Inspired by the generalised ‘crisis’ of our times, dancer and choreographer Georgia Petrali drew inspiration from this collective phenomenon, transforming it into a performance this Autumn 2011.
Through a dialogue between dance video and selected scenes from various works prepared by the Fysalida Dance Company, combined with a live musical-theatrical presentation worked up by Emmanouel Sgouridis, Georgia Petrali has created the dance theatre piece “Ma Crise dans Ta Crise” (“my crisis in your crisis”).
The stars of this show are divided passions and desires, day-to-day fears and dreams from those dark corners of our soul and mind that are so difficult to embrace and conquer.
In this potpourri of moods, our need for dreams, for love is vital, physical need, an undoubted form of redemption when viewed from the perspective of how we were ‘before’ and ‘after’.
The intense, spasmodic movements of the dancer at the high point of the show are nothing more than man’s struggle to release himself from the previous situation and move to the next one. This is a physiological, organic development, like that of an insect metamorphosing from larva to nymph. This condition may exist in every moment just like every moment contains within it death and life. Light and darkness.
“What impresses me about the ‘crisis’ is that as various situations approach their ‘peak’, the need for transformation becomes increasingly a search for the authentic, the integral, the whole; a search for the truth.
The hope that the caterpillar will become a butterfly.
That darkness will become light.
That corruption will resolve into catharsis.
all, that feelings become a necessity and hope becomes a traveller on the path with us”.
Georgia Petrali
In 2010 Fysalida Dance Company produced the dance theatre piece “Moments of Metamorphosis”. The performance “Moments of Metamorphosis” was firstly held on the 4th of June 2010 at the Tamiolaki Winery in the village of Houdetsi on Crete. The location where the performance took place was laid out so that it embraces all the special features and innovations of this specific production, by transforming the winery into a theatre. The succession of natural and artificial light combined the natural beauty of the landscape with the special features of the indoor space.
The performance is inspired by Shel Silverstein’s book ‘The missing piece meets the big O’ and deals with the need for wholeness via our interpersonal relationships using various art forms such as dance, music, theatre, photography, poetry, video art, installations and interaction with the audience. The work takes the spectator within the space and seeks to bring him close to concepts and truths which are every-day yet profound at the same time. The meaning of the book, the search for one’s self, the attempt, and the achievement of wholeness through one’s personal journey by following one’s inner voice and outer signs cannot be anything else but a thread of life for any of us.
“Moments of Metamorphosis” is a work inspired by life itself, by the simplicity and magic of love; the desire for wholeness. It is a journey from earth to sky, from darkness to light, from life to death and back to life again; rebirth. Crystal-clear moments; death contains within it a new life. Man perceives this development as an imposition, like death and is unable to be present at the moment of his own metamorphosis. The insect is not afraid of its journey from larva to pupa. It accepts its fate and its organic development and evolution which nature offers it. It receives salvation from death in life by following the path from darkness towards light. The intense, spasmodic movements of the dancer are nothing more than the insect’s struggle to release itself from the previous situation and move to the next one.
Every moment of awareness results in the birth of a truth and the death of a fear. The importance of accepting the relationship between life and death, via the movement and words of the performers, expresses the tragicomic nature of our personal fears. The conflict of our own desires, our ‘wants’ and ‘musts’, is nothing else but our personal need for freedom and love. The need to advance through awareness of our own metamorphosis, through the flow referred in the book to as ‘rolling’ rather than ‘crawling’.
Duration of Performance: 70΄In 2010 Fysalida also produced the dance video “Phobias”. This particular video was filmed outside, thereby enabling local architecture to be incorporated into the film.
“Crystal, clear moments of life and death.
Conscious moments dipped in dream and phobia.
Moments that give birth to a truth and the death of a fear.
And then…
It ‘s as if legs begin to sink into thick, white thoughts; thoughts that the wind is playing hide and seek with...
You’re afraid.
You run far away from what is utterly yours…
Your greatest fear.
The fear of being in the here and now with yourself.
You search for the door to leave…
to go out again into the world you do not know…
Free of fear this time…
going wherever you feet take you…
trusting again, you seek the unknown…
You run.
Outside.
You want to leave.
To get away from who?
From yourself?
Man!
Your ego is confusing you.”
Georgia Petrali
In 2009 Fysalida produced the video art piece “the 7 deadlies in a relationship” which was created for the Booze Cooperativa festival in the summer of 2009 on the subject of ‘the 7 deadly sins’.
The “7 deadlies in a relationship” is nothing more than a surrealistic impression of a love affair. The meeting, the evolution of the relationship with its ups and downs and high and low points, the inhibitive-defining factor of the ‘3 Fortunes’ and its ‘happy end’.
