02/12/2018 iDance #2 Inclusive Dance Convention @ SGT with free entrance! :)

iDance #2 Inclusive Dance Convention | 02/12/2018 | SGT

For the second year in a row, guests from Greece and the rest of Europe discuss, inform, and educate individuals both with and without disabilities regarding the limitless possibilities and accessibility of contemporary dance.

IDance #2, an outward-looking, interactive conference that overturns stereotypes and proposes innovative methods, once again uses the platform of the Onassis Stegi as a jumping-off point, to send dancers with disabilities soaring, physically and spiritually. In collaboration with three European partners—the Dutch Holland Dance Festival, the Swedish Skånes Dansteater and the British Stopgap Dance Company—and in the presence of specialists from Greece and abroad, this year’s lineup aims to promote, both in theory and in practice, progressive ideas about the disabled individuals hone certain skills as well as their access to the art of dance and, by extension, to culture itself. Invited guests include artists, researchers, social activists, students and professionals from the cultural sphere, from Greece and abroad, while the programme gives individuals the opportunity to learn new techniques and choreographies of inclusive dance, under the tutelage of important teachers and organizations.

PROGRAMME

Talks | Upper Stage

In English, with simultaneous interpretation from Greek into English & vice versa and Greek sign language.

11:30-11:45 | Welcoming

11:45-12:15 | Dance and Disability: an overview of theories and practices of inclusive dance

Speaker:

Betina Panagiotara, dance theorist and journalist

What is the ongoing discourse on dance and disability, and what are the existing educational frameworks? This presentation will outline and consider existing socio-cultural conditions, educational infrastructures, and available practices of inclusive dance, focusing at specific European countries participating in the programme iDance funded by the EU Erasmus+. The intention is to delineate, examine and discuss existing realities –especially in education- in the field of contemporary dance and disability, drawing from specific case studies through ethnographic approaches, concluding with an indicative best practices guide that contributes to the diversity of the field.

12:15-13:15 | Dance without borders

How can the knowledge that exists in disabled artists be disseminated?

And how can disabled artists progress into leadership roles? Panel discussion with dancers & choreographers who have participated in international exchange programmes within the iDance programme.

Speakers:

Siobhan Hayes, interim co-artistic director (Stopgap Dance Company, United Kingdom)

Madeleine Månsson, dancer (Skånes Dansteater, Sweden)

Chris Pavia, senior dance artist (Stopgap Dance Company, United Kingdom)

Sander Verbeek, dancer (Holland Dance Festival, Netherlands)

Demy Papathanasiou, dancer (Onassis Stegi, Greece) Medie Megas, choreographer (Onassis Stegi, Greece)

13:15-14:00 | On Whose Terms

Speaker:

Janice Parker, artist/choreographer (United Kingdom)

Choreographer, advocate and artist Janice Parker will talk from her perspective of working in the field of disability dance for the past 40 years. She will challenge the current dominant hierarchies in dance aesthetics, forms and processes, access and training, give examples of different pathways and possibilities, look at what it means for disabled people to be leaders in dance, and ask each of us to consider what action we can take to embrace diversity, do it differently and present possibilities for the future.

14:00 -15:00 | Networking & lunch

WORKSHOPS | 15:00 -16:30

Workshop 1 | Upper Stage

Training and working in dance as a disabled artist

Janice Parker (artist/choreographer)

In English, with consecutive interpretation into Greek. Greek sign language services will be provided if there is interest from deaf & hard of hearing participants.

A dance and movement workshop for anyone of any level of experience, disabled, non-disabled, professional and first-time dancer. We will work from each person’s individual movement vocabulary to explore and develop possibilities and potential around ways of moving and liberating vocabulary in the body. The workshop will be both improvisational and guided with opportunities to work individually and as a group, learning from each other as well as focusing on and from oneself.

In this workshop priority will be given to people who have participated in similar inclusive dance workshops at the Onassis Stegi.

Workshop 2 | Rehearsal Room (4th Floor)

Inclusive community dance

Siobhan Hayes, Chris Pavia (dancers)

In English, with consecutive interpretation into Greek. Greek sign language services will be provided if there is interest from deaf & hard of hearing participants.

Stopgap artists Siobhan Hayes and Chris Pavia will lead an inclusive contemporary dance workshop based on Stopgap’s methods and approach to working in the community. The workshop will include a short technique class followed by creative tasks. The workshop is open to disabled and non-disabled participants who have some experience of dance.

16.30-17.00 | Dance interventions | Foyer 4th Floor

Short presentations from the choreographic exploration “Cherry-Picked” that was created and presented at the week-long iDance Residency in Malmö, Sweden on July 2018.

