ELENIT // 2019
// the things we know we knew are now behind
RELIC [2015] was a domestic scene, its lone mortal lost in a terrestrial world after the end of reason.
TITANS [2017] created an alien space for two, its co-dependent deities inhabiting a metaphysical realm in a time before reason.
The new tragic comedy by Euripides for 2019 – ELENIT – further expands this universe. An ensemble piece for ten creatures and a wind turbine, ELENIT forgoes all reason to forge a space without past or future. A monumental system interested only in the urgency of the moment. A place where the things we know we knew are now behind.
// where & when
// 2019
GREECE // ATHENS // Onassis Stegi // 28 November – 7 December 2019 // world première
// 2020
BELGIUM // BRUSSELS // Les Halles de Schaerbeek // 6 & 7 March 2020
FRANCE // PARIS // Théâtre de la Ville – Théâtre de la Cité internationale // 5-7 November 2020 // postponed due to Covid-19
FRANCE // ANNECY // Bonlieu Scène nationale // 25 & 26 November 2020 // postponed due to Covid-19
// 2021
FRANCE // ÉVREUX // Le Tangram, Scène nationale – Le Cadran // 15 January 2021 // postponed due to Covid-19
FRANCE // MULHOUSE // La Filature, Scène nationale (Festival Vagamondes) // 19 January 2021 // postponed due to Covid-19
PORTUGAL // PORTO // Teatro Municipal do Porto – RIVOLI Grand Auditorium // 11 & 12 June 2021
FRANCE // LYON // Maison de la Danse – Biennale de la danse // 16 June 2021
NETHERLANDS // AMSTERDAM // Julidans – ITA Rabozaal // 1 & 2 July 2021
GREECE // THESSALONIKI // Dimitria Festival – Vassiliko Theatre // 2 October 2021
FRANCE // CHAMBÉRY // Malraux, Scène nationale Chambéry Savoie // 19 & 20 October 2021
// 2022
BELGIUM // LIÈGE // Théâtre de Liège // 3 & 4 February 2022
BELGIUM // CHARLEROI // Charleroi danse – Les Écuries // 9 February 2022
ITALY // FLORENCE // Teatro della Pergola // 4 & 5 March 2022
ITALY // ANCONA // Teatro delle Muse – Marche Teatro // 10 & 11 March 2022
CANADA // MONTREAL // Festival TransAmériques – Théâtre Jean-Duceppe // 1-4 June 2022
// 2023
GREECE // ATHENS // Onassis Stegi // 16-19 February 2023
SERBIA // BELGRADE // Belgrade Dance Festival – Opera Madlenianum // 29 March 2023
FRANCE // PARIS // Théâtre de la Ville – Le Centquarte-Paris // 12-15 April 2023
// reviews
“A chaotic universe, sublime in its madness.”
“The choreographer, Euripides Laskaridis, is one of the great Greek choreographers, and even one of the great European choreographers. His spectacle is a UFO. It mixes dance, theater, cabaret, burlesque, music, and circus.”
“Quite simply another world. Absolutely mesmerising. […A] show categorised – by necessity – as dance. And dance it is, but it is also theatre and performance, happening and visual installation – a work beyond definition. And thus unique.”
“Every once in a while an art form is born, particularly of the “Greek” variety: singular and unclassifiable, it bursts with images and ideas. An art form daring enough to lay these open to the extreme, but by means of an utterly controlled and dazzling aesthetic. One that does not seek to signify or to explain and yet disarms you, wins you over…”
“In ELENIT, we find everything that makes up the charm and quality of the works of the enfant terrible and inventive Greek choreographer.”
“In lieu of a male-dominated universe made of muscles, perfectly-performed movements and classical harmony, Laskaridis brings excess and caricature, buffoonery and scandalous vulgarity that echo the slip-ups and gaffes of burlesque or drag.”
