Residency of Mairi Pardalaki, hosted by Dance Laboratory Rhodes in partnership with Istanbul Fringe Festival & Dance Days Chania
©AnastasiaGiannaki
Dünya Maskara is a bilingual Turkish-Greek project inspired by 19th-century archives written in “karamanlidika" - a dialect and writing system of the Turkish language using the Greek alphabet. It was common among the Rum Orthodox population of the Ottoman Empire. Poet Cagla Meknuze and EFFEA Artist and choreographer Mairi Pardalaki combined “karamanlidika” archive themes with their own writings, reflecting on love, death, religion and questioning the place of women within them as seen today.
The Dünya Maskara EFFEA residency started on 19 July at the Kinitiras Lab in Athens, bringing together choreographer Mairi Pardalaki and performers Elina Demirtzioglou, Katerina Gevetzi, Sevasti Zafeira and Marietta Manaroli. Based on the performance texts written by Cagla and Mairi, the group started blending movement with live voice, giving shape to Dünya Maskara. Musician Anna Linardou joined the residency to provide directions on how the spoken words could be performed.
©Mairi Pardalaki
During the residency, Mairi also met with costume designer Dimitra Liakoura, to work on the Dünya Maskara costumes. One of the main “karamanlidika” books whose content takes part in the performance (Kallifonos Seirin by Panagiotis Kiltzanidis, 1859) is decorated with a print technique named Ebru. Ebru is also known as marbling and flourished during the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey. Using Ebru as an inspiration, Dimitra and Mairi met Ebru artist Katerina Momitsa who created a new Ebru print for the project. Mixed with contemporary, casual outfits, the costumes of the project took shape.
The team travelled to Dance Days Chania Festival in Crete to present their work at the old mosque of Küçük Hassan, by the old port of the town, on 25 July <3
Soon, the team will be heading to the Dance Laboratory Rhodes, the leading festival of the residency, for a performance (04/09) and a workshop (05/09). Lastly, will be at the Istanbul Fringe Festival for another residency, a performance (21/09) and an artist talk (22/09).
©South Space for Photography