Exhibition about the great Greek dancer and choreographer at the Cultural Centre “Hellenic Cosmos”
The Foundation of the Hellenic World, in cooperation with the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation, presents at the Cultural Centre “Hellenic Cosmos” the exhibition “Yannis Metsis – Athens Experimental Ballet”.
The exhibition is a tribute to the work of the important Greek dancer, choreographer and teacher Yannis Metsis (1931-2010), who died unexpectedly on the 5th of August 2010.
The exhibition presents unknown material from the personal archive of Yannis Metsis, donated by him to the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation, as well as material from the personal collections of his friends and associates, from the performances of the historic group “Yannis Metsis Dance Group”, later called “Athens Experimental Ballet”. More specifically, costumes, accessories, costume drawings, performance programmes, photographic material, notes and audiovisual documentation. The costumes that are included in the exhibition are made by Liza Zaimi, set and costume designer, who has collaborated with Yannis Metsis through all the years of his group’s artistic activity.
The exhibition aims at making knownthe work of Yannis Metsis, underlining his important contribution to:
1. Presenting classical ballet repertoire, since he staged full-length ballet works or extracts for the first time in Greece, based on classical choreographies (for example Paquita, La fille mal gardee, Coppelia and other.)
2. Creating the first works of neo-classical ballet in the history of Greek modern dance based on music by international composers of the 20th century, but also contemporary Greek composers (Episode, Episode No. 2, The Stranger, Dances, Nomine Jesu, Antigone, The Choice: Kassiane and Theophilos and many more)
3. Making a name for the music of Greek composers (such as Sisilianos, Skalkotas, Theodorakis, Hatzidakis, Plessas, Papathanassiou) through the choreographies of Metsis, but also through works that were commisioned by the Athens Experimental Ballet to Greek composers (Dimitris Marangopoulos, Theodoros Antoniou).
All the above are represented in the exhibition by means of the visual and other informative material from different performances that were presented in the period 1965-1985.
Apart from the exhibition, which will last from the 21st of November 2011 to May 2012, a new volume was published, including rare archival material that was found during the research, as well as original texts by Yannis Metsis associates. The curation and design of the exhibition and the catalogue was carried out by the scenographer Dr. Sofia Pantouvaki.
Educational programme
The exhibition is accompanied by the educational programme “Yannis Metsis: Choreographing the Music” for students of all educational levels. Through the guided tour to the exhibition the children discover the contribution of the choreographer Yannis Metsis as expressed by his dance group “Athens Experimental Ballet”, but also through his school which trained the contemporary generations of dancers.
From 21 November 2011 - May 2012
