body/word Performance Writing
Residency at Flux Laboratory Athens

1st Sharing July August September 2023

How can the relationship between body and word, when approached in the light of different arts and sciences, make dance available to different bodies, their communities and places?
28 accomplished professionals from various artistic and scientific fields collaborate in a research project based on the body/word Performance Writing methodology of Christos Polymenakos.

Dance tends to be considered a universal means of expression for individuals and communities. Is it really available and accessible to all places, their human, non-human and non-living members, though? How might an interdisciplinary and multimodal methodology facilitate access for different corporealities and the communities these constitute?
28 accomplished and emerging individuals from different artistic and disciplinary fields of creation, research and education that relate to the expanded field of dance, collaborate in the context of multimodal, interdisciplinary research on choreographic tools that relate to different communities, places and practices. Their starting point is the body/word Performance Writing methodology of Christos Polymenakos.

The first stop is the building on Benizelou Street, next to the Metropolis of Athens, where Flux Laboratory Athens will be housed in the coming period. It served as a meeting and reference point for on-site and remote research with tools and practices related to the concepts of corporeality, community and place, coming from very different fields of arts and sciences. From dance to neuroanatomy, from social anthropology to pastry, from dramaturgy to sound arts and pediatrics. From Athens, Amsterdam, Berlin, Berlin, Avignon, Chios, Crete, Pelion, Bologna, Drama, Naxos.

Memory, the present and the potentiality of the building itself were clear axes of group activities in multiple times and spatialitiess, an action created and recorded with multimodal means. Musical texts and sound proposals, photographic and video novels, kinetic phrases, thought-poems-literature, visual and performing installations, scripts, design projects and business proposals emerged as the basis of a potential overall performative proposal that left its marks on both the building and our community.

Genuine thanks to Flux Laboratory Athens, Christina Delari, Head of Partnerships & Culture – Athens and Mr. Makis Kapsalis, responsible for the warm hospitality-kickstart. Special thanks to the supporting organizations in Greece and abroad: Kinitiras, Artistic Network of Performing Arts, Isidora & Raymondou Duncan Dance Study Centre, Dance House Lefkosia and TWIXTlab.

Research continues nomadically and in the process we will share the rich material, projects and tools. Two feedback meetings will be organised at the end of the year, in physical and digital space. Stay tuned and please never stop dancing.

Head of Research: Christos Polymenakos, MA Performance Writing, creator of the body/word Performance Writing methodology,
Associate Researcher: Iliana Fylla, Phd Art History, Specialized in Contemporary Dance,
Research Counselor: Thalia Ditsa, MA Choreography

Invited researchers
Adonis Galeos, Dramaturg, Director, Translator, Rhetoric Acting Educator
Anastasia S. Tsingotjidou, Associate Professor of Veterinary Medicine, Ph.D. in Neuroanatomy
Anestis Nikolos, Pastry Chef
Angelos Papadopoulos, Choreographer, Director, Performer
Antigone Gyra, Choreographer, Artistic Director of Kinitiras Artistic Network of Performing Arts
Aristoteles – George Zogas, visual conceptual contemporary artist
Charilaos Mantzavinos, Sociologist, Psychotherapist (Opou group)
Christina Thanasoula, Light Designer
Dana Papachristou, PhD, Musicologist and Sound Artist
Demy Papathanasiou, Crip Dancer/ & Choreographer, ex co-artistic director of Theatre en Corps Collectif
Dimitris Batsis, sound artist and academic researcher, PhD in Biomusic
Dimitris Champesis, PhD on Cultural Diplomacy, Program Designer and Manager
Eleni Gyra, Psychologist-Psychotherapist, MA in Humanistic Psychology, President of the Institute for Psychosocial Intervention (Opou group)
Elpida Rikou, PhD Social Psychology, anthropologist, visual artist
Estelle Papadimitriou, Dramaturg, Performance Studies Researcher, Arts Producer
Katerina El Raheb -Academic Researcher, Dance Artist, Assistant Professor in Informatics Applications in Performing Arts, Dept. of Performing and Digital Arts, University of the Peloponnese
Liana Mailli, Pediatrician, All the children of the world, ex-President of Medecins du Monde Grece, (Basal Ganglia group)
Manolis Iliakis, Architect-Spatial designer, Interior Design Pathway Leader in Vakalo College of Art and Design
Maria Maistrello, Dance and Educational Drama Teacher
Marianthi Michailidou, Choreographer, Performer, Dance Teacher, (Basal Ganglia group)
Nadi Gogoulou, Dance Artist, Dancer, Performer and Dancemaker with a video-ing practice
Nikos Sideris, Designer / Visual Artist
Stephanos Stathopoulos, Industrial Designer
Yiannis Theakos, Sustainability Consultant and Wellbeing Counselor
Yorgos Samantas, Social Anthropologist, Sound Artist