riverbankoftruth.com
Rethinking the idea of illusion and perspective I was trying
to figure out how I could show that into my piece through movement. So one day at the gym I was observing the
people running on treadmills. As I looked carefully I realized that looking the
big picture of people running and then focusing on people’s legs running were two
different images. Watching only the legs running on treadmills one next to the
other you could actually see the movement in slow motion. So I took this image
and tried to put it in my choreography.
Reading the article “site dance museum”, from Jackson Pollock helped me create images on how to use the space of a museum as a stage and realize the differences between a theatre stage. How Jackson Pollock refers to that is by saying “Unlike a traditional theater, where the audience is fixed and their attention is focused on a proscenium stage, site-specific works in museums often allow viewers to move throughout the performers, shifting their proximity and perspective. As a result, these pieces are more intimate and interactive.” Being on a stage it somehow draws a line between the audience and the dancers. Dancers are not vulnerable because they know that they have a specific place, entrees, lighting, acoustic etc. on the other hand being in a museum all these things are not there and a dancer always has the possibility to come face to face with the audience or have a difficulty with the space concerning where people are in the space.
In the rehearsal I realized that using the idea of dance the
walk with the idea of the treadmills did not work that nice. So I came to the
decision to make my six minute piece with dancers running in a slow rhythm, as
if they were on treadmills. Since not
many people will observe only the legs of the dancers I want to use formation
through the space and make shapes with the bodies while the dancers are
running. So instead of using the phrase “dance the walk” I will be using the
phrase “dance the run”.
The space I chose to use from the Benaki museum has a part
which is very crucial for my piece. It has a wall which is half cut so when the
dancers are behind this wall you can only see the legs and nothing else. This
is a good way to pay attention more on the legs of the dancers. This is because
not only about the illusion I want to create with the running but also because
the dancer’s feet are going to show the individuality as people.
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Reading the article “Embodied Place”, by Tara Munjee make me
realize that by choosing a space, in the Benaki museum this time, you can get
inspired by it and make the choreography piece more interesting. She says that
“Choreographers and dancers actively respond to spaces in the performance of
site-specific dance. Their performance and compositional choices highlight
aspects of a site that are most fertile for artistic exploration.” This is very
true for me and with the space I chose in the Benaki museum where I will use
half wall and the dancers are going to be behind it. That was my first idea
without even knowing the final concept of my piece. After doing rehearsals on
my piece what made me get more inspired and have new tasks was about going to
that space again and think the possibilities a dancer could do with and the stories
they could tell.
After watching my choreography
video from our midterm examination I realize that some elements I use in my
piece do not look nice together. It was the first time recording and watching
it and see how it really looks. It was really helpful because I could see what
looks nice, what works and what does not work. Another think that I observe was
the individuality of the dancers in my piece. Since I work a lot with small
jumps and slow running the dancers could not really unleash their dance
character. Nevertheless, through these easy moves I could see differences
between the four of us, the use of the arms, the energy, the tempo, the speed
etc. it was an element I liked a lot and I want somehow to make it appear more
in my choreography.
The next rehearsal was at the
Benaki museum. For the first time we would rehearse our choreography in the
space we actually chose. All this time we choreographed by imagining the space
and using movements and sequences depending on the concept and space we have
already chosen. So this time we had the rehearsal at the museum I was not able
to be there due to work issues. Nevertheless, I told to my dancers to rehearse
the piece even though I could not be there and use the space I chose. They knew
the choreography already since we had worked on it in the studio and black box.
I asked them to observe the entrances and exits and also to cover as much space
as they could. Also, Miss Spanovagellis was there and watched the rehearsal and
she gave some tips that could make it look better. She said about directions
and how I can make my piece has different directions and not only facing one
spot.
