Andonis Foniadakis Dance Company: Salema Revisited

(Greece)

German premiere

A young Greek wants to dance, moves from his island to the capital and from there to the heart of Europe. He learns from the greats of contemporary ballet and soon begins to choreograph himself, developing an idiosyncratic, exciting style, a breathless, high-speed form of dance. Every summer, however, Andonis Foniadakis returns to his home island of Crete. In this work he transports the first types of dance he ever experienced into the modern age, allowing their beauty and rhythms to inspire his own contemporary dance language. The proud Pentozali, for instance, a dance the Cretans performed so frenetically during their revolution against Ottoman rule that they were mistaken for demons. Four musicians and composer Paris Perisinakis accompany the dancers live on traditional instruments. Salema translates as earthquake or a shaking of the body, and symbolically also refers to the trembling of the spirit in madness. Where tradition meets modernity and memory meets abstraction, there begins a mystical journey from ancient Crete to the exciting present of the Hellenes.

 

"It is rare for me to be so deeply moved by theater, to feel so uplifted and to cry tears of joy. In the course of this 50-minute Dionysian journey to the land of Crete, 50 wonderful minutes in which the soul flutters with the legs and arms of the dancers and an outstanding orchestra lionizes Cretan music in a very contemporary manner, one constantly has the feeling that the only rational way to approach tradition is from a modern perspective, as Andonis Foniadakis does." — Parallaxi Magazine


Choreography: Andonis Foniadakis | Premiere: October 16, 2021, Megaron the Athens Concert Hall | Duration: approx. 50 minutes with no intermission

Dates & Prices

Cat. 1: 39,– € / dis.: 31,– €
Cat. 2: 29,– € / dis.: 23,– € 
Cat. 3: 19,– € / dis.: 15,– € 

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