Mystery 59 U(R)TOPIAS Academy of Choreography Dance MyS+eries / Season 2

On 29 & 30 June and 1 & 2 July, six young choreographers complete their two-year artistic research in Elefsina and share their works in various parts of the city, engaging in communication with the public space.

During the first year, the six young choreographers, Christiana Kosiari, Giorgos Papadopoulos, Eliane Roumie, Emmanouela Sakellari, Katerina Foti, Diamanto Chatzizacharia, who participated in the Academy of Choreography, presented the Dance MyS+eries / Season 1 as an open sharing event at the X-Bowling Art Center, which hosted the Academy; in the second season, guided by Dimitra Mitropoulou, Caterina Politi and Ilias Chatzigeorgiou, they present their 15-minute works in public space, engaging in conversation with the history of the city, its people, its buildings and its neighbourhoods. More information about the works-episodes here.

A few words about Mystery 59 Academy of Choreography

Since 2021, the two-year artistic project Mystery 59 U(R)TOPIAS Academy of Choreography by 2023 Eleusis has hosted young professional choreographers interested in cultivating their skills in the field of composition and choreography. Each young choreographer was invited to construct their own personal utopia, their own non-place, and present it as a dance work. The aim of the project was to highlight iconic sites of Elefsina through the site-specific works of the choreographers, creating a new map of the city. Through their participation in the Academy, the artists developed their compositional skills and shaped their own creative approaches, under the guidance of distinguished artists and professionals from the arts, art historians, and art theorists, as well as producers. 

In this year’s iteration, the Dance MyS+eries / Season 2 initiate the dialogue with young choreographers and map out a route in Elefsina. They are divided into different episodes, every one of them the work of each choreographer. Each title is a different station. And each station illuminates a hidden aspect of the city, inviting the audience on a journey through the space and time of Elefsina. 

  (* ) pun on the phrases dance mysteries and dance my series 

EPISODES (In order of appearance)

s.02 ep.01

Station: 25km

Inspired by the ancient Eleusinian Procession, the artistic approach of this project focuses on the experience of a long-lasting procession on foot, drawing stimulus and exploring the ways in which this collective experience can be translated into movement. The anticipation of departure, the ephemeral contact with nature, the need to purify the soul and body, and the prolonged arrival represent different aspects of kinetic research and constitute the building material for the composition of a contemporary collective ritual. 25km consists of an artistic documentary, a visual map and a dance performance in the city of Elefsina. The project aims to propose a new Procession, based on the old and the contemporary history of the place, combined with the need of the individual to live in the present.
We have arrived.
Now what?

Concept – Choreography: Elian Roumie
Kinetic research: Elian Roumie, Zoi Efstathiou, Nancy Nerantzi, Marina Tsapekou
Sound design: Manos Paterakis
Set design: Stavros Balis
Video recording – Εditing: Konstantinos Kalavrezos
Graphic design: Giannis Schoinas
Performance: Zoi Efstathiou, Nancy Nerantzi, Marina Tsapekou

s.02 ep.02

Station: Polluted − Don’t look!

This work is inspired by the concepts of transformation, mutation, survival and ultimately adaptation to a specific environment. It explores the question of inhabiting a place that has been violently cut off from its contact with nature. It presents a creature contaminated by reckless industrial development and trying to find ways to breathe in a suffocating environment. It is a timeless creature that runs through the history of Elefsina from Antiquity to the future. The transformation of the city − the altar of the Eleusinian Mysteries giving way to the altar of the factories − is encapsulated in the transformation of a creature that has its roots in the past, has learnt to survive in the present and projects its existence into the future. The Elefsina of myth and factories becomes a poetic narrative of the city and the creatures that inhabit it.

Concept – Choreography – Performance: Giorgos Papadopoulos
Costume design – Editing: Ioanna Chrysomalli
Video: Diamanto Chatzizacharia

s.02 ep.03

Station: Dealing with Fireworks

Through the industrial history of the workers in Elefsina and the setting of the PYRKAL Industrial Complex, the project attempts to create a metaphor of everyday life inspired by the production process of explosives and the dangerous working conditions. The notion of danger and urgency runs through the work, and the dynamics of people’s relationships are constantly affected by a potential threat until they manage to overcome their fears. The power of friendship, the tragic nature of life, the importance of hope and the paradox of life and death form the main themes of the play.

