All the world’s a travelling stage

By Maria Gregoriou

Paphos is really where it’s at – ‘it’ being classy entertainment to the max. While Ayia Napa is set to take over the summer with its big flashy music names, the city where Aphrodite was (allegedly) born is coming up first when it comes to cultural events that aren’t necessarily that loud.

Recently the Pafos 2017 travelling stage has been all around the city, starting from the Castle Square and progressing through Geroskipou, then back to the Municipal Market, and on to the Medieval Manor house at Kouklia. The stage that gets up and goes will conclude its summer wanderings with an evening of gypsy rhythms and original dance arrays on Kato Pafos Promenade tomorrow night at 8pm.

If you have been following the performances that love to travel, you will know that this multicultural music based programme was launched by the Pafos2017 organisation within the concept of the Pafos2017 open air factory. Over the summer the organisation has hosted a number of diverse musical and dance events from all over Europe.

The session of international names will end on Friday with a performance by the musical ensemble Op Sa, who will be joined by dancers George Pilla and Anna-Sylvia Clark. Together the performers will weave together orchestral compositions from Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece and Serbia.

Op Sa has assembled especially for this event and is comprised of Yiannis Hadjiloizou on the piano, Nikos Pantechis on the accordion, Constantinos Efraimides playing the clarinet, Elias Ioannou on the trumpet, Nikos Koukouvinos accompanying them on the trombone, George Meliniotis on contrabass and Alexis Theodorou completing the group with his percussion.

The music created by these musicians will be given a boost of energy and more rhythm by the dancing of Pilla and Clark, who are both based in New York and have international careers with major collaborations and participations in productions in the USA and all over Europe.

Pilla has performed at the Arthur Murray Dance Studios, the Greek Culture Centre of New York, at Pratt University, and other prestigious venues. And Clark’s body of work is just as impressive as she has appeared on TV series like FAKE OFF and off-Broadway shows like The Hip Hop Nutcracker.

There are plans for the stage to do more travelling and grow in size next year and become a major feature in 2017, which is the year of the European Capital of Culture. So, even though this year has inaugurated the transformation of places and spaces throughout Paphos into pivotal locations where continents can be linked and cultures bridged, it seems we have a lot more to look forward to.

Op Sa, George Pilla and Anna-Sylvia Clark
Performance by the band and dancers as part of the Pafos2017 travelling stage. July 24. Kato Paphos Promenade. 8pm. Free. Tel: 26-955167

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