Standing By is a solo multi-media work COMMISSIONED by Rhodes University, Grahamstown, for Human Rights Week. This work was created during a period in South Africa where the issue of corrective rape and abuse against women spiked.

Choreographer's Note: We live in a country with the highest rape rate in the world.  A country in which the average South African woman has a higher chance of being raped than of finishing secondary school.  A country in which a woman is raped every 26 seconds.

Within this broader scourge of violence against women, the phenomenon of the ‘corrective rape' of lesbians has been steadily on the rise over recent years, with an estimated 10 new cases emerging each week.

These violations are happening all around us, all the time.  In our neighbourhoods, on our streets, on our doorsteps and in our homes.  And while there has been a recent peak in media coverage of the issue, triggered by the gang rape of a young girl in Soweto and the video recording of the incident that went viral, putting a spotlight on the issue, these atrocities continue incessantly.

Rather than focus on the broad continuum of patriarchal attitudes and behavior that allow for these atrocities to occur, this work seeks to question one's own position, where one stands in relation to the issue.  Through a weaving together of a series of performed vignettes, Standing By seeks to create a space in which both the audience and the performer can be viscerally present with the realities of these violations.  In so doing it hopes to wake us out of our de-sensitized state and asks if we are simply standing by while a war is being waged on women's bodies, or if we are on stand-by, and ready to re-ACT!

Scenes could be identified as (Not named by the artist):

1)    Interrogation

2)    War zone

3)    Audience Standing By

4)    The apartment

5)    Statements

6)    Audience Duet

7)    Naming the victims

Press quotes

http://www.artlink.co.za/news_article.htm?contentID=29971

http://artscomments.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/athena-mazarakis-is-standing-by-are-the-rest-of-us/

Updating: September 2013

Mazarakis was born in 1973 in Bloemfontein, Free State South Africa.

She started her dancing career training in ballet, tap and modern as a young girl and formalised her education at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. She graduated with distinction from Rhodes University in 1995 where she trained in the drama department under Gary Gordon and was one of the founding members of The First Physical Theatre Company.

Mazarakis then completed her Masters degree, also with distinction, at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2010 producing the autobiographical Coming To as the practical component to her dissertation: Body of Knowledge: Interrogating Physical Intelligence and the translation of memory into motion in Coming To.

2012 – Present Education Officer at The Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative

2013- Restaging Attachements No 1-7 with Craig Morris, directed by Gerard Bester for the 2013 Aardklop Festival in September.

List of choreographic works

2012              Inter.Fear

Commissioned 30-minute work for Dance Umbrella 2012.  Created in collaboration with Hansel Nezza of Marabula Barcelona Berlin.

Commissioned full length work presented on the MAIN programme of the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, 2012.

2012              Standing By

Solo multi-media work developed into a full length work through a Residency at GoetheOnMain.

2011                          Urban Fragments

Site-specific work with students of the Zentrum für Zeitgenössischen Tanz der Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln made as part of the Afropolis exhibition, Cologne, Germany.

2011              Standing By

Solo multi-media work COMMISSIONED by Rhodes University, Grahamstown, for Human Rights Week.

2011              Smoke and Mirrors

Full-length work choreographed for The Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative as choreographer in residence. Performed at the opening of the Wale Festival, Johannesburg.

2011              Flicker

Conceived, produced and co-created this full-length work for the Arena platform of the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, with subsequent programming on the 969 Festival, Johannesburg. 

2010                          elev(i)ate and elev(i)ate2

Interactive dance installation presented at the 2010 FNB Dance Umbrella and Staged work presented at the NAF, Grahamstown, the 969 Festival, Johannesburg and the Out the Box Festival (2011), Cape Town.

2010              Everyday Falling

Duet choreographed for The First Physical Theatre Company, Grahamstown.

2010              Blow

Co-devised Physical Theatre work for the 969 Festival, Johannesburg.

2010              Animal Farm

Choreography for Sibikwa's Production of Animal Farm Directed by Phyllis Klotz 

2007              Coming To

Full-length solo work including Interactive Digital Art.  Performed at the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, SA and The Nunnery, Johannesburg, SA.

2007              Touch

Full-length group work created for senior students of the Wits School of Arts.  Performed in Johannesburg, SA.

2005              In the spaces between bricks

20-minute Duet. Commissioned by the Philip Stein Young Choreographers Grant.  Performed at the FNB Dance Umbrella, Johannesburg, SA

2005              Just in Time

Full-length group work created for senior students of the Wits School of Arts.  Performed in Johannesburg, SA.

2004              Soma

Full-length group work created for senior students of the Wits School of Arts.  Performed in Johannesburg, SA.

2003              Tick Tock Bang

Trio performed at the FNB Dance Umbrella, Johannesburg, SA.

2003              Breaking News

Mime-theatre solo. Performed at My Big Fat Greek Festival, Durban, SA and at The Dance Factory, Johannesburg, SA.

2003              Beyond Words and the Big Red Lollipop

Full-length group work created for senior students of the Wits School of Arts.  Performed in Johannesburg, SA.

2002              Limb by Limb

Solo dance work performed at the FNB Dance Umbrella, Johannesburg, SA.

2000              my back to the bells

Solo work performed at the FNB Dance Umbrella, Johannesburg, SA, The Dance Umdudo, Grahamstown, SA & at My Big Fat Greek Festival, Durban, SA.

Teaching Experience :

2010 Sessional staff member in the Dramatic Arts Division of the Wits School of Arts (WSOA), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.  Teaching Responsibilities: First quarter teaching of Physical Theatre IV and Masters Performance Laboratory.

2010 Leave-replacement teaching in the Drama Department of Rhodes University, Grahamstown.  Teaching Responsibilities: Last quarter teaching of Dance Repertory III, Choreography III and Honours Choreography.

2004 – 2007 Lecturer in the Dramatic Arts Division of the Wits School of Arts (WSOA), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.  Teaching Responsibilities: Movement Studies, Physical Theatre, Mime and Choreography.

1999 – 2003 Sessional Tutor in the Dramatic Arts Division of the WSOA, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.  Teaching areas: Voice, Physical Theatre and Movement Studies.

1998 Facilitator at The Voice Clinic, Saxonwold, Johannesburg.

1996 Tutor in the Rhodes University Drama Department, Grahamstown, SA. Teaching areas:  Voice and Movement studies.

Awards

Mazarakis was a founding memeber of The First Physical Theatre Company in Grahamstown South Africa under the Direction of Gary Gordon.

Silver Standard Bank Ovation Award (2010) for elev(i)ate 2

Kanna award (2007) for the most prestigious achievement in Dance Theatre for Attachments nos 1 – 7

Gauteng MEC Award (2006) for Most Outstanding Female dancer in a contemporary style for performance in the works Petra and Attachments nos 1 – 6

Philip Stein Young Choreographer's Grant award (2004) commissioning a new work – in the spaces between bricks (2005)

Latest update: september 13

Cinematographer, editor, writer at Phoenix and Owl Pty, 

Director and Project Manager at The Ar(t)chive, in Johannesburg (South Africa)