SONIC DANCES A WORK BY VENETSIANA KALAMPALIKI ON ECHO, RESONANCE, AND VIBRATION.

Imagine a reverse world
in which reality is imagined or designed
as this vaporous flux of vibration and resonance,
in which words dissolve into shimmering echoes,
physicality becomes diffuse,
almost lost in a dream state of aurality.

— David Toop, Resonant Frequency

The choreographer/dancer Venetsiana Kalampaliki presents the dance performance Sonic Dances, a work that seeks to decentralize the visual as the primary mode of representing dance, offering a multi-sensory experience with various access points to the choreography. 

Three dancers engage with the act of listening to what is heard and what is not heard. We voice movement and move rhythms through a choir of syllables and gestures, creating an interplay of sound, motion, and collective presence. The project focuses on the bodies and voices of the dancers as creators of a rhythmic composition that is both audible and visible on stage, resonating within listeners, observers and performers. The piece develops in four layers: movement, voice, music, and text. A single sentence breaks into words, letters and syllables to form rhythmical patterns that pulse, shift, scatter, and echo. The performers surrender into a landscape of overlapping rhythms. A sense of memory is implied, where what has been said or done reverberates into what comes next. Together, we enter into a mode of sensitivity, taking in both our own rhythm while staying tuned to one another, as a practice of expanded awareness. Sonic Dances shifts between the eye and the ear, one holding space for the imaginative other.  

Choreographer’s note:
Sonic Dances comes as a continuation of my two previous works, the duet Re-call (2020, Onassis Stegi), and the solo Phrases (2022, Kampnagel). My focus is on the development of accessible performances that resonate with a broader audience with and without disabilities. In my projects I explore artistic and aesthetic approaches to accessibility, so far by artistically incorporating the accessibility services of audio description and closed captions into the creative process. In Sonic Dances I am working on the idea of giving access to movement through sound and vice versa.

Sonic Dances was created in close collaboration with:
Concept / Choreography / Text: Venetsiana Kalampaliki
Music Composition: Andys Skordis
Performance / Material Co-Creation: Christina Zacharia, Venetsiana Kalampaliki, Xenia Koghilaki
Dramaturgy: Rallou Karella
Consultation on Aesthetics of Access for Blind and Visually Impaired Audiences: Anna-Maria Foskolos
Consultation on Surtitles: Philipp Wacker
Lighting Design: Marietta Pavlaki
Surtitles Design & Poster: Dimosthenis Barbas (Barba Dee)
Vocal Coaching: Sofia Sarri
Sound Engineer: Giorgos Kravvaritis
Lighting Console Programming: Giorgos Tsitsigkos
Lighting Console Operation: Vasiliki Kapetanaki
Photography and Video Documentation: Giorgos Athanasiou
Communication: Katerina P. Trichia
Production Management and Execution: Olga Tsatsouli (GR), Sofia Chionidou (DE)
Production: in the middle AMKE
Co-Production: LICHTHOF Theater

Special thanks to Filippos Vasileiou, Karate Apollwn, Pinelopi Iliaskou, Markella Manoliadi.

Info:
Dates: Monday, May 5, 2025 to Thursday, May 8, 2025
Location: ΦΙΑΤ (97 Falirou Str, Koukaki – 117 41)
Start Time: 21:00
Duration: 50’
Presale Tickets: available at https://www.ticketservices.gr/event/sonic-dances/?lang=en

Ticket Prices: €12 general admission, €8 reduced (for people with disabilities, students, unemployed)
Inquiries: +30 697 392 1747

Accessibility:
The work has been conceptualised with the aim of addressing audiences both with and without disabilities, blind and visually impaired individuals, as well as d/Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing individuals, offering an equally auditory and visual experience without requiring the use of accessibility services, as an artistic approach to accessibility (Aesthetics of Access).

Wheelchair accessible venue.
Surtitles provided.
Use of loud sound; earplugs are available.

The performance is funded by the Hellenic Republic – Ministry of Culture, the Behörde für Kultur und Medien – Hamburg, the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, the Claussen Simon Stiftung, and the Scheherazade Stiftung.

The performance is supported by the J.F. Costopoulos Foundation, the Goethe-Institut Athen, FLUX Laboratory Athens through its artistic residency program, and ARTWORKS.