“This performance – neurotic and comic, tragic and sarcastic – continues to add words to the vocabulary and language created by Euripides Laskaridis, a language that is obscure yet familiar, remote yet moving. It gifts audiences with the freedom of distance, allowing them to draw the line and observe, then cross the line and connect. The heroes of this world stand way over there, calling on you to explore, to desire, to feel the inexplicable.
Following on from TITANS, ELENIT is a magnificent gesture towards the understanding of a monstrous world, another bright light in the creative development of this important contemporary Greek artist.”
“Spicy and satirical yet tender at the same time! This is the world of an accomplished artist who […] makes theater with all the transgressive power of the body and imagination.”
“This irrational world – fuelled by painting and opera, musicals and ancient tragedy, as well as club culture and film – is born out of simple materials. Everyday images and situations are subjected to constant transformations that render them dense and unfamiliar. The work is an absurd journey: phantasmagoric and ridiculous, enigmatic and disquieting. A journey through landscapes that bleed one into another without explanation, in a world made of ruins that nevertheless still stands – and captivates.”
“It’s a happy carnival, an irresistible tohu-bohu, a smokey and musical ritual […]. But it is also a carnival in the Rabelaisian sense of the term, a celebration of all possibilities.”
“An elusive bug that makes you experience a moment of disconnecting from reality.”
// awards & nominations
GREECE // Lighting Awards 2022
Award of the year In Lighting [ELENIT // Eliza Alexandropoulou – GOLD]
// residencies
FRANCE // MONTPELLIER // ICI—Centre chorégraphique national Montpellier – Occitanie // direction Christian Rizzo // in the frame of the Par/ICI: program // 11-18 February 2019 // for the development of ELENIT
ITALY // FLORENCE // Teatro della Pergola // 12-15 March 2019 // for the development of ELENIT
// original music
ELENIT // motherfucker dance two, maenad & alien // by Giorgos Poulios
// printed programme
// from the world première performances at Onassis Stegi in Athens, Greece (28 November – 7 December 2019)
// project info
ELENIT // 2019
// a piece for ten performers
// 90 minutes
conceived & directed by // Euripides Laskaridis
with // Amalia Kosma//Chrysanthi Fytiza, Chara Kotsali//Eirini Boudali, Manos Kotsaris//Foivos Symeonidis, Euripides Laskaridis, Thanos Lekkas//Konstantinos Georgopoulos//Michalis Valasoglou, Dimitris Matsoukas, Efthimios Moschopoulos, Giorgos Poulios, Nikos Dragonas & Fay Xhuma//Eirini Georgiou
costume design // Angelos Mentis
original music & sound design // Giorgos Poulios
set design // Loukas Bakas
lighting design // Eliza Alexandropoulou
dramaturgy consultant // Alexandros Mistriotis
associate movement director // Nikos Dragonas
assistant director // Geli Kalampaka
assistant to the composer // Jeph Vanger
assistant costume designers & special constructions // Ioanna Plessa, Filanthi Bougatsou & Olga Vlassi
artistic collaborator & special constructions // Anna Papathanasiou
assistant to the costume designer // Aella Tsilikopoulou
assistants to the set designer // Filanthi Bougatsou & Dinos Nikolaou
set assistant on tour // Konstantinos Chaldaios
stage managers // Dinos Nikolaou & Giorgos Antonopoulos
technical director // Konstantinos Margas
rehearsal lighting technicians // Vasilis Zindros, Tzanos Mazis & Giorgos Antonopoulos
lighting console programmers // Giorgos Melissaropoulos & Vaggelis Mountrichas
sound engineers // Kostis Pavlopoulos & Kostas Michopoulos
production manager // Rena Andreadaki
project manager & tour production // Simona Fremder
