Friday Improvisation Jams with Guest Artists

Since January 2024, Maria Gorgia has been organizing Friday Improvisation Jams with invited artists from a wide range of artistic disciplines. Influenced by the spirit of “Grand Union”* in New York, a rich exchange of stimuli from other art forms took place, generating a creative dialogue that inspired the participants’ movement language and real-time improvisation. This open, cross-disciplinary approach to improvisation jams was innovative within the Greek jam scene.
From January 2024 until December 2024, prominent and well-known artists from the Greek cultural scene participated, coming from the fields of music (Manolis Manousakis, Tilemachos Mousas, Filippos Dragoumis), theatre (Stathis Livathinos, Angeliki Karystinou, Michael Skippy Doo Edwards), dance (Julyen Hamilton, Kelly Zampella, Stavros Apostolatos, Fenia Apostolou), visual arts and performance art (Eva Giannakopoulou, Maria Nikiforaki, Eva Koliopantou, Stefanos Handelis, Tassos Triantafyllou, Giorgos Georgakopoulos, Mary Zygouri, Panos Sklavenitis, Michaelangelos Vlassis Ziakas), photography (Panagiotis Lamprou, Angeliki Svoronou), literature (Nikos Xenios), lighting design (Periklis Mathiellis), art theory (Kimon Theodorou), and street dance documentary (Natalia Koutsougera).
Evenings that demonstrated particularly strong performative interest were selected and presented separately from the jam format as open performances for the public. As a result, the following performances were realized:
-two performances featuring the live electromagnetic soundscapes of Manolis Manousakis
.
-one performance inspired by the photographic material of Panagiotis Lamprou
.
-one performance based on the photographic installation “To Own a Tree” by Angeliki Svoronou
.
-one performance developed through interaction with the installation “Unfolding of a Spiral” by visual artist and ASFA (Athens School of Fine Arts) lecturer Tassos Triantafyllou, including his live performance.

-one performance shaped by the “lighting universe” of Periklis Mathiellis.

-one performance inspired by the dance-theatre work “Memories of a Song” by Fenia Apostolou
.

* “The Grand Union” was an improvisational dance group based in New York City from 1970 to 1976. It emerged from Yvonne Rainer’s dance company and her piece Continuous Project – Altered Daily. Over time, authorship shifted from a single choreographer to collective improvisation. The group adopted the name “The Grand Union” to avoid fixed associations with dance and to challenge conventional definitions of the form. Artists involved included Trisha Brown, Barbara Dilley, Douglas Dunn, David Gordon, Nancy Lewis, Steve Paxton, and Yvonne Rainer.

Like a Breath at Its End

Performance, Amalgama Space, Athens 2025, with the support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.

In a strange place, where a terrible catastrophe has occurred—like a Dantean landscape—and where the end will soon arrive; in a real place where the dead ends of reality are magnified, there a man sleepwalks between imagination and reality… Singular objects, a few staircases; singular creatures, some (female?), bodies that have suffered severe psychosomatic deterioration and struggle in vain to find a way out. At times, moments of the dream resemble a farcical comedy of poor taste. The work is inspired by Samuel Beckett’s Le Dépeupleur (The Lost Ones), in the Greek translation by Thomas Symeonidis. Concept / Choreography / Direction: Maria Gorgia ,Lighting Design: Periklis Mathiellis, Excerpts from Samuel Beckett’s Le Dépeupleur, translated by Thomas Symeonidis (The Lost Ones),
Text: Maria Gorgia, with the creative collaboration of Alexandros Vardaxoglou, Music: Manolis Manousakis, Ludwig van Beethoven: Moonlight Sonata, Set & Costumes: Maria Gorgia, Mask Construction: Apostolos Karakatsanis, Production Assistant: Stella Atzemi, Press & Communication: Maria Konstantopoulou, 1st performer: Alexandros Vardaxoglou, Performers: Fivy Alexiadi, Dirfy Giatzouzaki, Myrsini Petroutsou, Photography: Angeliki Svoronou, Vangelis Angelakis, Panagiotis Lamprou, Giorgos Marinakis.

