Chara Kotsali’s 2023 dance solo is a rehearsal of demonic rituals. It premiered in March 2023 during Onassis Dance Days. In “to be possessed”, she summons spirits that haunt our language, our scriptures, our knowledge, our minds, and the material world itself.By exploring women’s testimonies from different cultural contexts, Kotsali lets herself become a mouthpiece for these stories about demons, exorcism and the invocation of spirits. Doing so, she presents a moving body that is forever outside the self, a form of experience that calls into question the self-sufficiency and autonomy of the individual woman.
“to be possessed” experiments with the creation of rituals of remembrance and the stirring of the multiple voices that dwell within us. Kotsali indulges in the demonic as she attempts to animate the phenomena she encounters, inviting them to reveal their overwhelming yet subversive character.
Bio
Chara Kotsali is a choreographer and performer from Athens, Greece. She graduated from the “Rallou Manou” Higher Professional School of Dance, where she currently works as a teacher of contemporary dance techniques. She also has a degree in Theater Studies and Social and Cultural Anthropology, as well as training in music. As a performer, Kotsali has worked with Christos Papadopoulos, Euripides Laskaridis, Tzeni Argyriou and many others in Greece and abroad. She has also choreographed several works of her own and works as a choreographer for theatre, most recently for Aris Biniaris’ adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s ‘The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui’, for which she was honoured with a Movement/Choreography award by the Greek ?heatre Critics’ Association. Her individual choreographic work has been showcased at Onassis Stegi, ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival and Euro-Scene Leipzig amongst others. ‘to be possessed’ received an honorary mention by Impulstanz Young Choreographers’ 8:tension Jury. She is the supported choreographer of ?nassis Stegi for 2023-2024 as part of the Grand Luxe Network, developing her new performance work.
Credits
Concept, choreography and Performance: Chara Kotsali
Dramaturg: Dimitra Mitropoulou
Artistic Consultant: Periklis Pravitas
Music and Sound Design: Jeph Vanger
Musica originale – “Furiosa”, Trascrizione e armonizzazione della sincronizzazione labiale: Dimitra Trypani
Lighting Design: Eliza Alexandropoulou
Production Credits
Produzione e tournée: Delta Pi
Commissionato e prodotto da: Onassis Stegi
Responsabile tecnico del tour: Stavros Kariotoglou (Onassis Stegi)
Cordinatore tour: Christina Liata (Onassis Stegi)
