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    PHOTO: ALEXIS BISTIKAS
  • Two more pieces were added to THE LAST SONG (1990) to create THE SONGS, a work in three acts produced in collaboration with the visual artist Nikos Alexiou. EDAFOS DANCE THEATRE became something of a phenomenon at this time; all performances were sold out, and the season was extended twice. We even had waiting lists for tickets. Melina Mercouri took her place in the audience one night.
    During the interval between the second and third songs, audiences could see an exhibition of the preparatory charcoal sketches I had produced for the show. After the performances, audiences could watch three experimental film shorts by Alexis Bistikas (Potson-Potson, THE KISS, and THE NAKED GAZE) in an adjoining room.
    THE SONG OF THE TREE - which features the Greek rembetiko song To Minore tis Avgis performed by Jenny Vanou and played back at a slower rate (33 rpm instead of its normal 45) - is about the meeting of a female traveller and a rooted tree-man. She sleeps in his shade, and in her dream she feels him awaken. She lets down her hair, climbs up and dances with him, only to sense the danger that she could become trapped in his branches. She breaks off a small branch to pin up her hair once more, takes her suitcase and sets off again.
    THE SONG OF NARCISSUS AND ECHO is a solo piece performed in three cycles, with the same performer transformed from a man into a woman, and from a woman into the mythical Narcissus with each repetition of the scene.

1991 / THE SONGS / A PERFORMANCE OF THREE DUETS / EDAFOS DANCE THEATRE

 

THE SONG OF THE TREE (17 minutes)

THE SONG OF NARCISSUS AND ECHO (11 minutes)

THE LAST SONG OF RICHARD STRAUSS (22 minutes)

In collaboration with Nikos Alexiou
50 minutes
Première: 17 april 1991, at the artists; Building (Athens - Greece)
Sponsored by J.F.Kostopoulos Foundation, General Secretariat for Youth, Music and Musicians, Tassos Meletopoulos, LEXIKON

Direction - Choreography - Costume Design: Dimitris Papaioannou
Set Design: Nikos Alexiou
Music: S. Peristeris, C. W. Gluck, Richard Strauss
Performers : Vaggelis Papadakis, Dimitris Papaioannou, Angeliki Stellatou, Pavlos Zachariadis, Stavros Zalmas