danzon_eng

before the end of 2019, i met a new name in performing arts: euripides laskaridis. besides following the artists i know and love, i enjoy discovering new artists i haven’t known before. however, only a few of the shows, which i watched with hope and anticipation by artists whom i did not know before, affects me. i watched works of many artists that i had not known before at the festivals i attended in 2019 but i did not come across a name that appealed to my heart and aroused the desire to follow until my last trip to athens.  when i went to athens to watch the last performances of dimitris papaioannou's the great tamer at the end of november 2019, one of my evenings was free and there was the world premiere of  elenit,  the new piece by euripides laskaridis, one of the former performers of papaioannou. i can say that on my trip to athens i witnessed the death of one work and the birth of another as inspired by papaioannou's description of these last performances of ...

Photo: mehmet kerem özel / danzon When I enter the auditorium to find my seat, I see a man sitting on the edge of the apron of an empty stage. The man, whom I know to be the creator of the work that is about to start, is holding a small piece of stone in his hand; fiddling it and also eyeing the audience. Then a technician appears on the stage and pulls the chair under the man. However he doesn't fall down. On the contrary, he is frozen as if there is still a chair under him; or maybe there wasn’t even a chair at the very beginning. A little while later, he comes to his feet with a gesture as if standing up from the nonexistent chair and leaves the small stone in front of him to the ground. We hear the bang of the stone thanks to the microphones on the ground. He tidies himself up, softly brushing his shoulders off as if to sweep dust; gives us a last look and turns his back. There are two patches of white on the upper side of his shoulders looking like angel’s wings. He di...