DANCING POSSIBILITIES 1: Community Dance Stories
Filiatra, Heraklion (GR), Nicosia (CY)
An interdisciplinary project bringing together dance, writing and visual arts with/by/for different corporealities, communities and places, by FLOCK COLLECTIVE. Continue reading “DANCING POSSIBILITIES 1: Community Dance Stories”
Collaborating with emerging dance artists is a sensitive and inspiring process I am enjoying immensly. Cyprus Choreography Platform is organised annualy by the Deputy Ministry of Culture of Cyprus in collaboration with Rialto Theatre in Limassol, Cyprus. It’s programming incorporates new creations by selected emerging dance artists, the Young Choreographers. It has been a great honour to be invited for three consecutive years (2023-2025) to offer dramaturgical input employing body/word Performance Writing.
The fact that I have lived and worked in Cyprus (2011-2014) and have since been working in the flesh and online with artists in and from Cyprus, has played an important part in accepting this sensitive position. During these three years I had the priviledge to become part of 15 works, 13 emerging choreographers (some twice) from a vast spectrum of the expanded field of dance: WHOOSH (Charis Iacovou), What a perfect world (Olga Markari), The Lullaby of Horses (Styliana Apostolou), The Burden (Sotirios Panagoulias), Sprt! (Dimitris Chimonas), Match Point (Melina Ioannidou), How to Dwell on Everything 101 (Alexandros M. Kyriazis), EPISODES (Maria Gerasimou), Don’t You Just Love Melting? (Melina Sophocleous), Coming of (Annie Khoury), Bubble Consumer (Ioannis Economides), Artifact (Demetris Charalambous), Agrino Lounge (Sotirios Panagoulias), 2974 (Elias Klark), Ήςhοι (Melina Ioannidou). A few thoughts on dance dramaturgy and mentoring on the occasion of collaborations with Cypriot artists and institutions in 2025 available in english in an interview to Katerina Nikolaou for politis newspaper online.
I am greatful to the Deputy Ministry, Rialto Theatre, the dance artists and community for holding this special place for me. Thank you EveryBody * ~
As to be fair to all creators, I am sharing a photo from the square where the theatre is, works in progress like inside, a few hours before the place turned into a dance bee hive. Check out the platform’s site gallery for a closer look at the works.
How may body/word Performance Writing unveil connections between bodies, places and communities, with the expanded fields of dance and writing via the creation of multimodal choreographic scores? How will this research update the methodology itself via practical and theoretical input by people of very different backgrounds, corporealities and places of residency?
One of the biggest and most rewarding body/word Perfromance Writing projects so far, this research was a big group collaboration with many supporting bodies. As long texts are not a website favorite, most space will be dedicated to credits. We are more than happy to elaborate, so please feel free to get in touch.
We started off as Head of Research: Christos Polymenakos, MA Performance Writing, creator of the body/word Performance Writing methodology, Associate Researcher: Iliana Fylla, Phd Art History, Specialized in Contemporary Dance, Research Counselor: Thalia Ditsa, MA Choreography, soon to make it a more collective work, throughout. The idea was that I would share principles, tools and examples in designing research processes that would offer the participants tools and allow us to collect feedback. For this we invited emerging and established professionals from various fields of arts, society and science: Adonis Galeos, Dramaturg, Director, Translator, Rhetoric Acting Educator, Anastasia S. Tsingotjidou, Associate Professor of Veterinary Medicine, Ph.D. in Neuroanatomy, Anestis Nikolos, Pastry Chef, Angelos Papadopoulos, Choreographer, Director, Performer, Antigone Gyra, Choreographer, Artistic Director of Kinitiras Artistic Network of Performing Arts, Aristoteles – George Zogas, visual conceptual contemporary artist, Charilaos Mantzavinos, Sociologist, Psychotherapist (Opou group), Christina Thanasoula, Light Designer, Dana Papachristou, PhD, Musicologist and Sound Artist, Demy Papathanasiou, Crip Dancer/ & Choreographer, Dimitris Batsis, sound artist and academic researcher, PhD in Biomusic, Dimitris Champesis, PhD on Cultural Diplomacy, Program Designer and Manager, Eleni Gyra, Psychologist-Psychotherapist, MA in Humanistic Psychology, President of the Institute for Psychosocial Intervention (Opou group), Elpida Rikou, PhD Social Psychology, anthropologist, visual artist, Estelle Papadimitriou, Dramaturg, Performance Studies Researcher, Arts Producer, Katerina El Raheb -Academic Researcher, Dance Artist, Assistant Professor in Informatics Applications in Performing Arts, Dept. of Performing and Digital Arts, University of the Peloponnese
Liana Mailli, Pediatrician, ex-President of Medecins du Monde Grece, (Basal Ganglia group), Manolis Iliakis, Architect-Spatial designer, Interior Design Pathway Leader in Vakalo College of Art and Design, Maria Maistrello, Dance and Educational Drama Teacher, Marianthi Michailidou, Choreographer, Performer, Dance Teacher, (Basal Ganglia group), Nadi Gogoulou, Dance Artist, Dancer, Performer and Dancemaker with a video-ing practice, Nikos Sideris, Designer / Visual Artist, Stephanos Stathopoulos, Industrial Designer
Yiannis Theakos, Sustainability Consultant and Wellbeing Counselor, Yorgos Samantas, Social Anthropologist, Sound Artist.
