Chara Kotsali, a choreographer and performer from the contemporary Greek scene, has long developed a body of work in which movement, voice, and language intertwine as tools of political and perceptual inquiry. With IT’S THE END OF THE AMUSEMENT PHASE, she stages a choreographic marathon for three women that traverses history, memory, and the present without ever settling into a stable line of meaning. The dancing body remains the core focus, while sound and speech operate as compositional materials that fracture the idea of progress as a linear and reassuring trajectory. On stage, the past seems to lie ahead and the future behind: the performers push their physical and emotional resources to the limit, shaping a choreography that holds together individual and collective bodies, pleasure and propaganda, advancement and collapse. Rather than narrating a crisis, the work inhabits its emotional landscape, placing under tension what we still, stubbornly, call progress.
Chara Kotsali is a choreographer, performer, and educator based in Greece. She graduated from the Rallou Manou Professional School of Dance, where she currently teaches contemporary dance, and she also collaborates with the Marmarinou Professional Dance School. She has been invited as a lecturer and choreographer at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD) and at numerous festivals across Europe. She holds a degree in Theatre Studies and a master’s degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology, as well as professional training in drums at the Modern Music School.
Her research focuses on choreography and performance through an expanded approach that integrates methodologies from anthropology, documentary art, music, and other performative languages, with a particular attention to the politics of sound and movement. Her practice also includes writing, field recording, and DIY sound composition. Her works have been presented in numerous venues and international festivals; she was selected for Aerowaves Twenty24 and Twenty26, as well as for the Moving Balkans Platform 2026.
In 2023 she presented her first solo choreographic work, to be possessed, at Onassis Dance Days. The work was selected for Aerowaves Twenty24 and for the [8:tension] Young Choreographers’ Series at the ImPulsTanz Festival in 2023, where it received a special jury mention. In July 2024 she premiered her second work, borborygmi, at the Athens Epidaurus Festival, where it received the audience award. For the 2023–2024 biennium she was a supported choreographer of Onassis Stegi within the Grand Luxe Network; in 2024–2025 she was an Onassis AiR Fellow Artist, developing within this context the research for IT’S THE END OF THE AMUSEMENT PHASE, which premiered in April 2025 at Onassis Dance Days. The work was selected for Aerowaves Twenty26 and for the Moving Balkans Platform 2026. She is also part of the Visiting Artists Programme 2025–2027. As a performer she has collaborated, among others, with Christos Papadopoulos, Euripides Laskaridis, Patricia Apergi, Iris Karayan, Sofia Mavragani, Tzeni Argyriou, Argyro Chioti, Simos Kakalas, Sofia Paschou, Dimitra Trypani, Ioanna Angelopoulou, Ermira Goro, Aliki Kazouri, Thomas Moschopoulos, Apostolia Papadamaki, Michalis Konstantatos, Medie Megas, Artemis Lampiri, Margarita Trikka, Vahid Evazzadeh, and Angela Brouskou, performing both in Greece and abroad. She has also appeared in the film Suntan by Argyris Papadimitropoulos, as well as in several short films.
She has worked as a movement director in theatre productions by major Greek directors and in 2023 received the Greek Critics Association Award for Best Theatre Choreography for The Rise of Arturo Ui, directed by Aris Biniaris. Among the directors she has collaborated with are Angeliki Papoulia and Christos Passalis, George Koutlis, Aris Biniaris, Io Voulgaraki, Argyris Xafis, Thanos Papakonstantinou, Akyllas Karazisis, Ektoras Lygizos, Anestis Azas, and Sylvia Liouliou.
From 2016 to 2022 she coordinated movement workshops at the women’s prison of Eleonas, Thebes, within the educational programmes of the Greek National Opera. She also writes for the magazine yusra.
Concept, choreography and text: Chara Kotsali
Performance and co-creation of materials: Sofia Pouchtou, Christina Skoutela, Chara Kotsali
Assistant choreographer: Vassia Zorbali
Second assistant choreographer: Clara Aguilar
Sound design and music: Anna Maria Rammou, Chara Kotsali
Set and costumes: Periklis Pravitas
Lighting design: Eliza Alexandropoulou
Dramaturgical consultancy: Dimitra Mitropoulou
External eye: Konstantina Georgelou
Executive production: TooFarEast and Chara Kotsali
Tour production and management: Chara Kotsali and Korina Vasileiadou
The research for IT’S THE END OF THE AMUSEMENT PHASE was supported by Onassis AiR and Réseau Grand Luxe. Special thanks to TROIS C-L Luxembourg, CAMPUS Paulo Cunha e Silva (Porto), Grand Studio Brussels, and L’Abri Geneva.
