Aggeliki Papadatou together with her collaborators, has presented performances addressed to children and has organized programs with the participation of non dancers as well as students from educational institutions of all levels (primary school, gymnasium, university).
The creative part of the art of dance is the medium used to stimulate the emotional, physical and mental health of the individual by involving them into the creative process.
There is no question about the benefit and necessity of creative process in education offering “Emotional education”, “transformative education”, “achieving a body image”
The aim is to bring the art of dance to the community and to explore themes which derive from everyday life such as the perception of the body, environment as art, moving nature. These themes are an attempt to answer questions such as “How do we view the projection of our body?”, “How do we manage our environmental footprint?” and “How can nature be a starting point for creating movement?”.
To meet the needs of each project, different methodologies have emerged such as Moving Together – Integrating Diversity and Method of Reproduction.
Moving Together - Integrating Diversity
One of Aggeliki’s long going interest is Integrative dance. She has for many years through workshops as well as through her dance projects, researched ways to work with groups with diverse abilities and body structures.
In our everyday life the person with disability carries the notion of the unknown, the unable and as such there is a fear as to how to react or interact with such a person. We simply do not have the experience. There is no better way to learn a body and its functions’ other than to move with it.
Everyone can dance hence everyone can dance together.
Through dancing together in contact, one gets to know the mechanics and the functions of their own body as well as the other body simultaneously. Differences are accepted and solutions our worked out to serve the cause of the common creation, offering a rich movement vocabulary.
Dancing together with each other eliminates the differences. We are all part of the same group, the same stage and learning how to move and to create together, in this protected space, brings trust to oneself as well as to the other. This new achieved knowledge, is automatically applied to the outside world, carrying the possibility to eliminate the gap between us.
Integrative dance can lead to an integrated society one of acceptance and of respect towards the “other”.
DALI D’ KLICK & “DOUBLE SENS”
2012-2014
In 2012, Aggeloskoni Da.Co in collaboration with the DK-Bel dance company from France, hosted the project “Dali D’KLIC” which took place in Athens.
The continuation of this collaboration is “Double Sens” where the french delegation, DK-BEL, took over the management of the production of the project in the French territory.
Both projects were aimed to bring together young people with and without special needs , from different countries and social backgrounds.
The main theme of the project was to enable young people to overcome imaginary borders of divisions and prejudices, through artistic creation, in order to achieve a dialogue without discrimination between European citizens.
The methodology used was developed by the leading choreographers of both companies, Aggeliki Papadatou and Sofie Bullbylyan, through their creative processes working simultaneously in both countries and bringing together the groups in two phases, in Athens and Paris.
The groups interacted throughout a series of workshops in music, art, theater, etc as well as social outings and cultural events. The end result was shared with a larger audience from the local communities in both countries with open performances and exhibitions.
The overall process was then discussed around an exchange table with representatives of all the groups that participated.
“Only few months ago me and my classmates realized the true meaning of Life. Some should say we are not old enough to truly approach that meaning. But we believe we did it thanks to some people full of lust for life, lively, fun and determined to work hard. This made us all discover what it means to have a strong spirit or in Greek a strong psyche. This is the most important lesson we earned from this experience. The Power of Psyche . All my classmates , my friends , my acquaintances , kept wondering what is the purpose of this project. What will we gain through it. Our answer is, ‘ We learn to be humans” learn how to overcome life’s difficulties ” Through our new friends, we got an important moto. Do not give up, fight every day, always have goals and dreams . We thank them from the bottom of our hearts. And the only way to repay them is to talk about disability not as something unpleasant nor different. After all whatever might happen how may times we might fell down, we will stand up. Again and again.”
Testimonial from the participant Maria Holm as a representative of the group of adolescents from the N.Smyrni 3rd Gymnasium
Related Projects
Dali d’KLICDouble SensCONCEPTION OF THE BODY
Τhis journey started in the winter 2006. Dancers from the Very Special Arts Hellas dance group (today Art Together) collaborated with students from the Photography Laboratory of the Athens State School of Art. The workshops were exploring the “relationship between the moving body and photography” . This collaboration brought people of different backgrounds and body shapes together rising the question “How do we perceive our body and its projected image?”
Among the themes researched:
- photography as a set-design
- photography as memory in time
- as a framework that projects the body image we wish to promote
Τhe results of the labs were analyzed and the material was selected to produce a common performance where amateurs and professionals collaborated to find a common language to express their personal story.
FotoSoma was the result of integrating diversity in action.
It received funding from the Ministry of Culture for the year 07-08 and had the support of I.F Kostopoulos Foundation and of the National Bank of Greece.
Related Projects
FOTOSOMAModel of Performance Reproduction
The “Model of Performance Reproduction” results to the re circulation of a production sharing it with a larger part of society.
A performance is the result of research, thought and hard work. It is based on a developed concept, it has a set design, a method of production, which means that it has a framework. By recycling the framework we can easily create a new production and concentrate on free creative expression.
The company has, until today, used this model for two of its productions: SaGiNeF and The Environment as Art.
ENVIRONMENT AS ART
This educational program promotes themes concerning our footprint on the environment by recycling pieces of rubbish and using them as a starting point to produce art.
The program started with the production of the dance theater performance “Rol Scores a Goal on the Waves” addressed to children of primary school age and then continued with several two hour activity workshops upon the theme “Rubbish as Art”, which took part in different schools in Athens. The last part of the program consisted of workshops aiming to create the dance theater piece “The Yogurt Sea”. The “method of reproduction” was used based on the initial performance “Rol Scores a Goal on the Waves”, with the participation of 2009-2010 third grade students of the Athens 108th Primary School.
The program aimed to produce movement using the stories which were inspired by rubbish found in nature by the participants. It allowed the student’s fantasy world to flourish and offered a different point of view concerning the rubbish found in rivers, lakes and sea shores.
By transforming the findings into an art of dance performance, an alternative vision is proposed on how to use the environment by offering an answer to the question “what happens to our rubbish once it leaves our hands?”.
The overall task is to provoke questions about the “protection of the environment” in conjunction to the notion of recycling.
This program was supported by the Secretariat of Youth for the year 2010.
Related Projects
Rol scores a goal on the waveThe Yogurt SeaMOVING NATURE
A performance authorized by the Ministry of Education for 05-06 and 07-08. It contributed to the promotion of contemporary dance to primary school students.
Through the experience of a performance, its aim was to bring the students closer to nature and to themselves by connecting them to the five elements of nature (Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, Aether).
This project was performed in Athens and in the province of Messinia. In 2007, it was reproduced with the participation of the sixth grade students of the 108th primary school of Athens.
Related Projects
SaGiNeF