In a world that lives amidst explosions its people manage to survive, create their own nucleus and cope with the unexpected. Through an environment that contains fear, hope, irony and the comic elements of life, a universe is created that feeds off the explosions and finds a way to exist.

Courage in the face of fear. The transformation of fear into strength or even victory.

Concept – Choreography: Emmanouela Sakellari
Original music – Video: Alexis Faladas
Photography: Fani Maria Chatzi
Performance: Antonia Exertzi, Theodora Exertzi

s.02 ep.04

Station: THE KITCHEN DANCE: A House Trance Vocabulary

Kaiti is a woman who lives almost exclusively in her kitchen. There, her past, present and future pass before her eyes by association and are transformed into a universal and collective female narrative.

Exploring the dimension of leisure and its existence in a suffocating everyday environment defined exclusively by the restriction of work, the choreographer contacted women from the cultural associations of Elefsina, all of them workers, wives and mothers. Their testimonies and narratives led her to the nuclear and universal place in which leisure and work coexist in delicate balance: the kitchen.

Although fully identified with domestic work, the kitchen is also a place of female confession far from social criticism. It is a prison of endless manual work − often an additional task for the already working woman − and a family hearth, and at the same time it becomes a place of worship, a meeting place and a place of celebration, as well as a place where a woman can take stock of a whole life and set up a small personal revolution.

Concept – Choreography – Performance: Katerina Foti
Original music: Jan Van Angelopoulos
Set design: Gina Iliopoulou
Costume design: Lina Stavropoulou
Lighting design: Stevi Koutsothanasi
Trailer: Tasos Goletsos
Photography: Anastasia Giannaki

s.02 ep.05

Station: Bouboulines

This work is inspired by the repetitive movements of women workers in the factories of Elefsina. During the peak of industry, women workers were often called Bouboulines.

Four women over 65 meet around a table. A meeting place that represents many moments of togetherness and sharing. A place of work, discussion, singing, female empowerment, revolution, celebration. Mechanical factory movements create a new kinetic vocabulary, where the four women transpose these moves into a dance of women driven by friendship, affection and love. The performers are not professional dancers, they are the women next door, our mothers, our aunts, our grandmothers. Their faces reflect all those women who have toiled, who have been empowered, who may be retired but who live every moment in the spirit of a child.

They are life itself and they invite you to sing and dance with them.

Concept – Choreography: Christiana Kosiari
Original music: Jan Van Angelopoulos
Consultant costume designer: Lina Stavropoulou
Photography: Stephie Grape
Poster: Giorgos Zartaloudis
Trailer: Christiana Kosiari
Trailer editing: Sofia Sfyri
Performance – Co-creation: Afroditi Kapala, Maria-Aggela Katsikali-Kosiari, Mata Koulouridi, Niki Filianou

s.02 ep.06

Station: Dunk

This work deals with the idea of change occurring in the landscape and society of a small town. It explores the issue from the perspective of young people (Gen Z); specifically, how their quest for personal development affects their environment. It reflects a hopeful attempt at change and reconfiguration through a chaotic harmony of young and tireless bodies.
The work is inspired by the metamorphoses of Elefsina during the last 100 years. While the past is still visible in the landscape of the city, surrendered to the wear and tear of time, young people are redefining their identity and dreaming of a better future for their home town.
The kinetic material is inspired by the young people’s routine: from the daily walks and group sports to parties and nightlife, while repetitiveness symbolises their relentless striving for personal development. The performers invite the audience to participate in their chaotic encounter, creating an ephemeral community that reminds us of Elefsina: it is influenced by the interaction between its people, and it welcomes change.

Concept – Choreography: Diamanto Chatzizacharia
Music: Alexandros Christofidis
Photography – Video: Diamanto Chatzizacharia
Performance: Eleftheria Agapaki, Sofia Anastasiou, Ioanna Karategou, Maritina Katsimpraki

With the generous participation of young people from the Cultterra group in Elefsina