Thirty promising artists (actors, dancers, choreographers, performance artists, singers, musicians, visual artists) have participated in the Performance Laboratory of the Open Up EU Programme for under-represented artists led by The Pierides Foundation.

The performance laboratory was coordinated by artist/performer Lia Haraki who invited fifteen established performance makers to share their practices in the forms of workshops and master classes with these promising participants every Saturday of 2021 and 2022, at Theatro Polis. These were:

Panayiotis Tofi (choreographer / performer)

Arianna Marcoulides ( Dance Artist/Performer )

Eleana Alexandrou (choreographer / performer)

PASHIAS (visual artist)

Petros Konnaris (performance artist/dancer)

Guy Cools (Dance Dramaturge)

Yiannis Christofides (composer, sound artist, sound designer)

Kestrel Leah (performer/director)

Alexis Vasiliou (Performing arts maker / programmer)

Pavlos Vrionides (photographer)

Sakari Laurila (film and theatre maker)

Anna Harikli (communications and marketing consultant)

Alexander Jotovic (lighting designer)

Eva Korae (designer /maker)

Lia Haraki (performance creator and practitioner)

Leading organization:

Pierides Foundation, Nicosia-Cyprus

Partners:

Publics (Research Centre for Contemporary Art), Helsinki–Finland

Université de Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV), Amiens–France

University of Thessaly, Volos-Greece

New Hand Lab (Enterprise for the Safeguarding of Traditional Techniques), Covilhã–Portugal

Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona–Spain

Valand Academy, Gothenburg University, Gothenburg–Sweden

Drops of Peace is a dance-visual site specific performance, which is created as an echo of Drops of Breath, the 1st underwater performance in the world that took place in Cape Sounio, Greece in September 2015. It is one of the main activities of the EU Programme The underwater Heart of the Mediterranean with partners from France (dk-bel), Greece (Quasi Stellar) and Cyprus (pelma.Lia Haraki)

Choreographers Sophie Bulbulyan, Lia Haraki and Apostolia Papadamaki, created a walking performance in nature where the spectators were given the opportunity to experience their own journey, by observing the dancers embodying their memories from their underwater experience. Through witnessing humans physically reacting and working with nature, the audience revisited basic human needs like empathy, conscious breathing and being part with all that exists.

The cast includes the performers of Drops of Breath, from Greece France and Greece, two of which are disabled.

Drops of Peace is part of “The Underwater Heart of the Mediterranean”, a European Union Cultural project into the Creative Europe, programme for the period December 2014 - February 2016

Credits

Concept / Choreography Sophie Bulbulyan, Lia Haraki and Apostolia Papadamaki
Sound Design Trifon Koutsourelis
Projection Design Alexandros Anagnostopoulos
Underwater Filming Anastasis Agathos
Harmonisation with the EU co-financing framework Theodora Avgoulidou
Production Manager Manolis Sardis
Dancers Annie Antoniades, Irini Kourouvani, Thierry Maboang, Aristotelis Marinopoulos Ombline Noyer, Michée Quénum, Raymond Siopathis, Antonis Strouzas
Drops of BreathInstagram

Shows 2015–2016

Visages du Monde, Cergy. France
Kalamata International Dance Festival, Kalamata. Greece
Le Moustier, Thorigny sur Marne. France
Municipal Gardens, Limassol. Cyprus
Beirut French School, Beirut. Lebanon
La Fontaine aux Images, Clichy sous Bois. France
Vorres Museum Gardens, Paiania. Greece

Press Parathyro

Changing Skin is a duet created within the Act Your Age programme by choreographer Lia Haraki for Soosan Gilson and Andonis Liveropoulos.
The piece is about a female contemporary dancer and a male dancer coming from the world of show business. Both performers are in their 50s. Soosan and Andonis share another common point; they are both refuelling their passion for dance when according to most dance traditions they should really be drawing their careers to a close. While the rediscovery of dance comes as a major change, the dancers also get to speak about other major changes from their life experience while at the same time we see them transform in the moment as the performance is taking place.

The work also deals with the idea of replacement as change which especially in dance can be a painful but necessary process.

Credits

Concept / Direction / Movement / Text / Performance Lia Haraki
Movement / Text / Performance Soosan Gilson, Andonis Liveropoulos

Performance, 2013