OSMOSIS operations coordinator // TooFarEast Productions
photography // Elina Giounanli, Geli Kalampaka, Julian Mommert & Andreas Simopoulos
cinematography & colour correction by // Nikos Nikolopoulos
video trailer edited by // Euripides Laskaridis
a project by // Euripides Laskaridis & the OSMOSIS performing arts company [GR]
produced by // Onassis Stegi [Athens – GR]
supported by // the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès [FR] within the framework of the New Settings 2020 programme
co-produced by // Théâtre de la Ville [Paris – FR], Teatro della Pergola [Florence – IT], Pôle européen de création – Ministère de la Culture / Biennale de la danse de Lyon 2020 [FR], Teatro Municipal do Porto [PT], Festival TransAmériques [Montreal – CA], Les Halles de Schaerbeek [Brussels – BE], Teatre Lliure [Barcelona – ES], Malraux – Scène nationale Chambéry Savoie [FR], Théâtre de Liège [BE], Julidans [Amsterdam – NL] & Bonlieu Scène Nationale Annecy [FR]
in collaboration with // ICI—Centre chorégraphique national Montpellier – Occitanie [FR]
in association with // EdM Productions – Rial & Eshelman
funded by // the Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sports
// the international ELENIT tour receives the generous support of Onassis Culture / Stegi’s “Outward Turn” Cultural Export Program
special thanks to // Dimitris Papaioannou for his precious and tireless support every step of the way over many years, Claire Verlet for her faith in our work and her vital advice, Tina Papanikolaou and Nikos Dragonas for their love and extraordinarily tender care, Kyriacos Karseras for our invaluable discussions, and for creating the ELENIT concept dossier and OSMOSIS company website, Rena Laskaridou for kindly providing the little basement storage space that we use as a studio, Fani Harvalia for kindly providing us with storage space that we actually use as storage space, Tatiana Bre and Simos Patieridis for their piercing creative insights, Konstantinos Kapsimalis for the gift of his friendship, Drossos Skotis, Konstantinos Kounellas, and Yorgos Partalidis for their help during the course of our rehearsals, and to Elina Giounanli, Julian Mommert, Natasha Sarantopoulou, and Petros Chytiris for photographing our rehearsals
thanks also to // Aspasia-Maria Alexiou, Ioanna Antonarou, Ioanna Apostolou, Vassia Attarian, Vasso Avgeropoulou, Mario Banushi, Tzela Christopoulou, Thanasis Deligiannis, Kelly Diapouli, Maria Dourou, Stephanos Droussiotis, Chrysanthi Fytiza, Konstantinos Garametsis, Irini Georgiou, Ermira Goro, Alex Gotch, Ilias Hatzigeorgiou, Zafar Iqbal, Thanassis Kalkanis, Vicky Kaminari, Efi Karantassiou, Nikos Karathanos, Tila Kareola, Maryam Karroubi, Myrto Katomeri, Panos Katramadakis, Marianna Kavallieratos, Katerina Kotsou, Dimitra Koutsoyiorga, Nikos Lagousakos, Lia Laskaridou, Panayiotis Lazaridis, Olia Lazaridou, Sylvia Liouliou, Paraskevi Lypimenou, Vicky Marangopoulou, Elena Mavridou, Medie Megas, Antonis Mermingkas, Alicia Minar, Litsa Moumouri, Zoe Mouschi, Kyriaki Nassioula, Christos Papadopoulos, Zina Papadopoulou, Tassos Papaioannou, Tassos Papandreou, Rinoula Papanikolaou, Sofia Patsinakidou, Iakovos Pavlopoulos, Petros Petrakis, Nikos Philias, Angeliki Popovitsa, Sofia Pouchtou, Akis Sakellariou, Giorgos Samartzis, Giorgos Sioras Deligiannis, Diogenis Skaltsas, Dina Tsichli, Prodromos Tsinikoris, Stergiana Tzegka, Andy Tzoumas, Melanie Varnavidou, Stelios Vafeas, Maria Vourou, Dimos Vryzas, Sevasti Zafira, Alexandros Zafirou, Symetal – Aluminium Foil Industry S.A. for kindly providing set design materials, Kifidis Orthopedics for kindly providing the wheelchair & United Colors of Benetton for kindly providing us with tour luggage
