A must-read interview of Dimitris Papaioannou in DUST Magazine

Don't miss out on an insightful interview with one of the most important Greek artists, Dimitris Papaioannou, featured in DUST Magazine Issue #24. In ‘Aligning with Archetypes: The Universe of Dimitris Papaioannou,’ the prominent creator delves into the depth and breadth of his remarkable journey and work.

For Euripides, being mentioned by him, alongside other great artists, brings a profound sense of gratitude, feeling privileged to be called a friend!

On this occasion, we revisit a small photographic sequence of archival material featuring Euripides rehearsing for Papaioannou's '2', back in 2006 — a poignant reminder of their enduring artistic collaboration.

*Archival footage courtesy of Dimitris Papaioannou.

Euripides in the spotlight of 'Dance Time' documentary series

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Step into the mesmerizing world of Euripides Laskaridis with the exclusive episode of the ‘Dance Time’ documentary series dedicated to his work.

On the occasion of staging TITANS at the Onassis Stegi as part of its global tour, Euripides offers ‘Dance Time’ viewers an intimate glimpse into the rehearsal process, sharing personal insights into his artistic journey. ❤️‍🔥

Joining the conversation are esteemed friends and colleagues like Dimitris Papaioannou, Alexandros Mistriotis, and Dimitris Matsoukas.

Don't miss this unique episode of ERT's first documentary series dedicated exclusively to dance, written and directed by Nicole Alexandropoulou.

Euripides in Interview with Dapper Dan Magazine

When TOURNÉ was still 'Euripides by Euripides,' Luke Forbes engaged in a delightful conversation with Euripides Laskaridis. Dive into the pages of Dapper Dan's 24th issue to explore their exchange, accompanied by photographs courtesy of Panos Davios.

Discover insights into the Greek performing arts scene, Euripides' connection to ancient Greek theatre, and his reflections on summer nights in the starlit amphitheaters of Epidaurus.

Continue reading for more...

In 2021, the end-times events of the actual world coincide with a nostalgic return in Euripides practice to more familiar, homely themes: namely, Greece and his biography. In the passages below he explains that the return to his personal bedrock at this point in time is coincidental. And yet it taps into a collective desire for a more stable lived experience in the face of uncertainty nonetheless.

My conversation with Euripides took place shortly after the premiere showing of ‘Euripides by Euripides’ was postponed for the foreseeable future – as a consequence of raging wildfires, on this occasion, as opposed to COVID-19-related public health measures.

Does the Ancient Greek amphitheatre bear special significance for you?

During my studies at a leading Greek drama school, each summer some students would get the chance to perform one Ancient Greek tragedy or comedy all over Greece in open-air theatres. Before I left Greece and went to New York for further studies, I had these experiences of the summer tour, touring Ancient Greek drama. I would daresay it's a whole culture. For Greeks, it's something we can truly identify with. The leading protagonists, we know them by their first names. They perform in this extravagant way we know well.

Given Ancient Greek drama is my heritage, and given my name is Euripides, there's a connection I've felt for many years with my Greekness. For Greek artists, it's a heavy weight on our shoulders. We compare ourselves to such artistic achievements. The Parthenon is right there at the centre of our capital city.

And I've always wondered, What would be my way to connect with the Ancient Greek world and its texts? ‘Euripides by Euripides’ is my way. For instance, because of my name, I was interested in making a small joke about Euripides, the playwright, and Euripides, my grandfather. You see, in Greece, it is a tradition to be named after your grandfather.

I'm interested in your current preoccupation with Ancient Greek drama, although you are commonly considered a choreographer. Where do you situate your artistic practice?

I wanted to be an actor, to work in theatre. I went to drama school and I loved performing as an actor. I did movies and TV. And then I saw Dimitris Papaioannou, a young choreographer at the time. I thought, What is this? It's not theatre, but it's speaking to me. In New York, where I started directing, I realised there's an entire universe of performance I wasn't aware of previously, a mixing of genres. I had the opportunity to watch works by Bob Wilson, Pina Bausch, William Forsythe, Robert Lepage, Sasha Waltz and even Laurie Anderson.

When I returned to Greece, Dimitris was auditioning and I knew and loved his work already. I worked with Dimitris in three productions and through that process I observed how to make works that are movement and image oriented. And upon the creation of RELIC, I realised that I was being invited to dance festivals as a non-dancer who's not a choreographer with a work I didn't consider dance.

