Iris Karayan: ‘My Work Looks at Memory and Reenactment’

She is a Fulbright grantee for the year 2018-2019, planning to continue her research in affiliation with Movement Research in New York City. She teaches choreography and improvisation at professional dance schools.

Dear Iris, I am a great fan of contemporary dance. However, I know almost nothing about it in Greece. How will you describe it?

Contemporary dance in Greece and dance education has been developing over the past years. The situation in Greece has been following the trends in Europe and the US, with a delay. There are professional dance schools that offer vocational training to dancers. The students study ballet and contemporary techniques such as Graham, Limon, release techniques, improvisation and eurhythmics, ballet and contemporary movement analysis, history of dance, music, choreography, etc. There are some festivals that present contemporary dance and other festivals and venues that have in their programming contemporary dance and live performance works. There are a lot of contemporary dancers and fewer choreographers who create and produce their works. They could get funding from the Ministry of Culture, when there is a call and a state budget to subsidize contemporary artistic production, and/or by some private institutions that support and produce the contemporary live arts. A lot of Greek dancers travel mostly to Europe (Belgium, Germany, UK etc.), to continue their studies and look for work as dancers, choreographers and teachers. There are no dance or performance studies departments at the state university, meaning at a higher education level, therefore the educational status for dance studies offered in Greece is a dance teacher diploma.

Cultures with rich folk traditions always use elements of their national heritage in what now is called contemporary art. Is the same with Greek contemporary dance?

Yes, some choreographers work with the issues of historical identity and tradition. It depends on the specific work, but I would say that there are choreographers who are interested in looking at the Greek folk tradition and its elements through their contemporary works, while they develop a movement vocabulary that is influenced by traditional dancing, music, literature, folk songs, poetry etc.

What are your inspirations for creating new dances?