Dancers in Limassol are taking part in a week-long festival that will see them dancing in unusual places around the town
BY REMOVING performances from their natural habitat of centre stage, choreographers will explore ideas of how they exploit space and what each site can offer when they take part in Limassol’s Second Annual Summer Dance Festival, opening next Monday.
The festival will run for six nights, showcasing work from seven different choreographers and builds on the success of last year’s festival, which was organised by the Cyprus New Movement of Dance Groups. The festival aims to shift the focus of performances. They take place at different times, sometimes several in one evening, however all sites are within walking distance of each other so you can see more than one per evening. All performances, purposefully or not, are designed to challenge traditional ideas of theatricality and roles of performers and audiences.
Interestingly, by eliminating the traditional stage, choreographers can explore space in its entirety, playing with senses of vastness and confinement, framing, separating, and audience placement. This sort of performance art creates an intimate experience for the viewer. You may find yourself in immediate proximity with performers, which creates a particular challenge for dancers. If you decide to attend the festival, please help them out by switching your phones off, not smoking and shifting as they may need you to.
I have had an opportunity to see three of the choreographers at work and each is different in their approach. Elena Christodoulidou’s piece, which will be performed at the Medieval Castle, features four dancers in a tender exploration of tension and frustration – a result of our inability to communicate. Christodoulidou is working on a dance that investigates the difficult process of learning about one’s partner without words. She concentrates on the idea that the “secret is to become silent and listen” through honest movement choices, pretty piano music, and the way she defines space with imaginary rope and platforms on which each girl is placed. The emotionality in the work is dominant and although it is slightly disturbing, it is cathartic.
Chloi Melidou likes to play with textures and seems to do so with great skill. She has chosen to create a piece that will be performed at the foot of the walkway on the Limassol seafront, using the sea and dry land to portray ideas of suspension, gravity, resistance, and weight. The piece is entitled In Between and it deals with various elements, such as air, water, and ground and how the body responds to these. Dancing in water and on shore, five female dancers explore various mediums using movements, costume, and props, how dance changes in water and under the weight of sand. Melidou’s piece is visually impressive.
Solipsism dance group will perform a work by Anna Charalambous at the well-known Graffiti bar. Before becoming a bar, this building was a cultural centre and the choreographer wished to honour this in her work. Sincerely Yours is an abstract piece that plays with the sentimental value of objects and spaces, as well as the emotional landscape that each person carries with them. Using a diverse dance vocabulary, Charalambous is working on a piece that has a strong urban feel and utilises the space to its fullest. The piece allows only a glimpse into dancers’ worlds that will leave you feeling like you are intruding. Due to the layout of the space and the way the she choreographs in it Sincerely Yours feels tender and abusive, intimate, and captivating.
The festival took a lot of planning so that each company performs at least twice. Admittedly, the festival will take some planning but it is an excellent opportunity to witness the progressive Cypriot dance scene. Each performance will be different from the previous and very different from anything witnessed on the island so far. All the choreographers use characteristic Cypriot landscapes and landmarks, celebrating the beauty and folklore of the island.
Monday 25/7
20:30
InterAct
Municipal Gardens
22:00
Noema Dance Works
Old Port
Tuesday 26/7
20:30
Chorotheatro Omada Pente
Seafront walkway
21:00
ECHO-ARTS
Hammam
Wednesday 27/7
20:30
Chorotheatro Omada Pente
Seafront walkway
22:00
InterAct
Municipal Gardens
22:00
Solipsism
Graffiti Bar
Thursday 28/7
21:00
InterAct
Municipal Gardens
21:00
ECHO-ARTS
Hammam
22:00
Solipsism
Graffiti Bar
23:00
Amfidromo Chorotheatro
Medieval Castle
23:30
Soma
Medieval Castle
Friday 29/7
21:00
ECHO-ARTS
Hammam
22:00
Solipsism
Graffiti Bar
23:00
Amfidromo Chorotheatro
Medieval Castle
23:30
Soma
Medieval Castle
Saturday 30/7
20:00
InterAct
Municipal Gardens
20:30
Chorotheatro Omada Pente
Seafront walkway
23:00
Amfidromo Chorotheatro
Medieval Castle
23:30
Soma
Medieval Castle
24:00
Noema Dance Works
Old Port