Today we met at the Black box
theatre. I asked my dancers how they found the space and if it worked since it
was the first time doing it in the Benaki. They told me their thoughts and
feelings and how the space worked and did not work. One sure thing is that the
distances in the Benaki museum are so much bigger than in a studio or a black
box theatre. So, the duration of the piece is changing as well. How you count
in studio versus in Benaki museum is totally different. It was really nice
seeing my dancers working nicely together and collaborate with each other and
most importantly to listen, not only me because I was the choreographer but in
general listen and respect the ideas of every dancer. I wanted to let them talk
and discuss with me what they like or don’t and what works for their bodies and
what doesn’t. Of course, I was the one who was taking the decision and make the
piece look how I wanted, as a choreographer, but not before listening to my
dancers.
The next rehearsal was at the
Benaki museum. This time we had many hours to work on our material and most
importantly I was there this time. We discussed again the choreography in order
to remember it and we also try to arrange the entrance and the exit of my
piece. We make the choice to start by walking in the space through the audience
to the other side of the Platea.
In my piece a very important thing
is the first image. The reason why the first image is so important is because
the most vital feature of the piece is the shoes we wearing as dancers. We are
four dancers but us all wearing different shoes on, four people and eight
different shoes. The reason why I chose to have this element in my piece is
because I wanted to show the individuality of every dancer. At the beginning of
the creation of my choreography I thought the same idea about individuality but
I thought about it as dancing styles. From the first rehearsal though I realize
that this would never work. Because I really wanted to keep that element in my
piece, I and my fellow dancers came to the idea of the shoes. So I ask every
dancer of what is their favorite shoe and then choose to wear these. Even
though we are talking about just shoes, they actually can describe many
elements for a personality.
So in the rehearsal it was the
first time we dance my piece with the shoes we chose. The challenge for this
rehearsal was that me and another dancer have chosen very difficult shoes to dance
with, especially the other dancer. I chose to have one training shoe and one
heel shoe whereas the other dancer chose to have one heel and one pointe shoe.
Since this piece I have created is very physical and also doing it the first
time like this was difficult. We manage nevertheless to find a way of doing it
and not get to tired and also cover as much space as we could.
Watching the video of this
rehearsal I saw the movement more clearly and realize what moves were working
nicely and what were not. So the next time we have the general rehearsal I need
to chance these last moves and make it work better.
Today was the last rehearsal before
the day of the event. I gather my crew to discuss about my final decisions and
make the changes as quick and better as we could in order to look nice for the
general rehearsal. This day we did it in front of the two tutors in order to
get feedback and try to make last changes to our pieces if they need. The
feedback that I got was very helpful. First of all about the clothes that we
chose, we had the black element but in different sizes and shapes, the tutors
nevertheless believed that the way how one of the dancer was looking with the
clothes as a diving suit and underneath the different shoes. Also the shoes of
me and my dancer worked and the audience could see them perfectly but the other
two dancer’s choices were not so obvious. At last, we had to work on the last
minute of my piece and how we exit the space.
Yesterday was the big night. My
body feels really tired and exhausted because of yesterday. The tiredness I
believe is not because of the pieces I had to dance to but the long hours of
being at the Benaki museum. It was a very nice experience for me and even
though we thought that we did not do many rehearsals we were actually very good
prepared. Was very different to dance and walk through the audience and observe
how they were collaborating with us and the space for audiences this also very
different and they do not actually know how to behave in situation like and
especially when they do not know the intentions of the dancers. Collaborating
with my dancers in an event like this was also something new and I did not
believe that it would be easy. Nevertheless I had a great team with me and we
had a very good collaboration without dramas and fights. Also the collaboration
with the other fellow students and their pieces worked as well. The
choreographies which were before and after worked very well, the transitions at
list before and after my piece. Especially what worked a lot was the props of
the previous piece with mine. It helped with the spotting on the position we
had to take for my piece.
Throughout this whole process I
gain experiences I did not have and the way of looking at spaces. Never thought
that a museum would be a space of dance performance with audience walking side
to side.