Queen Without Feathers

Performance, Amalgama Space, Athens 2022, with the support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.

“Others are compassionate.
 They warm you when you are cold, 
like tiles laid upon other tiles—
the warmth of small bodies
against a cold without end or beginning”.
Nikitas Siniossoglou
Having recently attended beekeeping classes, choreographer Maria Gorgia draws inspiration from the society of bees. In searching for the effortless togetherness—something we often interpret as a priori present in Nature, “to be together without thought, without pain,” as the gifted writer Nikitas Siniossoglou writes—the choreographer expresses her anxious desire for a human society in which care for the Other is not determined by Christian notions of virtue and compassion, nor by qualities such as discipline, fear, self-interest, or obedience. In the complex and well-organized society of bees, humans often recognize a wisdom of “co-existence,” where the multitude (the people) of worker bees, united, decide and govern the entire colony—even the queen, a being that here represents birth–life, love, unity, and the psychic calm of the whole. The body also holds particular significance among bees. The workers constantly care for the queen as she gives birth, through touch, feeding, caressing, and even kissing. The bodies of the swarm regulate the temperature inside the hive by moving closer to or farther from one another. The hive is always united and functions as a single whole.
“Do not manipulate things, but flow with them.
 Do nothing, yet let everything take hold of you—
the space, the others, the self within you
 that seems anesthetized”.
Nikitas Siniossoglou
With the new work “Queen Without Feathers”, choreographer Maria Gorgia and the Amalgama dance company continue their exploration of a “holistic” model of expression—that is, the synthesis of movement, speech, object, and voice. The performers interpret creatively through movement, speech, and song, drawing inspiration from the delicate kinetic, sonic, and communicative behaviors of the beehive. Within this complex composition, the choreographer repeatedly introduces contrasting images—images of today’s chaotic human coexistence, such as forms of human “togetherness” within the Family, at Work, in Public Life, in Parliament, and elsewhere. The main body of texts was created specifically for this work by the award-winning writer Nikitas Siniossoglou. Concept / Choreography / Direction / Dramaturgy: Maria Gorgia, Lighting Design: Periklis Mathiellis, Set & Costumes: Konstantinos Zamanis, Original Text: Nikitas Siniossoglou
, Prose Texts: Maria Gorgia and the company, Music: Mahler, “Adagietto” (Symphony No. 5), Brahms: “Piano Concerto No. 1”, Mozart: “Eine kleine Nachtmusik”, Music Curation: Maria Gorgia, Stavros Apostolatos, Performers: Themis Andreoulaki, Alexandros Zarmakoupis, Arianna Zarmakoupi, Zoi Mastrotheodorou, Myrsini Petroutsou, Spoken Text Coaching: Angeliki Karystinou, 
Production Assistant: Marialena Stefanidi, Press & Communication: Maria Konstantopoulou
, Photography: Angeliki Svoronou, Vangelis Angelakis, Giorgos Marinakis.

The Lie

Performance, Amalgama Space, Athens 2021, with the support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.

