The new work by Aerites Dance Company examines the streets and the tropes of the urban condition in its current state as well as in its transformation to something different. The city, the body, the dwellings and their ghosts, the unexpected and the continuous, the novel tactics of the urban experience and its tragic and comic aspects, become the company’s raw material.
If it is true that what characterizes cities like Athens in the 21st century is incompleteness, endlessness and the myriad interventions mainly from below to above with which they go along ensuring their longevity, then Aerites’ work has no other ambition but to capture this yet undefined spirit and its other and still “uncategorized” rhythm.
If it is true that the city happens, with oscillating dynamics, immaterial networks that interact with the landscape and the living beings in it, with episodes, patterns, non-sensical elements and painful certainties, Aerites cannot but include that disquietude in their work.
If it is true that street languages have been drastically differentiated, since reality is imposing itself on its aestheticization; if it is true that the commons are becoming the new way of perceiving the public sphere and that the “crowd” is replacing the “people” in public discussion and as the conception of the public and the private life are being transmuted, then this other urban culture appears as something painfully elusive, full of conflict, and seductively unclear.
Exhausted and at the same time aggressive, broken and because of that full of potential, it is the city (material and immaterial, living and non-living) that primarily choreographs the performance Era poVera. Movement, music, visual approach, lighting and costume design are organically combined to create the texture, the tone, the shiver and the symbolic shadowy light which characterize the performance, as well as the convulsive behaviours, sound and breath that make it come alive. In that sense Aerites’ work does not aim to depict street life in Athens or add material to the folklore that has been developed around the subject, but would rather capture the rhythm that guides this city, and others like it, towards their future.

Nadia Arguropoulou

Source: www.aerites.com

Credits

Creation: 2012
Choreography: Patricia Apergi

Music Composition: Dimosthenis Grivas

Set: Andreas Ragnar Kasapis

Costumes: Aggelos Mentis

Lighting Design: Nikos Vlasopoulos

Dramaturgy: Georgina Kakoudaki

Consultant for the visual: Nadia Arguropoulou

Script: Dimitris Halazonitis, Patricia Apergi

Assistant Choreographer: Dimitra Mitropoulou

Photography: Tasos Vrettos


Performers, Creative Contributors: Ilias Chatzigeorgiou, Nontas Damopoulos, Giannis Emmanouilidis, Chara Kotsali, Maro Marmarinou, Ioanna Paraskevopoulou, Konstantinos Rizos, Dimokritos Sifakis 

Musicians: Orestis Chatzitheodorou, Dimosthenis Grivas, Danae Nielsen



Patricia Apergi was born in Athens. She completed her education in the branches of dance, theatre and choreography at the Kapodistrian University in Athens (philosophical school), the Niki Kotaxaki dance school, the Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis and the Middlesex University in London. Patricia Apergi has taken part in numerous workshops for dance and theatre and was she has worked as a freelance choreographer for various theatres in Greece.

In 2010 she was invited for the accumulations residency program at Tanzquartier Wien, where she co-choreographed together with Willy Prager, Alexander Andriyashkin, An Kaller and Raimonda Gudaviccute the piece Donated Nations.

She is Director of Cultural Events and teaches dance and theatre at the Leonteios School of Patissia, Athens. She also teached improvisation-repertoire for the BA dance performance at the A.M.C (Athens Metropolitan College) of the Rohampton University. She is a co-writer of the book History of theatre and theatrical education (Ministry of Education, Educational Centers for Adults, 2007) and she is a member of the international centre of emerging artists (IFEA, 2008) of London.

Her company Aerites is based in Athens and was formed in 2006.

The art of dance, in the case of Aerites, is not only about "morphology", type of "movement" or "means of expression". The group focuses on experimenting and producing performances based on theoretical, dramaturgic and movement research. The aim of Aerites Dance Company is to create artistic actions as a result of the synergy between dance, performing arts, poetry, theatrical practice and new technology. The company has been awarded with the Ermis prize (2008) and with 3 Evge prices (2009, 2007).

With the work d.ΟPΑ! (dopamines of post-Athenians), Aerites were chosen by the General Administration for New Generations to represent Greece at the 14th Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean (City of Skopjie 3th-12th September 2009). d.OPA went on to come in 1st place, judged by a panel of industry professionals inclusive of creative directors from important international festivals, in order to take part in the 8th Platform for Contemporary Dance at the prestigious Megaro Moussikis in Athens, June 2010. Finally, in October 2010, Aerites Dance Company was selected to be in the ten finalist companies for Aerowaves festival in London. Since then they have toured the work in various international festivals.

Source : modul-dance website

The art of dance, in the case of Aerites, is not only about "morphology", type of "movement" or "means of expression". The group focuses on experimenting and producing performances based on theoretical, dramaturgic and movement research. The aim of Aerites Dance Company is to create artistic actions as a result of the synergy between dance, performing arts, poetry, theatrical practice and new technology.

The company has been awarded with the Ermis prize (2008) and with 3 Evge prices (2009, 2007). With the work "d.ΟPΑ! (dopamines of post-Athenians)", Aerites were chosen by the General Administration for New Generations to represent Greece at the 14th Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean (City of Skopjie 3th-12th September 2009). "d.OPA!" went on to come in 1st place, judged by a panel of industry professionals inclusive of creative directors from important international festivals, in order to take part in the 8th Platform for Contemporary Dance at the prestigious Megaro Moussikis in Athens, June 2010. Finally, in October 2010, Aerites Dance Company was selected to be in the ten finalist companies for Aerowaves festival in London. Since then they have toured the work in various international festivals.

Source : Arites website

More information : www.aerites.com