Scoring Corporealities kicked off with a residency offered by Flux Laboratory Athens. Christina Delari, Head of Partnerships & Culture – Athens and Mr. Makis Kapsalis, made this a most inspiring kickstart. This amazing old factory, office building and parking space in Benizelou street, a place in transition, hosted our group workshops, exploring notions of corporeality and corporality, place and space, and community via body/word Performance writing processes. The current findings and questions where shared with the group in a communal, online research depository.
As we proceeded, more bodies supported the two-fold research by means of contact with their respective communities, feedback and dissemination, work spaces on and offline. Special thanks to the supporting organizations in Greece and abroad: Kinitiras, Artistic Network of Performing Arts, Duncan Dance Research Centre, Dance House Lefkosia and TWIXTlab.
After extended reflection among the core group, we proceeded conducted long 1-1 interviews with each guest researcher to shed more light, exchange perpsectives, examples, refferences, findings and questions relating to they key research notions and processes.
Pause and further reflection while we prepared the second phase of the research: Corporeal Communities. Four two-day research workshops consisting again of b/w PW tools and principles, enriched and updated by the previous research stage, Scoring Corporealities. The workshops were for mixed groups a) aged 50+/- years old, b) with and without movement impediment or disabilities, c) different level of knowledge and experience in dance and writing, d) online, for people living in places away in the same city, county, country, continent. The original group of guest researchers was expanded by people responding to an open call. Additional supporters offered physical and digital working spaces as well as community reach out: Studio Trajectory in Exarcheia, liminal in Theatrou Square for fully accessible venue, Kypselis 94, rehearsal studio. The workshops were realised thanks to the support by the J.F. Costopoulos Foundation and a collaboration with TWIXTlAb .
Last, but most certainly not least, following yet another round of reflections among the core group, an online questionaire was sent individually to all participants.
This admittedly large and demanding project has been most inspiring, rewarding and fruitful.
It was an added value that the twofold research lead to an exciting collaboration with the then newborn FLOCK COLLECTIVE: “10+1 dance stories, based on the body/word Performance Writing research Corporeal Communities“, co-written by myself, Iliana Fylla and Thalia Ditsa, published with the aegis and support of the Greek Ministry of Culture.
The research and the book were shared publicly, in the flesh in the Duncan Dance Research Centre thanks to the support of the Vyronas Municipality, and online, thanks to the support of Dance House Lefkosia, Cyprus.
Grateful to close collaborators, Iliana Fylla and Thalia Ditsa, all the guest reseearchers and workshop participants, journalists and of course all the supporting bodies.
Thank you EveryBody * ~
Group “selfie” from the Corporeal Communities research workshop group with and without movement impediment and disabilities, April 2024.
Ten short stories revealing dimensions of expanded notions of dance in daily life. Bringing to the fore different bodies, places and their communities. Dance rituals. Part time jobs in the South. Sensorial trajectories in the streets of Athens. Male dances hidden on rooftops. Bubbles filled with unspoken words. Limits and transgressions of a blue line. Fairs and melodies of a burning Mediterranean. Humans, animals, plants, buildings, ghosts.
The book 10+1 dance stories consists of 10 stories inspired by encounters between people who shared how dance and writing are part of their lives and explored ways to dance, write, and create together. Stories of dances by, with, for different bodies, places, communities. +1 story, an invitation with tools for readers to explore, create and share what writing and dance can be for them. Last but not least, framing texts with information about the interdisciplinary research “Corporeal Communities” and Christos Polymenakos’ body/word Performance Writing methodology.
Christos Polymenakos, Iliana Fylla and Thalia Ditsa wrote the stories inspired by the research processes, outcomes, but most of all by the stories and multimodal choreographic scores created during the 2 year research. A literary excercice in the translation of a wide spectrum of dance experiences and perspectives.
The cover of the book was designed by Nikos Sideris of susami creative agency, himself a guest researcher, having experienced the whole process.