With her new work “The Lie”, choreographer Maria Gorgia, through Amalgama, continues and further develops her research into the “holistic” model of expression—that is, the synthesis of movement, speech and object. In “The Lie”, the body is presented as being in a state of continuous self-restraint, and in many scenes as persistently stylized, impoverished and rigidly well-mannered, in its attempt to conceal the truth or to impersonate something else. The performers repeatedly transform into humanoid robots, exhibiting mechanistic behaviors shaped by the intense influence of social stereotypes. Essentially, no one truly communicates with anyone else—even during moments of group or individual psychotherapy. The only genuinely truthful expressions are those of illness and helplessness, death, birth, naive love, loneliness and narcissism. Yet real intention faintly emerges through the “cracks” of the body, creating a form of counterpoint—a contradiction or discontinuity between appearance and being. This tension highlights the deeper emotional expression of lying in major areas of life, such as interpersonal and professional relationships and social existence. In “The Lie”, the concept of lying is explored across a wide spectrum of relationships, as well as within the public sphere: politics, information, and the media. The choreographer dares to directly address contemporary reality, in which the “disease” of lying appears to have reached vast proportions in Western societies. As a result, people no longer trust almost anyone, and communication has, to a great extent, been fundamentally lost.As the well-known psychologist Robert Feldman concludes, people lie—and do so systematically—because it facilitates coexistence with others. Lying places them in a position of power, enabling them to achieve their goals at lower cost and in less time than if they were to tell the truth. Yet the body, through its unconscious movements, often seems to comment on the liar at the very moment the lie is being “performed.” Ultimately, “truth” resides only in the body. Concept / Choreography / Direction / Set Design / Dramaturgy: Maria Gorgia, 
Lighting Design: Periklis Mathiellis, Set and Costume Design: Giorgos Litzeris, Texts: Maria Gorgia and the performers, Music Curation: Stavros Apostolatos, Performers: Themis Andreoulaki, Maria Gorgia, Arianna Zarmakoupi, Giannis Stavropoulos, Speech Coaching: Angeliki Karystinou, Production Assistant: Vangelis Vogiatzis, Assistant Set Designer: Anthi Paraskevi Veloudogianni, Press & Communication: Maria Konstantopoulou, Photography: Elena Kanaki, Angeliki Svoronou.

The Rider and the Elephant

Performance, Milan “The Naked Theater” Festival of Teresa Pomodoro 2021, Amalgama Space, Athens 2021, production by Amalgama.

What is the relationship between an elephant rider and the elephant? Between Nietzsche’s “Übermensch-Zaratoustra” and the human being? Between a parent and their child? Between a trainer and the trained animal (or human)? Continuing along the same trajectory as her previous works focusing on relational inquiry, the choreographer primarily draws upon tools from contemporary existential theories, as well as psychological theories of the 20th and 21st centuries. Excerpts from Nietzsche’s unique, intensely dynamic, poetic and philosophical text “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” are selected and run throughout the performance, juxtaposed with kinetic images. The main influence stems from the book “The Happiness Hypothesis” by the award-winning psychologist Jonathan Haidt. The human mind, according to Haidt, is divided. It can be compared to an elephant and its rider. The rider represents the conscious part of the mind—the part that reasons and reflects—but it can exercise only limited control over what the elephant does. The elephant comprises the rest of the system: visceral feelings, instinctive reactions, emotions and intuitions, the unconscious. The image of a rider atop an elephant is a metaphor used by the author to illustrate the inability of rational thought to tame or guide this large animal, particularly in the (quite common) case when these two different forms of intelligence fail to cooperate properly.” “Happiness comes from the between,” Haidt tells us, and not solely from within ourselves, as concluded by thinkers such as Buddha and Epictetus. According to one interpretive approach to Nietzsche’s “Zarathustra”, the human being who aspires toward the “Übermensch” believes that self-overcoming is necessary in order to ultimately tame the human–elephant. Excerpt from the book “The Happiness Hypothesis”, Concept–Idea / Choreography / Direction / Set Design / Dramaturgy: Maria Gorgia, Performers: Themis Andreoulaki, Vasiliki Makri, Martina Kosta Diankova, Maria Anezaki, Pavlos Laoutaris, Texts: “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” by Friedrich Nietzsche, Additional Texts: Maria Gorgia and the performers, Lighting Design: Periklis Mathiellis, Music: “Ride of the Valkyries” by Richard Wagner, “Kiss” by Prince, “Strangers in the Night” by Frank Sinatra, Music Curation: Maria Gorgia, Stavros Apostolatos, Speech Coaching: Angeliki Karystinou, Assistant Choreographer: Effie Tzereme
, Project Assistants: Effie Tzereme, Maria Iatrou, Press & Communication: Maria Konstantopoulou, Photography: Angeliki Svoronou, Vangelis Angelakis, Giorgos Marinakis.

What If We Devoured One Another?

Performance, Amalgama Space, Athens 2019, with the support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Dock 11, Berlin 2019, HOME-MADE “MoVe”, Performance/Festival – Contemporary Dance Makers from Greece, Curator: Giannis Antoniou.

