Griffón Dance Company
Cecil Mikroutsikou
Born in Athens in 1979. Graduated from the State School of Dance in 1999. As a dancer, she has worked with many contemporary dance ensembles on productions in Greece and abroad. She has been collaborating on a regular basis with Griffόn Dance Company since 2000.
Mikroutsikou has choreographed more than 60 theatre productions for the National Theatre of Greece and National Theatre of Northern Greece, Regional & Municipal Theaters in Greece, Athens & Epidaurus Festival, Athens Concert Hall etc. She teaches contemporary dance and improvisation in drama schools in Athens.
Yiannis Nikolaidis
Born in Athens in 1977. In 2002, he graduated from the State School of Dance in Athens. As a dancer he has collaborated with the companies Theatrokinisi, Airesis, Choreftes, Griffόn, Zita, Proschima, Lathos Kinisi, Oktana, Medea Electronique and Yelp, and with choreographers such as Dimitris Papaioannou, Sofia Spryratou, Natassa Zouka, Andonis Foniadakis, Angeliki Stelatou, Angie Smalis, Alexandra Veierstal, Myrto Kontoni, Rick Nodine, Agni Papadeli-Rossetou, and others in dance, theatre and opera productions. As a choreographer himself, he has done the choreography for theatre plays and TV spots and also choreographed a solo of his piece Blindspot, presented in London, Zagreb and Sophia as part of the City to City Cabaret (2013). Nikolaidis teaches contemporary dance in dance and drama schools in Athens.
Anthony Palaskas (Anthony P)
Composer of contemporary electronic music. In 2008 he completed his M.A. in Computer Music at the National University of Ireland. He released his first four albums as a member of the band Stereo Nova and later, as “aLfa.P.”, he released the album TV Head. In 1999, Anthony P. and Andriana Touliatou founded the band Supermarket, realising three albums until 2004.
Palaskas has been composing music for contemporary dance since 2005. He has worked with Lemurius dance company (founded by Ioannis Mantafounis), Luna Park dance company (founded by Kosmas Kosmopoulos), Griffón dance company (founded by Ioanna Portolou), and many others. His work has been presented in dance festivals in Greece and abroad.
In 2013 he composed the music pieces, “Sonic Landscapes #1” and “Sonic Landscapes #2” utilizing sounds from the magnetosphere and pulsars respectively. Palaskas gave a series of lectures on the topic of “Astronomy and Music” at schools, universities and museums in Athens and Thessaloniki, in collaboration with astrophysicist Fiori Anastasia Metallinou.
Ioanna Portolou
Ioanna Portolou studied Fine Arts at Central St. Martin’s School of Arts and at Slade School of Fine Art in London and continued her studies in dance and choreography at Laban Centre, London. Following her return to Greece, she founded Griffόn Dance Company in 2000, with which she has choreographed 15 dance productions. Running parallel to her artistic work is her educational activities. In recent years, Portolou has been teaching improvisation to children and adolescents in standard schools and dance schools.
WORKSHOP
Chaos and Order
Cycle B: July 18 – 1 August
In this workshop, Griffón Dance Company examines the relationship between the polis and the citizen, investigating the notions of ‘chaos’ and ‘order’ through the perspective of groups and individuals. Under which circumstances are we led from one condition (group) to another (individual)? What are the limits of one’s freedom and what of the freedom of others? How can these reflections be expressed through movement on stage? The workshop will draw on original kinetic material, studying the schematic relationship between group and individual, as well as investigating how the sound creatively relates to the issue in question, to the surrounding space and the participants involved.