PRESS
Ολοκληρώνοντας τη διετή καλλιτεχνική τους έρευνα στην Ακαδημία Χορογραφίας U(R)TOPIAS υπό την καλλιτεχνική διεύθυνση της Πατρίσιας Απέργη και της ομάδας σύγχρονου χορού Αερίτες, έξι νέοι καλλιτέχνες του χορού συνομιλούν με την πόλη μέσα από έργα σύντομης διάρκειας.
Χορός στην Ελευσίνα. Μια ωραία ιστορία που κράτησε δύο χρόνια. Κάθε νέος χορογράφος κλήθηκε να κατασκευάσει την προσωπική του ουτοπία, τον δικό του μη-τόπο και να τον παρουσιάσει ως ένα ξεχωριστό δικό του έργο. Στόχος του προγράμματος ήταν η ανάδειξη εμβληματικών τοποθεσιών της Ελευσίνας μέσα από τα site-specific έργα των χορογράφων, δημιουργώντας έναν νέο χάρτη της πόλης. Μέσα από τη συμμετοχή τους στην Ακαδημία, οι καλλιτέχνες ανέπτυξαν τις συνθετικές τους δεξιότητες και διαμόρφωσαν τις δικές τους δημιουργικές προσεγγίσεις, υπό την καθοδήγηση διακεκριμένων δημιουργών και επαγγελματιών από τον χώρο των τεχνών, ιστορικούς και θεωρητικούς της τέχνης, καθώς και παραγωγούς.
“Using strong and expressive movement, the dancers attempt to liberate themselves from the oppressive lack of a future. Even the sensual musical accompaniment of strings and piano by Vasili Mantzoukis, possibly reminisces of a faded memory, one that gets deformed and restructured with the electronic sounds. Melancholy can become so beautiful!
Greek choreographer Patricia Apergi creates a dark portrayal of her generation in her new work. Ludwigshafen’s audience had the pleasure of watching the premiere of ‘Cementary’ in Germany. It came face to face with a movement vocabulary that is as unique as it is impressive, a vocabulary that places Patricia Apergi as one of the most thrilling new choreographers of the Millennial generation.
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Patricia Apergi takes a clear sociopolitical stand, when she places the misery of her generation in the hands of its participants, instead of blaming the conditions in an economically suffering nation. However it’s not the what, but the how, which is wildly impressive in her statement. This is what political dance theatre looks like today.
It is often necessary to experience great pain in order to produce great art.
The validity of this truth was witnessed and more importantly felt during the opening of the Ludwigshafen international festival ‘Nach Athen!’. Greek choreographer Patricia Apergi was able to create an important artistic document about the current state of living that countless people in that country have been experiencing since the start of this economic crisis.
What is critical is that Apergi’s work can be applied metaphorically for similar situations around the world. Poverty and wreckage, the lack of faith in the future and in hope, and the experience of being forced to develop crazy strategies for survival; all these elements are characteristic of the nation that received the sun, the sea and the mythology as gifts from the gods. ‘
This work earns its status for its footwork and the management of the dancers within the space. The dancers rely on the basic values of classical ballet working in the first or third position. Sometimes they stand in pairs, sometimes alone, and other times they organize in Pas de Trois or Pas de Quatre. The form of classical ballet is recalled in a near-sensationalist way, and then gets restructured so that it becomes somewhat of proclamation of their inability to dance anymore. The leg barely leaves the ground during an arabesque. The body gets carried around like an exhausted puppet. Amidst all this we also witness the clean image of happiness. Their common laughter - even if it’s bizarre. Memories of the joyful games they used to play. A community. The violin joins the electric guitar and electro beats and together they create a song of protest for those not yet dead.’
Patricia Apergi, director of the company since 2006, is the author of this poetic and intricate work that places the action in an imaginary city of the future, which has survived the crises but where the voices of the survivors arise under the cement. The first images shake the heart of the viewer. The coexistence and struggle of these beings will reveal the most primitive feelings: fear, pleasure, generosity and truth. [...]
The choreographic vocabulary devised by Apergi, combines the daily gesture with the fluent choreographic phrase, achieving an expressive dance with a strong emotional charge. The bodies of the dancers are of astonishing ductility, they twist like rep- tiles or they snuggle innocently.
