OPENING: Christos Papadopoulos (Greece) – LARSEN C
Duration: 60 min.
The dancers are constantly moving, their movements are suggestive and fluid like vibrations resonating in space, like waves pulsating along with all other elements, the light, the set and the sounds. The movement is not meant to happen only on stage, it is an invitation to the public, a mesmerizing operation on perception. Landscapes, bodies and sounds come and go; approach and withdraw. The transformation happens rather gradually, catching us off guard multiple times, pretending that nothing happens while everything spins.
The aim is to take us through the end, not so much to a different place but rather to a new state.
“Glacier” or “ice shelf“ is a 10,000-year-old, immobile body of Larsen C water in Antarctica. It moves so slowly that it cannot be detected by the human senses. It is as if the pulse of its movement is absorbed by space and time.
“My starting point, my inspiration is usually a single moment. A fleeting impression lasting next to nothing. Something small, likely insignificant – often I’m not sure whether it even existed or whether I imagined it. And yet there it remains, resolute inside me.
That’s when the struggle begins in rehearsals, to trust in that small thing and call it significant. To stand up for it, give it time, and attempt to give it form without forcing it; and then, to wait” – Christos Papadopoulos.
Choreographer Christos Papadopoulos coming to the Baltic region for the first time with his programme, studied dance and choreography in SNDO (School for New Dance Development) in Amsterdam (2003), theatre in the National Theatre of Greece, Drama School (GNT Drama School) (1999).
He has taught movement and improvisation at Drama School of the Athens Conservatoire since 2003. He is also a founding member of the dance group The Lion and the Wolf (2015).
The interdependence of time and space, the relations that tend from the mineral and microscopic to the intimate and the political, the authentic ownership of movement and the nature of what we call the “event” are some of the recurrent themes of Papadopoulos’ work so far.
Concept & Choreography: Christos Papadopoulos
With the performers: Maria Bregianni, Chara Kotsali, Georgios Kotsifakis, Sotiria Koutsopetrou, Alexandros Nouskas Varelas, Ioanna Paraskevopoulou, Adonis Vais
Music & sound design: Giorgos Poulios
Set design: Clio Boboti
Lighting design: Eliza Alexandropoulou
Costume design: Angelos Mentis
Dramaturgy consultant: Alexandros Mistriotis
Choreography consultant: Martha Pasakopoulou
Assistant set designer: Filanthi Bougatsou
Production management: Rena Andreadaki, Zoe Mouschi
Producer: Onassis Stegi
Tour lighting head: Alexandros Mavridis
Set technicians: Marilena Kalaitzantonaki, Stefania Elettra Pantavos, Angeliki Vasilopoulou Kampitsi
Tour manager: Konstantina Papadopoulou
International Distribution: Key Performance
Pictures: Pinelopi_Gerasimou for Onassis Stegi
“Larsen C” premiered on September 28, 2021 at the Théâtre Jean-Vilar in Vitry-sur-Seine (hosted in partnership with La Briqueterie).
Photos: Patroklos Skafidas, Pinelopi Gerasimou, Elina Giounanli.
Touring supporters for the “New Baltic Dance” festival: Onassis Stegi “Outward Turn” programme.