Credits:

1st performance:

Choreographer: Siobhan Hayes (United Kingdom)

Dancers: Eirini Kourouvani (Greece), Venetsiana Kalampaliki (Greece), Flora Vermisoglou (Greece)

Music: Robbins Island Music Group, “Soft Breezes”

2nd performance:

Choreographer: Nadenh Poan (United Kingdom) Premiered in Sweden with:

Dancers: Smaragda Vaja (Greece), Natalia Baka (Greece), Vivi Christodoulopoulou (Greece) The premiere at the Onassis Stegi will take place with: Smaragda Vaja (Greece), Venetsiana Kalampaliki (Greece), Vivi Christodoulopoulou (Greece)

Music: Nadenh Poan, “Drum Wave”

credits

Coordination: Onassis Stegi In association with: Holland Dance Festival (The Netherlands), Skånes Dansteater (Sweden), Stopgap Dance Company (UK) Project Coordination: Dora Vougiouka, Myrto Lavda Co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union

Betina Panagiotara is a dance researcher and theorist. In 2018 she was awarded her Ph.D. at the University of Roehampton looking at the contemporary dance scene in Greece amidst the socio-political crisis, focusing on emerging artistic practices. Her research was supported by the Onassis Public Benefit Foundation. She holds a BA in Media, Culture and Communication (GR) and a MA in Dance Histories, Cultures and Practices (UK). She teaches dance history, has worked at the Kalamata International Dance Festival and Animasyros Animation Festival, while she works with artists in research, dramaturgy and production. Her interests are in dramaturgy, dance history, politics, and animation in performance. She has participated with her research at international conferences, has published articles in scientific journals, and contributed to the book The Practice of Dramaturgy: Working on Actions in Performance (Georgelou, Protopapa & Theodoridou, 2016). https://roehampton.academia.edu/BetinaPanagiotara Siobhan Hayes, Interim Co-Artistic Director. Siobhan joined Stopgap in April 2013. She is a level 1 Franklin Method ™ Educator and uses this training as well as a variety of dance styles to inform her professional practice. Since joining Stopgap, Siobhan has collaborated with Sg2 on “Exhibition” (dancer and rehearsal director), “The Awakening” and “You Et Vous - European Project” (dancer). She has worked with Stopgap on “The Seafarers” (dancer and co-choreographer), Paralympic Torch Ceremony (dancer and assistant choreographer), “Where We Begin” (choreographer) and “The Enormous Room” (rehearsal director). Siobhan has choreographed a number of community commissions including pieces for Lantern Dance Theatre, Wessex Dance Academy and The Lights - Andover. In 2015/2016 Siobhan performed and co-choreographed “Crossing Borders” (a Stopgap supported piece) this piece then went on tour both nationally and internationally throughout 2016. Chris Pavia, Senior Dance Artist. Chris was the first of the current dancers to join Stopgap in 1997 as a Trainee and is now a Senior Dance Artist. Chris has toured both nationally and internationally with Stopgap including Sweden Tour 2004 & 2007; Japan Tour 2009; UK National Tour Triple Bill 2005; UK National Tour Portfolio Collection 2008 – 2009; British Council Mixed Ability Dance Project Albania & Romania 2009; UK National Tour Trespass 2010 & 2011, European Street Arts Festivals Tour Tracking 2008 & 2012 and UK Cultural Olympiad outdoor tour SPUN Productions2012. As a choreographer Chris has most recently choreographed “The Awakening” for Stopgap which toured to festivals and outdoor spaces across UK in summer 2014 and 2015. “The Awakening” made Chris the first learning disabled choreographer in UK to create work for national touring.

Sander Verbeek joined Stopgap in September 2018 as a Sg2 apprentice dancer, after being part of Holland Dance in the iDANCE project as a dancer.

He has been taught by Holland Dance through classes and projects since 2016 in which he has also worked with Nelse van Heurck and eventually collaborated with Dutch National Ballet (The Netherlands) as a dancer on the piece “Touch”, a choreography of Peter Leung.

He has also worked with Moving Ground (Belgium) on the outdoor piece “We All Speak In Poems” by Evelyne van Hecke and has been part of 'LABO' at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp (Belgium).