Duration of video art: 5΄In 2009 Fysalida produced the solo performance and video art piece “Insect” which together first appeared in Amorgos town on 10.4.2010 as part of the 8th International Culture and Tourism Conference ‘Yperia 2010’ on Amorgos. The video art piece “Insect” has also been screened at the International Film Festival Document.Art in Otopeni, Romania, at Booze Cooperativa in Athens, at Athens Video Dance Project 2010, at Athens Video Festival 2010, at Athens Fringe Festival 2011, at the International Symposium of Nafpaktos 2011, at the 3rd Moving Frames-Digital Art Festival in Mitilini, at Naoussa International Film Festival-Digital Shorts 2011, as also at several festivals in Greece and abroad.
“Insect” describes the process of metamorphosis of an insect from larva to pupa. It is a journey from earth to sky, from darkness to light, from life to death and back to life again; rebirth. Death contains within it a new life. The insect does not fear its metamorphosis. It accepts its fate and the development and evolution nature offers it.
Man perceives this development as an imposition, like death and is unable to be present at the moment of his own metamorphosis. The insect is not afraid. It is wholly in the here and now. It receives salvation from death in life by following the path from darkness towards light. Everything is one.
The intense, spasmodic movements of the dancer are nothing more than the insect’s struggle to release itself from the previous situation and move to the next one. It is a normal, organic development. It may exist in every moment just like every moment brings death and life. Earth and sky. Light and darkness.
Duration of Performance: 15΄In 2008 Fysalida produced the film “Wrinkles and Dreams”.
The film is based on an original idea of Georgia Petrali and was implemented in the context of the programme entitled ‘Actions of promote the intervention area-Crete Regional Operational Programme 2000-2006’ in collaboration with the Heraklion Old Town Office.
In 2009 and 2010 the film “Wrinkles and Dreams” took part in various festivals in Greece (Athens, Thessaloniki, Drama, Heraklion, Kilkis, Rethymnon, Amorgos, Patra) and abroad (Japan, Poland, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria, Hungary, Turkey, Atlanta, Jordan, Romania). To date the film has won 6 prizes. In May 2009 the film won the prize in the Personal Travel category at the Art & Tur Film Festival at Plock in Poland. In April 2010 “Wrinkles and Dreams” won the 2nd prize at the 8th International Culture and Tourism Conference Yperia 2010 on Amorgos in Greece and in October 2010 won the prize for best direction and the Grand Prix at the International Film Festival Document.Art at Otopeni in Romania. The same month, the film also won the innovative creation prize at the Patra International Film and Culture Festival in Greece and in January 2012 won the 3rd prize for its esthetic result in Artfools Video Festival 2012 in Larissa, Greece.
The film is original since it contains aspects of scenario, documentary, lyric narration and video-art. All scenes were shot outdoors and the camera places emphasis on local architecture. The background music which was especially composed for the film, and all the choreography weave themselves into the action. A collage of choreographed images brings life back to historic monuments, buildings and key locations in the neighbourhood.
The filming involved 120 professional and amateur dancers and residents of Agia Triada aged 4 to 74. All these people were brought together through community dance. This is a form of dance which seeks to mobilise a group to create a professional, creative result through movement, expression and contact with the art of dance.
Duration of film: 30΄In 2007 the Fysalida dance company produced the solo-performance “Flock the stargazer” and the video art piece “Flock, the glass fish” and “Flock, the stargazer”, which were presented from 10 to 13 November 2007 at the Pagopoieion Theatre-1st floor, in Heraklion Crete. The video art piece “Flock, the star gazer” was also screened at Booze Cooperativa in Athens, at Athens Video Dance Project 2010, at Athens Video Festival 2010, at Athens Fringe Festival 2011, at the International Symposium of Nafpaktos 2011, as also at several festivals in Greece and abroad.
“Flock” and its characters are an alternative artistic insight into what is happening around us and what roles we play every day. Our fear of saying no to the theory of the flock. The traps which swallow up whole any stimulus-hook presented to us. Insecurity intensifying our senses, destroying above all the images which it demanded that we portray.
Duration of Performance: 30΄In 2006, the 4Ground Art Group in collaboration with Georgia Petrali presented the installation performance “Rooms” that was held at the Pagopoieion Theatre-1st floor, in Heraklion Crete on 11.9.2006. Material from the performance was later used in the video art piece “Rooms” which was presented at several festivals in Greece and abroad.
The above dance installation dealt with man’s need for personal refuge. A house made of teabags, a bedroom of nails and a kitchen of tar featured in the work. The performer sought quietude and calm. Along the way he became lost in the eerie rooms of the soul. Solitariness became loneliness and the need for quietude became isolation, hysteria, madness and in the end autism. A short trip from the dreamscape to nightmare that one’s personal surroundings can provide.
Duration of Performance: 25΄
Duration of video art: 10΄
Concept of Installation /Installation artists: 4Ground Art Group
4Ground Art Group: Urania Gialitaki, Klio Christaki, Maria Katsaveli, Maria Christaki
Choreography/Performance: Georgia Petrali
Music for video art: Emmanouel Sgouridis
Music/Viola: Julian Knight
Video editing: Maria-Ioanna Antoniadi
Operator: Dimitris Moskofidis