Patricia Apergi, director of the company since 2006, is the author of this poetic and intricate work that places the action in an imaginary city of the future, which has survived the crises but where the voices of the survivors arise under the cement. The first images shake the heart of the viewer. The coexistence and struggle of these beings will reveal the most primitive feelings: fear, pleasure, generosity and truth. [...]
“Using strong and expressive movement, the dancers attempt to liberate themselves from the oppressive lack of a future. Even the sensual musical accompaniment of strings and piano by Vasili Mantzoukis, possibly reminisces of a faded memory, one that gets deformed and restructured with the electronic sounds. Melancholy can become so beautiful!
The Irish premiere of “Planites” by Greek choreographer Patricia Apergi and Aerites Dance Company, explores the migrant collective experience in a genuinely engaging and thought provoking work. At its best, “Planites” is a poignant, powerful, political work, steeped in both heart and humour.
“The highlight of the first day of the festival was the piece Planites, which performed for the first time in 2013 by Aerites Dance Company from Greece and its choreographer Patricia Apergi, and it didn’t disappoint none of the numerous spectators. Responsible for that were the five unconventional dancers and their strong and powerful body language, which was imprinted onto the audience’s memory. ...
Definitely, Planites is an engrossing and unusual production”.
“Patricia Apergi and her Dance Company Aerites from Greece caused a
sensation last year. She is back this year, along with her five extraordinary dancers and performers, with the piece Planites. But this time she does it in the big venue. A clever decision made by the board of directors. What seemed to explode the borders of the small venue last year, now it is not at all less convincing. It seems like the challenge of the new dimensions upgrades the consistency of the piece.
Thereby, Aerites, set high standards for the further course of the festival.”
Apergi allows the dancers’ bodies to articulate the message and they use them passionately as we watch dignity crushed and vulnerability exposed . These are familiar images given the current migrant and refugee crisis, and the picture of these five men bonded together in crumpled retreat is powerful.
“With three big scale works and a number of smaller projects, Aerites, is among the most emerging and budding dance companies of the younger generation. With a clear direction in dance that combines pure kinetic dance language and dance theatre’s expressiveness, it proposes a blend of dramaturgy that makes you want to get up and dance but at the same time stay and cry.”
“Aerites Dance Company is a living cell of its time and location. As of always,dance was linked and has evolved in relation to the sociopolitical movements of its contemporaneity. In the same manner, the company deals creatively with its anxieties and concerns, illustrates and demonstrates through its art the notion of the street and the conditions that shape it; and questions the position and attitude of the individual, the unit, the mass and the group.”
“Era poVera is a performance that desires - and manages - to capture the rhythm that drives not only 21st century Athens but all the cities to their future. The result of this alignment gives dance another dimension: more contemporary, more ‘hip’, more attractive.”
“During this election period, with all the anger and disgust that one may experience, Era poVera provocatively shocks our senses; it is threatening, wild, sometimes cruel - as it emerges in an era where, according to police reports, two suicides occur each day ("K" magazine 05.04.12). And if we restrict ourselves to the "narrow" site of a voracious third world capital with its undefined boundaries, the filth and the stink of a ragged and burned Athens found in this work its ultimate reflection.”
“I’ve been to the most magnificent demonstration in Athens. Aerites Dance Company choreographed the chaos of the capital in the best possible way through the work Era poVera. The talented dancers danced to the rhythm of the city showing everything that is happening right now in Athens, which also reflects the entire of Greece; its manner was more realistic than any fearinducing TV reportage.”
‘Rare to find such an introspective mood, penetrating function and dramatic ability. Hearing the sobs of modern cities, ‘flourishing’ horror with black humor, finding a crack to accommodate even the love in this political elegy, Aerites bombard mercilessly the senses and emotions. In order to finally reach the symbolic collapse of any utopias.’
“It’s about a hard yet powerful work that arises from the city, reflects its image and our own state, but also the question of how to survive in this movable mud that surrounds us.”
Overall, a work that I would not hesitate to recommend to any discerning viewer of contemporary dance, and I would like to see it performed once more, perhaps approaching a less suspicious audience this time. However, the only words that fit are well done!’