Speakers
Description
Taking ‘beautiful risks’ an interdisciplinary team of experts in various art domains (dance, music, drama) collaborated to create HAKO, a walking multimodal performance. During the process of developing HAKO and the live performance, space allowed for risk to emerge and made ‘synaesthesia’ possible, switching representational modes to convey the same or similar meanings. Deconstructing a Japanese story and bringing it into dialogue with stories from other cultures with a similar theme, HAKO uses elements of the story but focuses on the box provoking viewers’ possibility thinking, as they ask themselves: If we created our own box, what could be inside? What if no one ever opened that box? Would it remain closed for centuries? If the order was to open the box, would anyone open it? In a multimodal storytelling, each mode, which constitutes a distinct semiotic resource, has unique affordances for meaning making opening ‘broad horizons of possibility’.
CV
Maria Kamberis
is a dance educator and a choreographer. Her teaching focuses on approaching dance as an art through creative movement. She has founded the professional contemporary dance and research group Selas and coordinates the dance department at Forum School, a private secondary education school in Cyprus. Maria offers teacher professional development training programs for creative movement at school contexts through the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute. She is also a part-time lecturer at the University of Nicosia, a member of the Board of Directors of CCRSM and chairman of the Board of Directors of the Nicosia Dance House.
Demetris Yiasemides
studied music in the United Kingdom and worked as a flutist and trombonist in various ensembles (Anglia Sinfonia, ARU Big Band, Grand Union Orchestra, UAE Philharmonic Orchestra). He is currently a flute teacher at European University Cyprus and at Music High Schools. He has taught flute in Greece, Lebanon, Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates. As a member of the Monsieur Doumani music group he is an active artist of the classical, folk and experimental music scene of Cyprus. Since 2021 he has been collaborating with the contemporary dance company Selas composing and presenting music.
Panayiota Nicolaou
is a professional dancer and dance teacher. During her studies she attended dance seminars in Cyprus, Chania, Barcelona, Malta, Amsterdam, and Madrid. Since 2018 she worked with renowned artists for choreographies in contemporary dance festivals both in Cyprus and abroad. She participated in several productions of the Selas Dance Company (KOKONES, AFIRIMENI, PLASMA, HAKO). Under the supervision of Maria Kamberis, she conducted creative movement seminars for educators and dance teachers at the A. G. Leventis Gallery and the Archaeological Museum of Pafos. She recently presented her own works 'Laundering' ('Juxtapose' festival) and '15 minutes' (Cyprus University of Technology).
