Kinitiras is curating a long residency (December 2019-February 2020) at LO STUDIO, inviting women dance makers to create based on the thematic umbrella of transition, mostly focusing on the idea of Femininity in transition.

During their stay Antigone Gyra the artistic director of Kinitiras, Ioanna Kampilafka the residency director of Kinitiras and the guest artists Eugenia Demeglio, Elisavet Pliakostathi, Margarita Trikka, Stella Spirou and Stella Fotiadi will stay in Arbedo, research and share in various ways their research to the local community.

Lo Studio Guru is an internationally recognised performing arts centre based in Bellinzona (South of Switzerland). The collaboration with Kinitiras has been possible thanks to the support of the performing arts international program supported by Prohelvetia.

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Bardo/Mind the Gap – a movement, sound and video performance by Ioanna Kampylafka and Panos Amelidis.

Inspired by the Buddhist tradition, Bardo/Mind the Gap is a movement video and live-electronics project which explores various transitional states. The term Bardo according to Tibetan Buddhism is the state between death and the next rebearth or “intermediate state”, but Bardo can also be interpreted as any transitional experience. It also refers more generally to these moments when gaps appear, interrupting the continuity that we otherwise project onto our lives.

Community Performance Dance-theatre project. By Ioanna Kampylafka and Antigone Gyra.

Inspired by kinitiras’ general theme, transition, our aim is to engage the community of Arbedo in a performance project. The outcome of the project (through a workshop, interviews, discussions etc) will hopefully be a performance by the locals or from elements from them (a video, an interview, a sound, a carpet!).

Double Fass by Antigone Gyra

Antigone will work closely with one of her oldest collaborators and performers Ioanna Kampilafka, continuing her research on the idea of Feminity in transition. Being a woman involves different roles and identities that have to be balanced so that the woman finds her new role in this century. Additionally the idea of Feminity is broadened and the qualities of being feminine whether you are a woman or a man are needed in order to have a sustainable role in this new evolving society of the 21st century. The solo will be inspired by this ability of women to shift from male to female qualities in behavior and in movement patterns. It is part of a performance that will be performed by Kinitiras under the working title “Moulds”.

Elisavet Pliakostathi and Anthi Theofilidi

The residency is part of the creative process of the production of a dance work that will be presented by two female dancers in Athens, January 2020 (Choreography: Elisavet Pliakostathi, Dancers: Evgenia Sigalou, Anthi Theofilidi).
During the residency the choreographer will work with one of the two dancers in order to develop material for the needs of the work.
The aim of the residency is to discover the necessary tools so that to give birth to an original system of expression, movement vocabulary and interrelationship that can feature aspects of the female idiosyncrasy.
Issues related to femininity, emotion, self-image, life attitude, habits, but also change, transformation and diversity will be the study cases of this research.
The choreographer in collaboration with the dancer will study well known and unknown female figures through painting works of different eras and styles.
They will explore their looks, their gestures and their body design with the purpose to adopt and apply these on two different contemporary female bodies.
They will ‘bring together’ some of the female painting figures, imagining the possible relationship that could develop between them.
And lastly, they will attempt to approach the female attitude away from any stereotype and taboo, time and space, and they will focus on the feelings that arose from their gestures rather than on the reasons behind.
How can you choreograph the look?
What could happen if Mona Lisa meets Frida Kahlo?
Are there any similarities between the Female Body of the 18th and 20th century?
How can feelings be imprinted on the human body?

Stella Fotiadi

One week, seven different words/phrases that capture my personal view on the subject femininity in transition. Each day I will be a researching on these different notions using the language of the moving body. In this residency, I will be accompanied by my family, that is going to be physically part of my research/creation. They will be absent from the final piece, but will affect purposefully with their presence the beginning of the process, since they play a crucial role in my view of femininity and in my own transitions.
The final piece will be a collaboration between me as a dancer and choreographer and Katerina Papachristou, a talented young female musician, who is going to write the music, but also give her own personal view on the subject. The idea is, that while I will be away in Arbedo, she will be working at same time in Athens, on the same notions with me. So there will be a mental connection, but our labor of work will meet with my return in Athens and continue together till the completion of the project.
Choreography and dance: Stella Fotiadi
Music composition and live performance: Katerina Papachristou

Stella Spyrou and Margarita Trikka

A research inspired by the personality of Hypatia, the great mathematician, philosopher, astronomer who lived in Alexandria around 400 AD.
In the history of sciences for fifteen centuries, Hypatia is the only woman we meet and the first to teach publicly, an undisputed symbol of gender equality.
On March 8, 415 AD, while returning home, Hypatia was attacked by a group of men who killed her in a horrific way.
They forcibly carried her to the Church called Caesarea, stripped her completely, tore her skin, and cut off her body flesh with sharp shells until it died out, dismembered her body parts and finally burned it down.
The death of Hypatia marks the end of classical antiquity, while for centuries the sciences will almost cease to evolve, with Europe entering the dark Middle Ages.

Eugenia Demeglio

The residency at Lo Studio offers me the possibility of realising an idea I had for a couple of years now. It does come as a lucky gift indeed. Since I became a parent in 2017 I’ve started reconfiguring the constellation of relationships that I am part of. I realised how relationships that develop throughout life could be looked at as complexities, made of intricate balances and factors.
Hence, the idea: I would like to work in the studio with my father, who is non adept to the performing arts. Throughout my career I’ve had the chance of working so far with professional dancers, as well as people who had never gone through any sort of performative training. I’ve become very fascinated with the latter. I feel that working with non-trained performers offers on the one hand the possibility for a trained performer of exploring and re-enhabiting modes of utilisation of the body that can be forgotten, while to the non-trained performer the possibility of becoming slowly aware of the idea of embodiment of aware choices. The approach in the studio will be mixed in methodologies and will involve surely improvisation, in the respect of my father’s kinetic capabilities. Surely, I intend to merge the research towards a performance (a duet or a solo).
Moreover, I intend to collect all different forms of documentation and possibly present them as a stand-alone outcome of this process. Through this residency, I would like to research the man himself in a different context, offering him the possibility of experiencing something new that is so close and integral to who I am, and at the same time learn from him how to re-enhabit forgotten patterns in my body. The research will look into the concept of parenthood, filial and parental love.