“What does your mirror say?
 It is always the other who looks back from within. It is this other that we seek when we dig into foreign bodies, beyond ourselves. There may be neither the one nor the other—only the nothingness within our soul, croaking for food”.
—Heiner Müller.
“At the moment when the image of the other comes for the first time to seduce me, I am no different from the marvelous Duck of the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher”.
—Roland Barthes.
How could Heiner Müller’s fiercely powerful and corrosive “Quartet”, Roland Barthes’s uniquely semiotic “A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments,” the gripping and intensely erotic–orgasmic music of Wagner from “Tristan und Isolde”—one of the most erotic works ever composed—the poem “Carnal Word” by Yiannis Ritsos, and texts referring to everyday scenes of a couple, inspired primarily by the choreographer’s personal experiences yet simultaneously addressing the pathologies of Western modern society, be combined? How can Amalgama Space at 47 Menandrou Street be transformed—without any theatrical set, but by using the architectural and semiotic elements of the space itself, or even its simple objects (such as the audience’s chairs)—into the various visual worlds of the work: a Courtroom, a Ship, a Brothel (with male prostitutes), a Home, and other spaces? The physiology and psychology of Love; the battle of the sexes; the greed of the egocentrically nourished individual (a product of neoliberal society as well as of their relationship with the mother-provider, etc.), who consciously or unconsciously constantly seeks to dominate, subjugate, and control their erotic object; the perpetrator–victim relationship; the dependent relationship, which is nothing but the product of the individual’s archaic bonds; the impasse of relationships; Love as a form of hypnosis; and, on the other hand, passion and the romantic perception of Love that persists in the West even in the age of modernity—all of the above coexist within the same dramaturgical canvas of the work. Richard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” (one of the most important representatives of Romanticism) has been chosen as one of the most erotic works in the history of Western music. Specific passages and arias run throughout the performance, among them “the Prelude” and “the Liebestod”, performed live by soprano Nancy Papakonstantinou. Concept / Idea / Choreography / Direction / Set Design / Dramaturgy: Maria Gorgia, Primary Texts: “Quartet” by Heiner Müller; “A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments” by Roland Barthes, Poem: “Carnal Word ” by Yiannis Ritsos, Additional Texts: Maria Gorgia, Music: Selected excerpts from “Tristan und Isolde” by Richard Wagner, Operatic Voice: Nancy Papakonstantinou, Performers: Markella Manoliadi, Alexandros Vardaxoglou, Nancy Papakonstantinou, Giannis Stavropoulos, Maria Gorgia, Spoken Text Acting: Angeliki Karystinou
, Set & Costumes: Maria Alektoridou, Dramaturgy Consultant: Miranda Vatikyoti
, Press & Communication: Maria Konstantopoulou, Photography: Angeliki Svoronou, Giorgis Noukakis, Vangelis Angelakis, Elena Kanaki, Giorgos Marinakis.

What do you suffer from? From Existence

Performance, Amalgama Space 2018, Athens, Synergeio, Limassol 2018, Supported by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.

