New production-World premiere
Saturday 16, Sunday 17 October | 20:00
Alexandra Trianti Hall
Presale has started
Internationally acclaimed Greek choreographer
Andonis Foniadakis is supported by the Katradis
Group of Companies
With the world premiere of Salema Revisited (new production), internationally acclaimed Greek choreographer Andonis Foniadakis celebrates the 30th anniversary of Megaron the Athens Concert Hall, on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 October, at 8:00 pm, at Alexandra Trianti Hall. The work is a journey to the vigour and vibrancy of the dances of Crete, Foniadakis’ native island. His companions in this journey are Paris Perisinakis, who composed the original music of the performance, and musicians Giorgos Skordalos, Vangelis Karipis, Petros Varthakouris and Giorgos Makris. Lighting design is by Sakis Birbilis, and costume design by Anastasios Sofroniou.
The internationally acclaimed Greek choreographer is supported by the Katradis Group of Companies.
Andonis Foniadakis
Born in Ierapetra, Crete, he started dancing on the island from an early age and continued his studies at the Greek State Dance School in Athens and, on a “Maria Callas” scholarship, at the Rudra Béjart School in Switzerland. From early on in his professional career, he found himself dancing in Maurice Béjart’s dance company and was soon creating choreographies commissioned by the largest theatres in the world. As guest choreographer, he has worked with major artistic figures and organisations, such as the Ballet of Opéra de Lyon, Martha Graham Dance Company, Rambert Group in London, Aterballetto in Italy, the Royal Ballet of Flanders and the Ballet of Geneva, while he also served as Director of the Greek National Opera Ballet at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre (SNFCC). He has worked as movement consultant in Darren Aronofsky’s film NOAH, has received the Danza and Danza Award as best choreographer for 2012 in Italy for Les Noces, while in 2018 he received the Music and Theatre Critics Union Award for best choreography for Galaxy, which he created in response to a joint commission by the Greek National Theatre and the Greek National Opera.
Every summer, he returns to his native Crete, each time feeling the same attraction for the Cretan feasts, the rush of its rizitika songs, of its music and dance. This root within him will trigger a different feast, in which we will see how these first defining images of his life have imbued and influenced his contemporary creativity.
Salema Revisited
With his new creation Salema Revisited, internationally acclaimed Greek choreographer Andonis Foniadakis essentially wants to pay tribute to the music and dances of his native Crete.
As Cretan dances are an integral part of the island’s social life and there are many variations of them from place to place and from person to person, Foniadakis feels the need to present his own perspective on how tradition can exist and with other forms of artistic expression, such as contemporary dance, without being threatened or offended, but instead enriched and communicated, with the respect and appreciation it deserves, to a wider audience.
The Cretan folk dance heritage boasts no less than 25 identified kinds of dance, which were not known throughout the island but instead each flourished in some part of it.
Dances such as gitsikia sousta, glykomilitsa, rodo, fterotos syrtos, koutsampadianos, trizalis, apanomeritis, mikro mikraki, brimianos or priniotis, agkaliastos, xenobasaris, zervodexos, as well as many kinds of slow and jumping dances. With Salema revisited, its creator does not attempt to capture each one of these dances, as that is not his intention. Instead, he wishes to interpret in his personal style the liveliness, beauty, rhythm and lyricism of Cretan music.
Above all though, he wants to convey the intensity and strength of pentozalis, a dance with ten steps which are a reminder of the Sfakians’ decision to start the revolution, taken on 10 October 1769. Its music consists of twelve parts (musical phrases, turnings) in honour of the twelve protagonists of the uprising.
Focusing on different melodic and rhythmic alternations in the musical part of the performance, Foniadakis builds a multicoloured, ever-changing choreographic composition during the performance.
The principles and themes of folk dances are thus playfully and boldly paraphrased in an unexpected choreographic journey, in which the dancers and the musicians invite the audience to immerse themselves in the intensity, the rhythm, the melody and the mysticism emanating from the Cretan music.
A short note from musicians Giorgos Skordalos and Paris Perisinakis
Salema: a struggle with time, immobility and the moment.
Where tradition meets modernism, exuberance meets abstraction and light meets darkness, dancers and musicians mingle in a bizarre game, lifting and disrupting memories and emotions.
Driven by the choreography, which leads musicians and spectators on a mystical abstract journey starting from Crete.
Music denies itself in order to underline movement, thus helping assimilate and interpret the image of the dance.
Educational activities
The two performances of Salema Revisited are complemented by two educational activities. On October 15th at 6:00 pm, an open discussion of the public with Andonis Foniadakis will be held in the Educational Programmes Hall, on the topic of “Necessary betrayal – Bridges between two worlds: adapting, translating, transcribing” (free entrance with priority passes and online reservations). For more information about the open discussion as well as about reservations, see here:
The next day (16/10), at the same venue, a 2-hour Dance workshop for teenagers aged 12 and above will be held at 5 pm with the assistant choreographers, in the framework of Megaron’s educational programmes directly related to its artistic productions (participation cost: €12.00, presale start: 20.10.2021). Reservations can only be made by phone, at: 210 7282363 and 210 7282348. Interested parties can visit the following link:
The presale for the contemporary dance performance Salema Revisited has already started.
All applicable health protection measures will be observed. For more information, see here:
https://megaron.k2demo.gr/metra-prolipsis-kata-tou-covid-19-sto-megaro-mousikis-athinon/
Salema Revisited
ANDONIS FONIADAKIS DANCE COMPANY
Choreography | Antonis Foniadakis
Musicians – Performers
Giorgos Skordalos | Cretan lyre, Cretan lute, Song
Paris Perisinakis | Viora, Cretan lyra, Cretan lute, Mandocaster
Giorgos Makris | Recorder, Ascomandoura
Petros Varthakouris | Double bass
Vangelis Karipis | Percussion
Musical supervision – Orchestration | Paris Perisinakis, Giorgos Skordalos
Original music | Paris Perisinakis
The music of the performance consists of adaptations of traditional Cretan tunes
Assistant choreographers | Markella Manoliadi, Pierre Magendie
Lighting | Sakis Birbilis
Costume designer | Anastasios Sofroniou
Assistant costume designer | Evdokia Veropoulou
Dancers | Nefeli Asteriou, Despina Lagoudaki, Evi Economou, Maro Stavrinou, Stefania Sotiropoulou, Christian Denice, Georgios Kotsifakis, Nikos Grigoriadis, Jan Labner, Anestis (Tasos) Nikas
Production | visionary culture| Vassilis Grigoropoulos
Duration
55 minutes (without intermission)
Ticket prices
€8 (students, young people, unemployed, persons with disabilities, 65+, families having many children) ● €11 ● €17 ● €24 ● €29 ● €34 ● €40
Tickets
210 72 82 333, megaron.gr
and in all shops of the chain Public