Dimitris Papaioannou

Painting, circus, comedy, costumes, sets, lighting… nothing escapes Dimitris Papaioannou’s overflowing talent. His new piece for 8 dancers, set to music by Antonio Vivaldi, initially scheduled for January 2021, was premiered in early June at the Lyon Dance Biennial.

At the beginning, there is the notion of succession. The idea that Theseus’ murder of the Minotaur is a metaphor for the murder of the old by the young, for that moment when the son takes the place of the father. Through a process of association, this led me elsewhere, to the relationship with light: in the same way that insects orient themselves in relation to the moon, I feel that the young male performers on stage navigate under the influence of the appearance of the woman who comes, like a planet approaching them, as if they were driven by the metamorphoses of this female presence.

Dimitris Papaioannou