Dance Diptych
Dance Diptych
Prosxima Dance Company
Inclusive dance
Day: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Time: 21.15
Duration: 45′
Venue: SYNERGEIO Culture Space
A Dance Diptych, two special solo works with two exceptional performers with disabilities.
PERFORMANCE I: C for Clay
performed by Vivi Christodoulopoulou and choreographed by Maria Koliopoulou.
A solo choreography for the performer Vivi Christodoulopoulou, which explores the concepts of work and action as two components of human existence and their interaction in a transformative experience.
The use of two organic materials, clay and buckwheat, suggests a connection with the earth and a primitive state of existence. Vivi Christodoulopoulou’s disabled female body dominates and influences the choreography with its unique perspective.
PERFORMANCE II: Who am I today?
choreographed and performed by dancer Demi Papathanassiou.
The choreographer explores the question of who we are today, focusing on the unique experiences of Crips and their mental health. (The word “crip” has a double meaning. In its main usage, it is a derogatory term for people with disabilities, equivalent to the term “cripple” in English. However, it has also been used by disability activists as a term to reclaim the pride and political dimension of disability, turning the offensive word into a symbol of strength)
‘As I walk into the studio every day, the persistent question echoes in my mind: “Who am I today?” What can a Crip/different body do when it enters the stage space? Is the mental health of a Crip different from anyone else’s?”
A performance about our collective and individual mental health, trauma, acceptance, discovery and personal growth.
The performance includes the use of creative tools for deaf and visually impaired individuals. Tactile tour, distribution of leaflets to the audience with the text printed that is heard during the performance. Use of surtitles.
Prosxima Contemporary Dance Group and the choreographer Maria Koliopoulou are active in the field of performing arts with vulnerable social groups, presenting accessible works in Greece through their long-standing collaboration with the Onassis Foundation’s Unlimited Access, iDance: Dance Without Discrimination and Europe Beyond Access Programme, with the Athens Festival and the project Clear Midnight for mixed groups of dancers with and without disabilities (2021), as well as abroad. The project Made for the dancer with disabilities Madeleine Månsson began with the support of the Swedish International Dance Program (2021) and the project Here and Where? was created at the invitation of the inclusive dance group Stopgap dance company (2019) in the UK. The choreographic project Dancing (fancy) was created with the support of NRW KULTURsekretariat, ROOTS & ROUTES, and the Goethe Institute for the ‘Culture Moves Europe’ program (2023), With the support of the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation as part of the ‘Support Points’ program it was presented at the University of Patras and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Athens during the period 2024-2025, together with a series of workshops aimed at bringing university students closer to the concepts of inclusion and disability through the art of dance.