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.