“ARACHNEES” | Dance Theater Maria Yannaros and Mairi Pardalaki
Two undetermined creatures, half-women half-spiders, are imprisoned in a narrow place away from light and life, condemned to spin for the eternity, fixed on a bench; discontented and exhausted they painfully try to go back to work. However, a window -a way-out?- covered by a veil, opened perhaps towards an infinite still unknown, is progressively imposed to their eyes
The piece is essentially inspired by the myth of Arachne the woman-spider and from the
feminine weaving poetic in ancient Greece, associating them with the atmosphere created by the symbolist artists of the late 19th century particularly by Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian poet and dramatist, and the painter Fernand Khnopff, his compatriot. Here the objects and characters are not described with precision and realism but are rather suggested and draped with a fine and elusive mystery. The piece approaches some of the themes which were dear to Maeterlinck: the enclosure, the waiting, the powerlessness, the destiny’s fatality, the horrific and impassable threshold.
Arachnées is skimmed by a precise and original narrative thread, which was previously traced on paper. The choreography insists on the musicality of the movement and is inspired by the German expressionist dance.
Concept,choreography and interpretation: Maria Yannaros
Collaboration and interprétation: Mairi Pardalaki
Costumes: Katia Theurin
Music: M.Marais, D.Scarlatti, J.F Telemann, T.Merula, C.Francesco, G.F Haendel
Photo credit: Jessy Rakotomanga, Lina Pardalaki
Promo video: Ares Mpafaloukas
Pardalaki meet in Paris working for the project “Kyma” by Nina Dipla, and later for Margarita Amarantidis project “FormEnVie”. They create their own company in 2012.
Friday 6th, Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th of February 2015, at 21:30 Maria Yannaros and Mairi
Born in 1983, Maria Yannaros has greek origins. At the age of 16, after having passed her entire childhood in East Europe, she goes to Paris to study History of Art at the Sorbonne University, until obtaining a Master’s degree in the European symbolism of the late 19th century. In parallel with her studies, she undertakes an artistic training, independent but intensive, including drawing and music but essentially dancing, either classical (Mariala Palacio, Alexandre de la Caffinière Yvonne Meyer, Marcello Raciti), contemporary (Nina Dipla, José Cazeneuve, Gigi Caciuleanu, Virginia Heinen) or character, gypsy and other traditional dances. She collaborates in dance, theatre and music projects, particularly in “Impressions soudaines” by Mariala Palacio, “FormEnVie” by Margarita Amarantidi, “Kyma” by Nina Dipla, “All is One” by Taxiarhis Vasilakos. During the past two years, she has been working on her own projects; three plays emerge slowly from this research, which are commonly inspired by the 19th century symbolist artists’ atmosphere, using a form that links together dance, theatre, music, painting, marionnettes and other.
Mairi Pardalaki is born in Athens in 1984. She starts dancing at an early age and just after her baccalaureate, she meets Daniel Lommel, former soloist of Bejart’s “Ballets du XXe Siècle”, who initiates her in classical dance. She moves to France where she broadens her training with Wilfride Piollet of the Paris Opera, Peter Goss and Nina Dipla, former Pina Bausch dancer. She collaborates with the latter for “Kyma”, presented in France and in Greece. In this project she meets Hélène Gautier and Francesca Saraullo, and together they create a dance-theatre piece called “Piccole Marquisakis”. In “Kyma” she also meets Maria Yannaros with whom they create Ahtenysti Company and they tour in the Avignon 2014 Festival with their piece “Arachnées”. At the same year she obtains her diploma from the Fédération Française de Yoga. Mairi has a bachelor in Communication from Panteion University.
