On the Seesaw

Performance, Rabbithole 2014, Athens, Produced by Amalgama.

Following the success of “The Mattress” (Six Dogs 2012) and “Hidden in the Olive Groves” (Athens Festival 2012), the Amalgama Dance Company continues to draw inspiration from and create work based on socio-political realities. The new piece On the Seesaw continues the trajectory of the previous two works, starting from the “present” and orienting toward the near “future” of primarily Greek, but also global life. A man and a woman act and coexist in a space dominated by a multitude of electronic components. They represent the precariat. Insecurity, anxiety, fear, anger, resentment, short-term thinking, information overload, and lack of self-determination in all areas of life physically, mentally, and spiritually exhaust them. The “hell of absent guarantees” (Guattari and Negri) alternately enrages and debilitates them. Some theorists propose silence as an antidote. For example, Gilles Deleuze notes: “The problem is no longer to make people express themselves, but to secure small gaps of solitude and silence, in which they might possibly find something to say.” Although the primary conceptual framework derives chiefly from the book “Take the Baton – Manifesto” by Hardt and Negri, and secondarily from Guy Standing’s “The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class” and Judith Butler’s “Precarious Life”, the new work “On the Seesaw” focuses mainly on highlighting the problem while leaving the solution open. The composition of the dominant scenic object (computer parts, complete computers, and other communication devices), movement, speech, image (video), and sound, creates a modular choreographic-theatrical work aimed at fostering critical thinking and creative reflection. Concept / Choreography / Direction /Scenography: Maria Gorgia, Performers: Stavros Apostolatos, Sania Strimbakou, Text: Alexandros Kioupkiolis
, Improvised Texts: Stavros Apostolatos, Sania Strimbakou, Maria Gorgia, Lighting: Periklis Mathiellis, Costumes: Stavros Apostolatos, Construction: Ioanna Siviti, Music Composition / Sound Design: Manolis Manousakis, Video: Vana Kostagiola, Periklis Mathiellis, Maria Gorgia. Photos: Angeliki Svoronou.