W REST L ING

Anastasia Valsamaki

GREECE

FRIDAY 1.12

10:00

Roes Theatre

DURATION: 40′

AGES: 13+

The performance begins with a play on words: W REST L ING. A short breath between wrestling and resting: a double meaning but yet a different meaning. In this game, set up on stage for a group of five dancers, the choreographer Anastasia Valsamaki borrows elements from WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), the spectacle of wrestling, the rules of making an impression, the rapid changes of rhythm, the desire for dominance. Here, of course, there is no ring and the fight has no winners or losers. Success is based on the joy of team play, common pace and perfect timing. Every possible combination is acceptable: single, in pair, trio, quartet and, of course, all five. Similarly to sports, the above combinations suggest different dynamics, different formations in space, different skills in timing and ultimately different rules. It’s okay; sometimes rules are made to be broken! But not without setting new ones, without including all the players in the dance!

* Please note that strobe light is used during the performance.

CONCEPT & CHOREOGRAPHY: Anastasia Valsamaki
MUSIC & SOUND COMPOSITION: Jeph Vanger
DRAMATURGY: Anastasio Koukoutas
PERFORMERS: Gavriela Antonopoulou, Nikos Grigoriadis, Sotiria Koutsopetrou, Thanos Ragousis, Xenia Stathouli (replacement for Nefeli Asteriou)
UNDERSTUDY: Tasos Nikas
LIGHTING DESIGN: Apostolos Strantzalis
STYLING: Nefeli Asteriou
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Eleni Valsamaki
TEXT: Anastasio Koukoutas in collaboration with MINDTHELOOP
PRODUCER: MINDTHELOOP

Created during Anastasia’s Valsamaki Artist Fellowship Program 2020 supported by ARTWORKS and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

WITH THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE

Anastasia Valsamaki

Anastasia Valsamaki is a dancer and choreographer based in Athens, Greece. She graduated with honors from the Greek National School of Dance (KSOT) and made her debut as a young choreographer with “Sync” in 2016, for which she was selected by the Aerowaves network as one of the 20 most promising emerging choreographers in Europe for 2017. “Sync” was then performed in Spring Forward 17, in Denmark and at the Athens & Epidaurus Festival. In the context of her postgraduate choreographic studies (I.C.E.) in SEAD, she choreographed “Aether” for the New Faces New Dances Festival 2017 in Salzburg, the duet “Dimensions of a memory,” as well as the performance “By the means of a Body” based on the work of Nevin Aladag “Five Stones Game” at the Salzburger Kunstverein. In 2018 she choreographed “Body Monologue” for the ARC FOR DANCE FESTIVAL. In 2020, she created “DisJoint” for the 7th Young Choreographers Festival by Onassis Foundation and received the ARTWORKS award participating in the 3rd SNF Artist Fellowship Program. For 2021, her work “Body Monologue” was promoted by the Aerowaves Network and was presented in several European festivals. Her latest work. “W REST L ING.” premiered in Athens in 2021 and had its first touring stop at the 28th International Kalamata Dance Festival with the financial support of the Greek Ministry of Culture.