Sander has been involved with: Misiconi Dance Company (Joop Oonk, The Netherlands) & SZENE 2WEI (William Sanchéz, Germany) Janice Parker is an award-winning artist based in Edinburgh, Scotland. She is artistic director of Janice Parker Projects, a deliberately small artist-led company that works across art-forms locally, nationally and internationally. The company collaborates with a diversity of people, places, organizations and contexts to support the development of new forms of dance in new spaces and places, nurture and train the future generation of dance artists and to question and develop expectations and experiences of who can dance and what dance can be. Janice teaches, choreographs, lectures and advocates for diversity in dance. www.janiceparker.co.uk Venetsiana Kalampaliki graduated from the National School of Dance (KSOT) in 2016 and the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Since 2014, she has been collaborating with the Hellenic Dance Company (HDA) in performances that were staged for the Athens & Epidaurus Festival and at the Athens Concert Hall, and choreographed by Martha Graham, Jasmin Vardimon, Christine Gouzelis & Paul Blackman (Jukstapoz), and Millicent Hodson & Kenneth Archer. In 2017, she participated in two projects presented at the Athens & Epidaurus Festival: “Rapidly Becoming”, supported by the Syndesmos Chorou [Dance Association], and Romeo Castellucci’s “Democracy in America”. In 2018, she took part in the staging of the opera “Roméo and Juliette”, directed by Nikos Mastorakis,while she also collaborated with the choreographer Iris Karayan in her piece “17 gestures forced uttered” and the Greek National Opera’s Ballet Director Konstantinos Rigos in the performance “The Rite of Spring”. In the same year, she took part in the European programme iDance, a joint project between Greece, Sweden, UK, and the Netherlands, co-ordinated by the Onassis Stegi. In 2016, she presented her own work “Sinirmos” at Bios and at Poems and Crimes book café in the framework of the 2016 Pocket Festival. Vivi Christodoulopoulou started dancing in 2003, practicing modern, improvisational, solo, and group dance. She has collaborated as a professional dancer with mixed teams and has performed in different Greek and international festivals as an independent dancer-performer. She has also attended several workshops in (contact) improvisation. She volunteered for the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games as a “dancer/interpreter” in the opening and end ceremony, being the only disabled person in this capacity; moreover, she has collaborated with renowned choreographers like Natassa Aretha, Aggeliki Papadatou, Jiorgos Christakis, Konstantin Mihos, Maria Koliopoulou, Alexis Fousekis, Medie Megas. From 2014 to this day she actively participates in workshops for disabled and non-disabled dancers alike, and is an active member of the European Programme iDance, which is coordinated by Onassis Stegi. Flora Vermisoglou attended a Special Education School and is currently a student at the “Theotokos” Foundation Daily Care Centre for the Therapy and Rehabilitation of Disabled Children and Youth. In her free time, she practices dance and rhythmic gymnastics through the Special Olympics Hellas programmes. She has participated in national competitions and international Special Olympic games in Shanghai (2007), Athens (2011), and Los Angeles (2015), and was selected for the Special Olympics World Summer Games that will be held in Abu Dhabi in March 2019. She participated in the dance performance “I Am a Dancer” that was organized by the Onassis Stegi in 2015, as well as in the intensive workshop that was held in Sweden in July 2018, within the framework of the programme iDance of the Onassis Stegi. Lastly, every year she participates in dance workshops and theatre/dance events. Medie Megas is a Greek/English choreographer and dancer, born in 1978. She is a graduate of the Greek National School of Dance (1998) and has a Master of Arts in Contemporary Dance from Kent University (in affiliation with the LCDS, The Place). She works as a choreographer, dance teacher, history of dance teacher, gives workshops, writes articles and gives lectures on dance and performance. She collaborates with artists and professionals from various disciplines and has been active for the last five years in the field of inclusive dance. Her recent choreographic work reflects on the Greek sociopolitical reality, attempts to physically engage with philosophical concepts and actively explores notions of embodied identity. Her works include: “Poetic Asylum” (Athens Festival 2008) “The Guardog. An allegory about the Media” (Athens and Thessaloniki 2010-11) “Metapolitefsi” (Onassis Stegi 2012), “Sweet Abyss” Onassis Stegi, 2014), “Transforming Me, a bilingual solo” (ΜΙRfestival, Kalamata International Dance Festival 2015 and Thessaloniki Biennale of Performance 2015 and Danae Festival, Milan 2015), “Dribbles and Triplets” (youth dance performed in school sports halls, produced by the Onassis Stegi 2018), “Trapped” (Fast Forward Festival, Onassis Stegi, 2018) . Medie Megas is a founding member of the Greek dance network “Syndesmos Chorou”, which organises educational, artistic and community building projects all over Greece and was a member of the board of the DBM International Network (Danse Bassin Mediterranee) between 2009 and 2011. Demy Papathanasiou has been involved in dancing since 2013 by attending the dance workshops for people with and without mobility disabilities at the Onassis Cultural Centre and taking part in the International Dance Festival “Unlimited Access” held in Athens in 2015. Since then, she has attended many mixed workshops in Greece and abroad with mixed dance groups (Candoco Dance Company, Spinn Dance Company). At the same time, she continues to attend the Onassis Cultural Centre workshops of the iDance cycle by participating in workshops in Greece and abroad with other iDance participants: Holland Dance Festival - Holland, Skånes Dansteater -Sweden, Stopgap Dance Company- UK. Recently she completed her dance studies by acquiring BA in Contemporary Dance Practice in American College of Greece from the American College of Greece as well as a mixed dance seminar from the Axis Dance Company. She also presented her first choreographic work at Ourfestival4 in August 2018 as part of the Halandri Festival. Madeleine Månsson started contemporary dance 2012 and has since been involved in many various dance productions and projects. Madeleine has worked as a dancer at Skånes Dance Theater Malmö in Sweden since 2016. She has been studying at the University of the Arts in Stockholm on Variations in body function and Choreography. Madeleine has been part of the Erasmus+ iDance project since day one and the project has been a main key for her development as a dancer and dance teacher. For Madeleine, dance is something that belongs to everyone. With dance you can travel elsewhere without even leaving the space.