The new work by Maria Gorgia and Amalgama dance company explores the eternal issue of humanity’s refusal to accept Death, the decay of the body, and the essential, “cyclical” relationship between Life and Death. Poetry, and particularly the personality of the significant Greek poet Nikos Karouzos, serves as the choreographer’s main source of inspiration, intertwining and reigniting her own concerns about the body’s impermanence, as well as the unanswered, haunting questions regarding Death and Existence. Excerpts from his interviews (“Interviews of Nikos Karouzos”, Ikaros Editions) and his poetry are used to highlight the essence of a rare individual who did not bend, did not conform to any system, and passed away without the recognition he deserved from the state. The Amalgama space on Menandrou Street evokes scenes reminiscent of a swimming pool. While the sea is a central element in Karouzos’s poetry, here bottled water is used, creating contrasts, symbolism, and resonances with some of the poet’s statements: “I want you a little crazy, to escape those bottled meanings of philosophical dialectics, to escape. Life does not want a cork.” Audience members are again invited to “conspire” with the performers, following their instructions, which in some scenes include participating in the arrival process to this unique theater-temple. The lead performer, the young and dynamic Daphne Stathatou, embodies the “body of Karouzos’s soul”—the youthful, fiery body struggling with “the trap of existence.” Karouzos, seen by the choreographer as a passionate, tormented child, is complemented by two additional Karouzos figures: the soprano Leto Messini, who sings, acts, and moves, and the choreographer herself. Together, they form a dramaturgical whole, a playful interplay of body, voice, operatic singing, and objects. The choice to have women perform the poet’s “male” lines is intentional, reflecting Gorgia’s continued exploration of gender, with female performers delivering the poet’s masculine discourse in several scenes. Selected arias from Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” are interwoven with Karouzos’s poems, adapted by the choreographer. As in her previous work “The Solitaire Ring of the Tower”, some scenes feature amateur performers, introducing elements of raw realism and blurring the lines between reality and performative representation. Concept / Choreography / Direction: Maria Gorgia, Performers: Daphne Stathatou, soprano Leto Messini, Maria Gorgia, Texts: Excerpts from “Interviews” and poems by Nikos Karouzos, Text Selection & Adaptation of Poetry for Songs and Texts: Maria Gorgia, Dramaturgical Supervision: Miranda Vatikioti, Voice Acting: Angeliki Karystinou, Costumes & Scenographic Supervision: Konstantinos Zamanis, Lighting: Periklis Mathiellis, Music: St. “Matthew Passion” by Johann Sebastian Bach, Additional Participants: Stella Atzemi, Marina Babalí, Iro Tsarna and others, Photography: Angeliki Svoronou, Vangelis Aggelakis, Press & Communications: Aris Asproulis.

The Solitaire Ring of the Tower

Performance, Amalgama Space 2017–2018, Athens, Supported by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.

The new work, titled The Solitaire Ring of the Tower, takes a step back (compared to the child-adult in “Kindergarten”), toward the Family and the deeper human anxiety of belonging “somewhere” rather than being “someone.” As the Nuclear Family (and especially the Greek family) thoroughly trains individuals not to develop ownership of the Self, but to “live attached, so that they annex pieces of other people to the Self and then ignore the difference between heterogeneity in themselves and self-identity” (David Cooper, “The Death of the Family”), the need to belong somewhere and the sense of an incomplete Self is magnified. Interpersonal relationships and “romances” often originate primarily from this feeling of being unable to live alone, and from the societal pressure that labels women “spinsters” if they live alone even temporarily. Within this familial structure, instead of the individual discovering and developing a flexible dialectic between “being alone” and “being alone with another,” from an early age it is instilled that “to be well—or to appear to be well—you must be with someone.” With central inspiration from Kafka’s “The Tower” and, to a (perhaps extreme) extent, David Cooper’s “The Death of the Family”, “The Solitaire Ring of the Tower” moves from the personal to the collective-political, from gendered issues to deeper existential ones, from the almost surreal narrative of Kafka to the realism of today. As the Tower’s Surveyor has been reimagined by Klam (with genders reversed from Kafka’s work) and is obsessed with belonging to the Tower, so too in the contemporary context, the individual’s anxiety is not to develop a sense of who they are, but to assume a specific role (spouse, parent, etc.), to belong somewhere, to find a partner, to marry, and thus acquire identity. Social stereotypes emerge again through simple everyday scenes. At the root may lie the problematic relationship with the Mother, as the most significant formation of the self occurs in the very early years, when the child exists as an extension of the mother’s body and mind (she herself having been “taught” by her own mother that something is missing). In 21st-century Greece, the Matriarchal Patriarchy, sometimes wearing feminist attire, continues to dominate. The new performance space on the 5th floor of Menandrou 47 was chosen symbolically. The space resembles a public service office (e.g., tax office), and audience members in good physical condition are initially asked to climb the 5th floor on foot instead of taking the elevator. There, the space transforms into a matchmaking office, spaces through which Kafka’s “Tower” Surveyor passed, and other unexpected areas. This is another interactive piece, with some scenes involving audience participation. A special audition was held for “The Solitaire Ring of the Tower” to find male participants who were not professional performers, spanning middle-aged adults (40–60 years old) and various professions, to ensure an element of raw, unpolished realism and blur the boundaries between real and staged. The “woman” in the performance, who is simultaneously “many” and “one,” is performed by the solo dancer Sania Strimbakou, (Nikoletta Xenariou in the first version) and the choreographer Maria Gorgia. Concept / Choreography / Direction / Scenography: Maria Gorgia, Performers: Maria Gorgia, Theofanis Kalevras, Pavlos Lautaris, Nikoleta Xenariou, Giannis Spanos, Sania Strimbakou, Texts: Franz Kafka, Maria Gorgia, 
Text Adaptation: Maria Gorgia, Lighting: Periklis Mathiellis, Photography: Angeliki Svoronou
, Text Editing: Efi Giannopoulou, Press & Communications: Aris Asproulis.

