YEAR 3 | U(R)TOPIAS ACADEMY OF CHOREOGRAPHY
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YEAR 3 | U(R)TOPIAS ACADEMY OF CHOREOGRAPHY -
MEET THE PARTICIPANTS
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Aggelos Papadopoulos
Angelos Papadopoulos (he/him, they/them) is a choreographer, director and performer. Angelos’ choreographic and other related digital and performance work look to create impactful experiences for the audience where the body is foregrounded as a key site of social, political, and aesthetic ideas. The term body includes the conscious and emotional aspect of it. …
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Antonia Pitoulidou
Antonia Pitoulidou (b. 1991, Thessaloniki) is a graduate of the Professional School of Dance Kafantari and TEFAA Thessaloniki. She has experimented with a variaty of dance styles from a variety of cultures with an interest in street culture combined with contemporary dance. Antonia has actively participated in street dance battles, both as a performer and …
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Antonis Vais
Adonis Vais was born in Athens, Greece in 1984. His passion for music moved him since childhood. First time he attended a dance class was at the age of 17. In 2006 he got admitted at the Greek State School of Dance where he graduated in 2009, awarded with the Koula Pratsika Foundation Scholarship. During his studies he danced for the Hellenic …
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Dimitris Baltas
Dimitris Baltas is a digital artist, performer & lighting designer. He has studied contemporary dance in various studios in Athens and London. He has also participated in workshops and seminars on acting. In 2014 he started training on aerial acrobatics. In 2023 he presented the interactive mixed reality dance performance Gerridae, at Akropoditi Dance and …
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Elina Demirtzioglou
Elina Demirtzioglou was born in 1997 in Istanbul and graduated from the National School of Dance. She has collaborated as a dancer with various artists, including Christos Papadopoulos, Ioannis Mantafounis, Markella Manoliadi, Candela Capitan, Katerina Foti, among others, participating in performances in Greece and abroad. Additionally, she has …
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Katerina Delakoura
Katerina Delakoura is a dancer, choreographer, and dance educator. She studied dance and choreography at HZT Berlin and P.A.R.T.S Bruxelles, and physics/astrophysics at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She works both as a solo artist and in collaborative constellations with other artists such as Magdelena Meindl, Iro Grigoriadi, Aabshaar Wakhloo …
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Mairi Giannoula
Mairi Giannoula was born in 1999 and she’s an honors graduate of Greek National School of Dance. She has attended workshops with distinguished dance and performing artists such as Christian Rizzo, Moriah Evans, Jone San Martin, Flora Detraz, Erez Zohar, Fernando Suels Mendoza, Euripides Laskaridis, Linda Kapetanea, Jon Bond, Luca-Andrea Lino …
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Nefeli Theodotou
Nefeli is 25 years old and she was born in Athens. She started dancing when she was 5 years old and she has been trained in Ballet, Latin, Oriental, Hip – Hop , Bollywood and Commercial. In 2016 she participated in the Greek TV show ‘’So You Think You Can Dance’’ and she finished in the 2nd place. Her professional career as a dancer started …
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Rafaela Tsobanoudi
Rafaela Tsobanoudi was born in Serres, Greece in 1997. She graduated with honours from the drama school of National Theater of Northern Greece (2020) and the department of Music Science and Art of the University of Macedonia (2022, specialisation: violoncello and contemporary music/teaching methods). She works as an actress, musician and …
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Sabina-Andrea Allen
Sabina Andrea Allen holds dual nationality from Thessaloniki, GR and Detroit, USA. Initially, she studied Theater at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR. However, she later transferred her studies and graduated from Deree, The American College of Athens, Greece, earning a BA Hons in Contemporary Dance Practice, 2021 with a full-year merit scholarship…
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Savvina Xhaferaj
Savvina Xhaferaj is a dance artist. She was born in Athens to Albanian parents. She studied dance at National School of Dance where she graduated from in 2023. During her studies, she attended seminar courses with: Nicole Ishimaru (Netherlands Dance Theater), Adi Zlatin (Batsheva Dance Company), Fernando Suels (Tanztheatre Wuppertal), Linda Kapetanea…
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Stella Spyrou
Stella Ariadne Spyrou was born in Pau, France in 1984. She is a choreographer and an African diaspora dance instructor. She has a MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics of the University of Patras (2009) and a BA diploma in Contemporary Dance Practice Department of the American College of …
YEAR 3 PHOTO ARCHIVE (Tassos Vrettos)
YEAR 3 PRESENTATIONS
1ST INTENSIVE
2ND INTENSIVE
MODULES
In the U(R)TOPIAS Academy of Choreography we focus on 6 modules, through which we exchange information, research and experiment, for discovering new routes, new courses and new places. Those modules alternate among each other, in order for all, both the participants of the first and second year, to have the opportunity to get an essential and fertile part of the information that will allow them to utilise it on their own way in the future.
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The body becomes the tool of production and creation knowledge. Through different processes and requests, we discover ways, dynamics and levers that are originated from the human body and reveal kinetic codes that perhaps we have not explored yet. We also focus on the research of familiar movement, on our kinetic habits and mechanisms, on the unique and personal methodology of each artist. At the same time, we focalise on the numerous pedestrian movements from which we can draw our kinetic vocabulary, and at the same time on every kind of movement that may be unfamiliar, “other”, different. How my movement is affected by the conditions that I live, my experiences, my social environment, the reactions of others?
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In this module, our goal is to investigate our artistic tools, in combination with and independently from the movement, so that we broaden our artistic horizons and imagine our places more integrated. We come into contact with artists and theorists from different expertise in order to collect and accumulate information and at the same time share experience and personal methodology. Indicatively: Dancers / Choreographers / Directors / Cinematographers / Musicians / Light Designers / Dramaturges / Set Designers / Costume Designers / Visual Artists / Theorists of Dance / Theorists of Art etc.
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In this module, we are concerned with the concept of composition and choreographic practice. How do we assemble all the research materials? How do we transform an exercise into composition? Is there right and wrong? How choreography is born and what are the tools that will help me to put together the pieces of my own puzzle? To create my own worlds and to narrate my own stories? We explore the relationship between idea, thematic and choreography. How does the dramaturgy help in the creation of a new piece? How important is it? How are those ideas and theoretical research connected with the action? Which is the “body” of dance? How are theme, theory and narrative developed? Is there any way to “read” dance?
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In this module, we come into contact with historical and contemporary contexts in art, aesthetic language, society and politics. Which are the changes in trends, rules and aesthetics depending on each era? What need does it serve? We study the historical context, movements, initiatives, pioneers and art as a tool of assertion, resistance and pressure. Dance becomes the “voice” that can change the world. What is the effect that can have on society? How is it powered by sociopolitical conditions? And what are the results or the changes that can bring?
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In this module, we deal with the different production levels of an artwork, from the artistic proposal and the budget, to residencies, coproductions, touring and management or mentoring of artists in relation with the delegation and the potential collaborations with dance centres, festivals, theatres and organisations from Greece and abroad. How an idea starts from zero and ends up to a performance? What are the production stages of a new piece?
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Each artist works on their own choreographic idea, for which makes research simultaneously with the other requests throughout the year for creating their new choreography. Those artworks are presented in the form of Open Sharing in the venues of the Academy with the presence of an audience, artists and professionals from the field. Each sharing is accompanied by feedback and discussion. The final artworks of the participants of the 2nd year are presented as a site-specific performance in the city of Eleusis.