Theatre festivals are not as accepting of me. Theatre means text to theatre festivals. Theatre festivals have prerequisites. In contrast, dance is such an open art form. Dance festivals can be very accepting. I feel blessed because dance can give shelter to quirky artists like me. And the dance audience is more prepared to contemplate a new proposition that is not on the well-beaten path.

To what extent do you consider your audience's desires as you create new works?

When I go into the rehearsal space and I try something out, I rarely think of the audience per se. I'm the audience of my work while I'm creating it, exploring things that tickle me at any given moment. I ask myself in those moments, Can I create something that will make me happy if I have to perform it for the next 20 years? Can I create something that plays with the fabric of the artist that I am? Can I see my performance in the mirror and want to share it with the public? My focus is on continually listening to my artistic needs.

Does your latest work mark a change in your artistic voice beyond its thematic focus? Is ‘Euripides by Euripides’ formally different to your previous works?

It's the most autobiographical of the works I've made over the past six years. Also, normally, I would use an imaginary, non-existent language. But this time true language snuck in. My background isn't in dance, I'm a theatre actor and director. So, in a sense, I'm going back to my theatre and drama roots.

How do you explain this return to your roots?

I feel that the shifts in my work are natural developments. More and more, I feel comfortable trusting my instinct on where I need to go. It's no longer such an intellectual process. I let go after TITANS. Now, I give myself permission to lose myself in the pool of wishes, inspiration without reason. This is where I should swim now.

That being said, when I was invited to create something for the Little Theatre, I asked to spend an evening there first. Arrangements were made with the archaeologists of the site and I went there at seven o'clock in the evening to watch the sun set in the space.

In this instance, I let the theatre decide whether there was something I could make for it. ‘Euripides by Euripides’ was created for a specific space. Perhaps, in a way, there are winds that push my sails in one direction or another, causing me to zoom into my biography, to review my past experiences on such stages, to return to text-oriented theatre.

Featured in 'Eros et Danse' as part of Greece's sizzling dance scene

Euripides is featured in Eros et Danse: Le Corps, l'Amour, les Sens dans la Danse Contemporaine, des Ballets Russes aux Post-Avant-Gardes, a book by Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino that takes readers on a journey filled with vivid imagery and meticulous descriptions of various schools of thought in dance that emphasize the use of the body.

In the chapter ‘Grèce Mythique et Moderne,’ you can explore the vibrant world of contemporary theater/ dance in Greece, with references to prominent Greek creators, including Euripides! Grab a copy and immerse yourself in this abundant artistic world.

#ContemporaryDance #GreekScene #EuripidesLaskaridis

Euripides at HKW – Haus der Kulturen der Welt →

Constant Rehearsal. Dance Legacies and Archival Practice

The Whole Life – Archives & Imaginaries was a congress that took place in March 2022 and was part of The Whole Life – An Archive Project. It was held at HKW (Berlin, Germany) and was conceived in collaboration with the international Whole Life Academy and its institutional partners. The congress dealt with archival practices, reflecting on the archives as potential places for anti-hegemonic narratives, investigating the links between them and society, and hence their possible future impact. It included events such as lectures, talks, performances, installations, and screenings.

As part of the congress, Constant Rehearsal – Dance Legacies and Archival Practices was an event that focused specifically on the importance, methods, and usage of archival practices in dance and performing arts. Its content was initially structured around the Pina Bausch Foundation archive and reflected on institutional dance archives in general. Being a former awardee of the Pina Bausch Fellowship for Dance and Choreography, Euripides Laskaridis was invited to present a performance-lecture, joined by members of his artistic team. Furthermore, he participated in the subsequent discussion panel, reflecting on his own artistic and archival practices as a performer.

Euripides broadly referred to ‘The Body as Archive’[1], a concept that avoids making distinctions between archive and body. According to this concept, it is through the body of the performer that the archive becomes visible, perceiving the body as a privileged, living archival site. While acknowledging the importance and necessity of the traditional archival methods (e.g., recordings, video-recordings, hard disks, notes), Euripides urged the spectators to diverge from such a bureaucratic notion of the archive as a (mis)management of the past. During his performance lecture, the character that he impersonated challenged them by raising questions such as:

What kind of archive am I now? With all my little mannerisms? Transformation of my voice? My necklace?
[…]
Could it be that this poor manifestation of movements, which come from an archive, can trick your mind into seeing something that is not there?
[…]
What about the objects? The props? Are they coming from an archive of our postmodern achievements? Or just from the cupboard of my mother?
[…]
What about language? What archive is that? Words that maybe have no meaning, can they convey a message?