The book is FLOCK COLLECTIVE‘s first project, a collaboration with TWIXTlab with the aegis and funding by the Greek Ministry of Culture, now in its second edition. The research workshops were supported by the J.F. Costopoulos Foundation, while the whole research which concluded in the book was also supported by Kinitiras, Artistic Network of Performing Arts, Duncan Dance Research Centre, Dance House Lefkosia, Cyprus, Studio Trajectory in Exarcheia, liminal in Theatrou Square for fully accessible venue, Kypselis 94, rehearsal studio.
For the time being the book is available in Greek, in bookshops and artshops in Greece and Cyprus. If you live anywhere near our supporting bodies, they have copies you can borrow, or get in touch to order your copy.
Thank you EveryBody * ~
Kinitiras Omega (Ω) is a most unique group of people over 65 y.o. initiated by Kinitiras Artistic Network of Performing Arts in 2014. They are an amazing community of people of very varied backgrounds and one of the most informative and touching groups I have ever worked with. They take movement, dance, theatre and body/word Performance Writing yearly classes and masterclasses, often in groups of mixed ages. They have presented their work in Athens, Syros, Germany and Italy.
Antigone Gyra, Joanna Kampilafka, Aliki Avdelopoulou are their main teachers and I was honoured to be invited on board to the extended group of more significant artists of various fields, teaching and working with them in 2020. Our first collaboration was…online! With the amazing support of Kinitiras, during the first months of the pandemic we started exploring the corporealities of writing, its connection to dance and theatre. Beware their cheeky nature, discreet wisdom and high standards of collective aesthetic.
“Familiar Bodies” was a production reclaiming visibility and/in public spaces (photo) originally presented in Athens. It then travelled to the Akropoditi Dance Fest for a repertoire workshop for local people of 50+ and a performance in Ermoupolis, Syros.
Among the many amazing collaborations with Kinitiras Omega, “Maturing Korai” holds a special place. This was a KA2 Erasmus+ program, for women aged 50+, from different socio-economic backgrounds, reinventing themselves by exploring and developing their performing skills. It was an Erasmus+ program in the field of Adult Education designed by Kinitiras, held in collaboration with 2 more organisations, Fresh Target from Cyprus and Calypso from Italy, with the groups collaborating both in the flesh and online.
What we did was that we employed body/word Performance Writing principles and tools for the collective writing by the group: Manifesto for actively aging bodies is available in all three languages, inspiring and gently empowering people of all ages.
Collaborating with people up to 92 y.o., both in groups for 50+ or mixed ages, has been and still is one of the most inspiring experiences. Thank you EveryBody * ~
photo: Fanis Pavlopoulos, “Familiar Bodies”, Kinitiras Omega, public space performance 2023
Happy and inspired to be part of Akropoditi Dancefest 2022 with a lecture + conversation and Masterclass in the special island of Syros. On Friday, July 15th a special sharing of 12 years of work and current quests regarding how do we bond with our communities via our bodies and words. Don’t miss “body/word – Performance Writing: creation, research, education, by, with, for the community? A discussion”. Especially if you are up for the challenges of the “Do You Speak Dance?” masterclass on Saturday and Sunday, 16 & 17/7. Seven years after its premier in Dance House Lefkosia and five after the International Kalamata Dance Festival, a rare opportunity for Greek speakers for an intensive exploration of translating creative, research and educational projects for our colleagues, sponsors, audience. Or is it our communities? Early bird available, book your place today!
#bodyword #PerformanceWriting #akropoditidancefest
Keynote Presentation on body/word and Performance Writing – March 2018
 | So, what is this multimodal approach to writing, called body/word and how has it been useful in research, creation and education since 2009? An overview of it’s history and relation to DCA’s Performance Writing. |
A panel dedicated to Performance Writing as practiced in Dartington College of Arts – March 2018
 | A unique combination of Performance Writing Academics and Practitioners share their take on Performance Writing and it’s applications in contemporary education. In the frame of 2nd Congress Performing Arts in Education, University of Patras, Archaelogical Museum of Patras, Funded by the University of Patras, Research Committee, for the 1st time in Greece. |
A Christos Polymenakos Masterclass employing his body/word method
 | Can one translate movement into word? How can I communicate my choreographic research or creation to the audience, my collaborators, my sponsors? How can I use words towards the development of my creative identity in choreography? How does dance “open up” to people from different fields and backgrounds? Continue reading “Do you Speak Dance? Masterclass on Verbal Communication of Choreographic Research and Creation” |
Lifelong Learning I Feed Forward I Audience Development
 | The process of feedback is ideally a gentle – if sometimes passionate- exchange of gifts. It needs to be focused, yet open, acknowledging subjectivity in order to be constructive for all parties involved. When it works like that, it is a core component of qualitative and quantitative audience development and very liberating for the artists and curators/programmers. It then becomes Feed Forward.
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