Athens – Syros – Chania – Lefkada

Ireland – Italy – Turkey

Kinitiras remains active even during summer. It completes actions that started during the year and prepares to travel for festivals, workshops and European programs. Guided by its nomadic nature and under this year’s thematic umbrella of Intimacy, Kinitiras has prepared a rich program full of performances, trips, collaborations in Greece and abroad, with people of all ages, professionals and lovers of the performing arts.

Performances of Amateur Groups

Intimate bodies  – Kinitiras Ω
18/6/23 – 19.30

Kinitiras Ω (Omega) presents the site specific performance Intimate bodies. The performance is dealing with the idea of intimacy trough the re-appropriation of the bodies and the public space. The professional coordinators, led by Ioanna Kampylafka, will create along with Kinitiras Ω a movement and speech performance in order to make social visibility of people and bodies of older ages a priority. At the same time, the performance will act as an intervention in the public space, where Kinitiras Ω will take over the park of the small Kynosargous square, the area where in ancient times one of the first gymnasiums was located.
The performance that will be created is aiming to contribute to a creative growing up of humanity during which the body and dance will show the way to human freedom. This unique freedom that blossoms out of people who have the ownership of bodies that they love, recognize, and take care of. People who are open to new ideas and explorations regardless the date of birth that is written in their identities.

Coordinators: Ioanna Kampylafka, Christos Polymenakos, Aliki Avdelopoulou, Antigone Gyra
Performers: Pia Avdelopoulou, Suzy Arkouli, Depi Aslanidou, Eleni Gyra, Sofia Kalantzopoulou, Maria Kanellopoulou, Ioannis Lampakis, Rita Makari, Efrosini Marda, Argyro Papastergiou, Christina Politi, Pinelopi Pyrrou, Eleni Sakellariou, Elsa Vagianou, Efrosini Vasilopoulou, Afroditi Vidou

“The valley of Happiness” – Kinitiras A  
5-6/7/23 – 21.15

The basic group of Kinitiras A (acting) continued its meetings this year with Alexis Vidalakis as coordinator. The group creates the performance “The Valley of Happiness” where they play with the concept of appropriation and deconstruction of the verbal and kinetic form. An attempt to build new bodies, an attempt to get used to the ridiculousness of ourselves. The canvas of the performance was inspired by the well-known black comedy “Man and Old Lace” by Joseph Keserling, which was adapted for the big screen by Julius T. Epstein and Philip T. Epstein. The performance of Kinitiras A assumes no responsibility for possible similarities. Five aunts, three nieces and many… corpses… will be waiting for you on July 5th and 6th at the Altera Pars Theatre.

Coordination – Direction: Alexis Vidalakis
Movement: Afroditi Vervenioti
Stage space / costumes / photos: Aristotelis-Georgios Zogas
Performers: Sonia Agazzi, Alexandra Amiridi, Katerina Danezi, Alexandros Kontos, Anna Konstantinou, Sofia Panagiotaki, Thodoris Papageorgiou, Glykeria Samothraki

Summer festivals

“ehS came from another planet” – Dance Days CHANIA 13
 31/7/23

“ehS came from another planet” is a solo improvisation performance directed by Amalia Bennett and Antigone Gyra and performed by the latter. It premiered at the Jerusalem International Solo Dance Festival (JISDF) in September 2022. It will be presented this time at Chania, at Mikis Theodorakis theatre, as part of Dance Days 13. Antigone attempts a series of metamorphosis throughout the solo, while discovering which otherness belongs to her. Ioneskian characters have influenced deeply the creators while a Kafkasian mood is discretely investigated by the whole aesthetic atmosphere.

Concept- Direction: Amalia Bennett, Antigone Gyra
Performed by Antigone Gyra
Costume: Evdokia Veropoulou
Sound Design: Orestis Tanis
Lighting Design: Anti Steve

More info: https://dancedays.gr/festival/amalia-bennett-antigone-gyra-kinitiras-ehs-came-from-another-planet/

Intimate bodies  – 10th Akropoditi DanceFest 2023
9-13/7/23

Kinitiras Omega, with Antigone Gyra and Ioanna Kampylafka as coordinators, is going back to Syros aiming to recreate and share the site-specific performance, Intimate bodies, that is preparing in Athens, at the celebrational 10th Akropoditi Festival in Hermoupolis. In order to continue the dialogue of Kinitiras Omega with the habitants and visitors of the Syros, a repertoire workshop will take place to give the opportunity to the participants to be part of the Athenian performance. They will have the chance to enter a process of corporeal and spiritual preparation in order to develop intimacy with their own body and transform it into a performative body.

More info: https://akropoditi.com/dancefest/en/events/intimate-bodies-antigone-gyra-and-joanna-kampilafka/

Workshop at Lefkada

Return  – Vicky Adamou, Antigone Gyra
27/8/23 – 3/9/23
A meditation and improvisational movement workshop at Paleochori camp in Lefkada from 27/8/23 until 3/9/23. A workshop of personal exploration of our material and immaterial body through the five known senses – taste, smell, touch, hearing, sight – and the thousands of unexplored senses that form our human nature, body, soul and spirit.

More info: https://www.kinitiras.com/return/?lang=en

European programs

Erasmus+

Kinitiras after the completion of the annual Erasmus+ program H.A.T. (Here and There) Performing Ecologies, continues its collaboration with its stable partner in Ireland, Crooked House, and participates this summer in 3 Erasmus+ programs for young people.

• Muintir (15-22/6/23) is a training course responding to the issue of violence against females and exploring ways that we can develop skills to be active bystanders in our daily life. We aim to equip youth workers, youth theatre leaders and artists who are involved in their local communities with a skill set for expressing, communicating and guiding young people around the issues raised by violence against females. We are interested in using theatre and film as tools that youth workers can employ to explore safe practices, to educate and inform their groups, and to promote social action on the issue in their communities.
• Moltóir (3-9/7/23) is a training course for cultural youth workers. Generally, this means artists working with young people. Young people, in this context, typically means anyone aged between 13 and 30. It is suitable for those aged 18 and over (with no upper age limit) who already have some experience as facilitators of young people in the field of performance. It is also suitable for directors or theatre-makers who do not have a lot of experience in movement practices.
• Seen and Heard (5-13/8/23) is a training course for people who work with, or who will work with, teenagers and young adults. It is suitable for those aged 18 and over (with no upper age limit) and will take place in Isparta, Turkey. The training will use site-specific theatre-making as a tool to work with young people in theatre settings. Therefore the participants should be able to bring back the skills they will have gathered and use them with groups of young people in their home countries or in their host organisations. In some cases, they can use these skills for self-development as theatre makers who plan to work with young people in the future.

Movement improvisation workshop – Antigone Gyra
24-29/7/23

Kinitiras, upon invitation of the Italian cultural center “Aldo Moro” from San Salvo, organizes a movement improvisation and choreography workshop for the group of amateur women “Dancing Family”. The group consists of women aged 20 to 65 who have experienced domestic violence and abusive behavior. The group works with the Italian choreographer Maria Deliberato and will visit Greece from July 24 to 29 with the aim of attending the Kinitiras workshop, talking with women living in Greece who share common experiences and traumas and of course getting to know Athens and its cultural scene. “Aldo Moro” is a cultural center with many resources available to citizens and social agencies of the San Salvo area (library, theater, multi-purpose rooms, etc.) that is a point of reference for artistic and cultural expression.