The performance lecture – a mini collage of fragments of Euripides’ previous works – took place at the HKW auditorium and was performed by Manos Kotsaris, Dimitris Matsoukas, and Euripides himself. The subsequent discussion panel consisted of Ernst van Alphen (professor of literary studies and author), Ismaël Dia (director of the Pina Bausch Foundation Archive), and Euripides. A video of Alexander Achour (choreographer, performer and educator), presenting his view on the topic, was projected during the discussion.

[1] André Lepecki, The Body as Archive: Will to Re-Enact and the Afterlives of Dances, Dance Research Journal, Winter 2010, Vol. 42, No. 2 (Winter 2010), pp. 28-48, Congress on Research in Dance

FTA interview with Euripides on ELENIT

Festival TransAmériques (FTA) interviewed Euripides before the ELENIT shows in Montreal scheduled for May 2020.

All international performances have sadly but rightly been cancelled, given what’s going on around the world right now with Covid-19.

Read more about ELENIT below…

How is ELENIT a continuation of your artistic approach in RELIC (2015) and TITANS, which was presented at the FTA in 2018?

It feels like these three pieces could possibly form a trilogy in many respects.

ELENIT can be seen an extension of the first two, while it surely adopts the same vocabulary. I started from domestic life (RELIC), moved on to a celestial world (TITANS) and now arrive at ELENIT at the everlasting now, when the urgency of the present talks about the past as much as the future.

It is not the “now” of 2020, but that of a much bigger, undefined universe that can be viewed as an eternal present. After the solo RELIC and the duo TITANS, I wanted a larger group of creatures on stage, so there are ten in ELENIT.

I once again embody a strange creature but this time I am surrounded by a group of unique characters that propel and dictate a particular universe: the sets, costumes, lighting and sound. We make use of many recycled objects to create an imaginary world that can be seen as terrestrial or not.

The title refers to a material long used in construction but no more, because it poses a danger to human health. How did you become interested in this material?

My father is an architect and for a long time I myself thought of becoming one, until the day I discovered theatre.

I’ve always been fascinated by construction and design, imagining a space and its relation to materials. I used to accompany my father to construction sites and ask questions about the materials. I remember as a child I was attracted to these corrugated metal sheets often used for roofing but also for many other purposes.

On the Greek island where I come from, which is not rich and does not attract tourists, that cheap, long-lasting metal sheeting was used in all sorts of building and construction. As a child I was intrigued because I saw it everywhere, torn off buildings, strewn in fields and in vacant lots. It was not a natural material like wood or stone, but it was part of the landscape, as though it had always been there.

My father mistakenly called it “elenit”. This was a similar material made broadly in the 1970s, a mix of cement and asbestos which was soon discovered, that it was harmful to human health. In some countries it was even called Eternit indicating that this material would live for ever. Instead, the material was prohibited and people who lived under that roofing died of cancer, and it became difficult to get rid of.

I find it very appropriate to have as the name of my show a word that is based on a misunderstanding and that is also linked to my relationship with my father! That becomes an anchor point in my heritage and personal mythology, as well as a reflection of the short-circuits of transmission and the myths that we take for truth.

What drove you to discuss in this piece our complex relationship with progress, the environmental challenges we face and the perseverance of humanity?

People who see a wind turbine and sheet metal roofing onstage are sure to make a connection to ecology. To tell the truth, I used a wind turbine because I thought it would fit the universe of this strange new creature and to suggest a force that drives the theatrical machine for the duration of the show.

I knew this piece wanted to play with the idea of big spectacles and that this was a piece that was self conscious of it being of a larger scale.

There were already ten characters in it and it was going to be for larger theatres and audiences so inspiration obviously would come from larger spectacles such as opera, ballet, Broadway musical, ancient Greek tragedy, the circus, even the big clubs.

A big set piece could now move from my imagination to the stage nevertheless the wind turbine was never a conscious choice in order for the work to make a comment on the environmental challenges. I hope it can be that and much more in the work.

As a political creature, very much conscious of our shortcomings as a species, I have always been interested in how the human brain functions when it encounters obstacles. I find it surprising that in the 21st century we are very conscious of the inequalities in the world yet are incapable of resolving the issue.

Humanity has conquered great spiritual grounds, we only need to look at philosophy and religion, the Bible, Buddha, Confucius etc. It aims for an ideal but in fact has little power to achieve that goal. We are confronted with our limits in terms of addressing ecological or socio-economic problems.

It is human nature that fascinates me, its strangeness, its great powers and weaknesses! How we want to be the best we possibly can and yet we are faced with our countless limitations. This is our fate and it is very ironic… and that is why it moves me so much.