03 Diásporas
Eleusis
The piece was created in the framework of U(R)TOPIAS Academy of Choreography, produced by Aerites Dance Company
and 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture. The programme is realised as part of the Greece 2.0 National Recovery and Resilience Plan with funding from the European Union – Next Generation EU.
Repetition, rhythm, pattern are a way to tame bodies amidst the turmoil of an unknown field; to measure space at the scale of the human step; to accommodate the sound of the response of materials on the ground and in the air; to reflect with all one’s senses sharpened; to slow down time. The mapping that is thusly engendered is one that crosses boundaries, dis-seminates presence and memorializes absence, narrates without excluding, embraces hesitation. In Stella Spyrou’s work, two people map out a landscape of collective and personal memory, constantly changing their distance from the audience. They insist on the shared pulse of their bodies, as a continuous oscillation between visibility and obscurity, exposure and withdrawal.
Diásporas is the completed version of the in-progress piece created in the framework of U(R)TOPIAS Academy of Choreography, produced by Aerites Dance Company and 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture. The program was realized as part of the Greece 2.0 National Recovery and Resilience Plan with funding from the European Union – Next Generation EU.
Choreography: Stella Spyrou
Co-creation/Performers: Elina Demirtzioglou
& Angelos Papadopoulos
Costumes: Lara Buffard
Music: Titos Grigoropoulos
Acknowledgements: Filippos Koutsaftis, Antonis Kontrogiannis, U(R)TOPIAS team
PRESS 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Description of the device/performance:
Diásporas is a participatory, site-responsive device built around walking as ritual and soundscape. Performers and audience members co-create a living, evolving rhythm through the act of synchronized or overlapping footsteps. A textured soundscape of many individual rhythms is happening at once, creating something complex and collective. The performance invites spontaneous participation, transforming the space into a resonant map of collective movement and memory. The soundscape emerges in real time—organic, immersive, and grounded in the body.
The work was presented within the framework of the Ticino in Danza Festival as aparticipatory device. It took place at Parco di Villa Argentina and at SPAMM-OSC Casvegno, in collaboration with SPAMM-OSC, the sociocultural platform connected to the regional psychiatric services.
SPAMM-OSC Casvegno (Switzerland)
SPAMM stands for Spazio Aperto MultiMediale (“Open Multimedia Space”). It is a sociocultural and therapeutic space connected to the Organizzazione SociopsichiatricaCantonale (OSC) in the district of Casvegno, Mendrisio, in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.
The OSC (Organizzazione Sociopsichiatrica Cantonale) is the cantonal public organization responsible for psychiatric services in Ticino.
PRESS 1, 2, 3
Stella Spyrou, as part of her artistic residency in Ticino in Danza Festival Mendrisio, Switzerland, shared a participatory,
site-responsive device built around walking as ritual and soundscape.
Performers and audience members co-created a living, evolving rhythm through the act of synchronized or overlapping footsteps. A textured soundscape of many individual rhythms happening at once, creating something complex and collective.
The performance invited spontaneous participation, transforming the space into a resonant map of collective movement and memory. The soundscape emerged in real time—organic, immersive, and grounded in the body.
Mendrisio, Parco Cacvegno-OSC
The work was presented within the framework of the Ticino in Danza Festival as a participatory device. It took place at Parco di Villa Argentina and at SPAMM-OSC Casvegno, in collaboration with SPAMM-OSC, the sociocultural platform connected to the regional psychiatric services.
SPAMM-OSC Casvegno (Switzerland)
SPAMM stands for Spazio Aperto MultiMediale (“Open Multimedia Space”). It is a sociocultural and therapeutic space connected to the Organizzazione Sociopsichiatrica Cantonale (OSC) in the district of Casvegno, Mendrisio, in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. The OSC (Organizzazione Sociopsichiatrica Cantonale) is the cantonal public organization responsible for psychiatric services in Ticino.