The «I dreamt of three that were dreaming the other two each» performance, is hosted by the Metaneira Dance studio. Inspired by said phrase, taken from a Dimitris Dimitriadis’ text named «The four dreams», the dance trio came up with this idea of a performance that was not born from the usual 2+1 combination (duet+solo)- but acts as a symbolic game, in order to achieve a certain paradox effect we come across in dreams.
How did your relationship with dance come about and how much has it changed or shaped you?
– Ioanna: When I was younger, I would often pass by a dance school with my mother. I could hear the music coming from inside it and I could male out other children dancing in there. I wanted it, for myself so I started. Dancing is a part of me. If I wasn’t a dancer, I would be a very different person. I don’t know what kind of person, maybe a better one.
– Tasos Kar: I define myself through dance. It’s shaped me and defined me to a significant degree. I don’t know where I’d be if I wasn’t a professional dancer.
– Tasos Kou: It happened without me knowing or going after it particularly, somewhere in the space between the living room and the confined space of my bedroom. I used to think that a dancer was a quality, a characteristic I had to develop and define, but in the end, it was dance that shaped me, on all levels. The body lies all the time, you have to really push yourself to make it express itself beyond the established codes and principles, to truly convey its personality. This is not to say that it does not respect the “language” of dance, but rather that through it, it can use the medium to better express the important things surrounding the art itself.
What else does a dancer need to have, beyond a keen set of dancing skills, in order to make it?
He needs to develop his own personal sense of movement. You need to stand out, to have definite character and to able to propose ideas. You need to be humble and work hard, a point I mentioned earlier, but there have been so many talented dancers that have fallen off the radar, simply because they were not willing to try as much as other, less talented colleagues. The skills a dancer can develop are not the only important thing needed, but also the intelligence, both physical and mental, that will drive the dance to ask the right questions of his art. Education, instead of offering the right questions, simply offers ready answers. So most kids in class will say “I know how to dance”, rather than ask “why do I dance”.
Is there a musical piece or body of work that you would really like to get to grips with?
If so, what is it and how would you ideally depict it? We don’t think there is. An ideal depiction of a project I guess, is the one where the dancers have an equally good time at rehearsals and on stage and where the viewers also manage to connect with it in their own way. There are however infinite sources of inspiration, few ideas and unfortunately only one lifetime.
If the world ended tomorrow, what movement would you use to say goodbye to it?
– Ioanna: With a weightless move.
– Tasos Kar: I’d say goodbye with moves from my own imagination, but ones I have not yet tried since I’m worried I might permanently injure myself!
– Tasos Kou: If the world ended tomorrow, it would for once be in sync in one final action: the end. No choreographer could come close to that so any further comment is pointless.
Ioanna Toubakari (dancer)
Tasos Karahalios (dancer)
Tasos Koukoutas (dramatist)
Interview: Natasa Koumi Photo by: Manos Katsaprinis