KINDERGARTEN

Performance, Banglades 2016–2017, Athens, Produced by Amalgama.

“We teach people to remember, we never teach them to grow up.” – Oscar Wilde
The woman facing an existential crisis in “At the Edge of the Spring Board” began to explore the deep waters of childhood. The immaturities of the era of bailouts, referenda, and punitive behaviors started to resemble the behaviors of the child-adult, the wounded child who can only in turn wound the next generation or their closest ones. Drawing inspiration from the choreographer’s own childhood, alongside Freud and his insightful theories on child development and narcissism, Alice Miller’s work on repressed childhood traumas that produce immature, problematic behaviors in adults, and Christopher Lasch’s observation that narcissistic disorders have arguably become the primary affliction of recent decades, the new piece “Kindergarten” began to take shape. The narrative is a blend of reality and fiction, composed of autobiography, socio-political reality, and imagination. In a space that mentally transforms into various internal settings (bar, interview studio, home, conference room, kindergarten, dance studio, and more), a woman regresses and relives childhood alongside other child-adults, oscillating between fantasy and reality, between the blurred image of herself and others, play and seriousness, her hypertrophic Ego and her autistic relationship with the Egos of others. Her Superego is merely another manifestation of childhood narcissism. The work includes interactive scenes with the audience, who are given instructions to follow during the performance. Concept / Choreography / Direction / Scenography: Maria Gorgia, Performers: Sania Strimbakou, Timos Zehas, Myrto Delimichali, Maria Gorgia, Quotations: Oscar Wilde, Texts: Maria Gorgia, Assistant Choreographer: Myrto Delimichali, Sound Design: Maria Gorgia, Photography: Angeliki Svoronou, Giannis Misouridis, Press & Communications: Aris Asproulis.

At the Edge of the Spring Board

Performance, Bangladesh Space, Athens 2015–16, Kalamata Dance Festival 2016, Production Amalgama.

In a bare space that transforms at times into a home, at times into a catwalk, at times into a Japanese bath, at times into an atmosphere drawn from a Beckett’s play, and at times into a bar, a woman swims among her beliefs, her contradictions, her indecisiveness, and the dead ends that she herself, for the most part, creates. “With whatever reason remains to her, she reasons wrongly,” as Beckett says in his work “Company”. This is a woman of today, suspended between persistent, unanswered questions and fears, while at the same time this is the most personal work of choreographer Maria Gorgia. Her crisis is primarily existential, but simultaneously social, economic, political, value-based, and age-related. Fragmentary scenes, which at first seem to refer to different female personalities, come together to form a contradictory and multifaceted puzzle of a woman standing at a threshold. The performance includes scenes of interaction with the audience. Concept / Choreography / Direction / Set Design: Maria Gorgia, Performer: Sania Stribakou, With the participation of: Timos Zechas, Texts: Samuel Beckett, Heiner Müller, Maria Gorgia, Sania Stribakou, Assistant Choreographer: Myrto Delimichali, Sound Design: Giannis Misouridis, Photography: Angeliki Svoronou, Giannis Misouridis, Production: Amalgama Dance Company.