Life after death
As with her previous works, Lia Harakia has come up with an unusual piece, to be staged this week in Limassol and Nicosia
After a premiere in Germany, Lia Haraki will present her new work Living Happily Forever After over two nights in Cyprus this week. Haraki has been an active choreographer in Cyprus for a number of years and her body of work is impressive. Although she has a distinct style, her works are vastly different from each other, particularly in terms of aesthetics. Her structure remains similar, as do her content choices but she has learnt to receive art direction.
This new work was partially created in Cyprus and partially in Germany. In the programme notes, she says: “Good evening and welcome, tonight I want to ask you for a big favour.
“I want you to remember me after I die, and I promise that if you die first then I will remember you.” Each of the performers is on a mission to have the audience remember them after they are gone, even writing their own funeral speeches. Death in this case can be a number of things – literal passing on, ending of a performance for dancers, end of a relationship…
Dancers battle the idea of mortality and try to ensure their existence beyond death by utilising other people’s memory. Each dancer uses different tools to attract attention, using Haraki’s particular sense of humour. Movement phrases are carefully choreographed with emphasis on small detail but movement only serves the concept — it does not exist in its own right. These five dancers have come up with five characters as a result of situations, music and personal experiences, as the material is a direct descendant of their improvisational skills.
In Germany, Haraki worked with a producer, whereas in Cyprus (and most other places) choreographers have the task of running the production so they are responsible for scenery, costumes, music and music editing, finding rehearsal space, promotional materials, warming up and rehearsing dancers. In Germany her only concern was choreography and rehearsal planning, which allowed her to concentrate more on the creative process, in turn allowing dancers to give greater commitment. This also has to do with funding.
Haraki’s work is innovative and full of surprises and this new piece has already created a buzz.
Last year, Haraki created Eye to I, a solo she performed herself, which she presented at numerous festivals, including the Kalamata Festival and the TANZherbst festival, neu /Staatsschauspiel in Dresden. Following her performance in Germany, she was commissioned to create an evening length piece for German and Cypriot dancers. The work is a co-production between the German Festival and the Cypriot Ministry of Education. Haraki conducted two auditions: one in Germany, choosing three dancers – Cynthia Gonzales, Antonio Stella, and Ariane Thalhei – and one in Cyprus, choosing two dancers – Evie Demetriou and Arianna Marcoulides.
Haraki’s works have changed over the years. The first piece, Evergreen, won her the 2003 Contemporary Dance Platform and was grand, glamorous and visually the most beautiful she has created. Evergreen was co-directed with Christodoulos Panayiotou, a visual installation artist whose work tends to be romantic, in an urban manner, pretty and lavish. This piece took her all around Europe to many festivals including Aerowaves in London. Haraki moved on to do Apostasi Asphaleias produced by THOK, her most commercial work, inspired by television’s obsession with reality shows and people’s privacy and relationships. Her piece Pera Orismenis Kinisis, a duet performed by Alex Michael and herself, was met with great feedback from the audience. The two performers are intensely similar on stage and have a strong dance chemistry, which was enhanced in this work set in a glass cage. Next she took on a project to create an evening length piece called Soundproof, using five dancers, which marked a shift to more conceptual pieces. Although Haraki’s work has always had an element of dance theatre, with this piece she moved away from movement-based works to conceptual ones. Eye to I was a direct descendant of Soundproof, using voice, spoken word and numerous transformations. She played with ideas of gender, sex and presentations of the human body and voice. At last year’s platform she presented the work Monday Mourning, which explored different experiences of the grieving process. This may be Haraki’s signature piece – strong concept, witty, somber, serious, eclectic and packed with visual images. In all her pieces she plays with ideas of stereotypes, collage-type scenery and choreographic structure and she skillfully layers emotional and psychological concerns. Her works have a potent feeling of personal experience and vulnerability, which makes them more accessible and human. Yet some may find them too random, too mumbled, not clean enough.
My curiosity makes me follow Haraki’s work as I always wonder what she will do next. This woman is unstoppable.
Living Happily Forever After
A dance performance choreographed by Lia Haraki. November 17 at Rialto Theatre, Limassol (Tel: 77777745, Tickets £7 and £4) and November 19 at Strovolos Municipal Theatre, Nicosia (Tel: 22 313010). 8.30pm
