Valasia Simeon

dance artist / choreographer

ABOUT

Valasia Simeon ( Greece), is a dance artist, choreographer and movement educator for people with and without disabilities.
She is a graduate of the National School of Dance (2009) and the School of Mechanical Engineering of the Technological Educational Institute of Central Macedonia (2005).
In 2009, as a scholar of the “Koula Pratsika‘’ Foundation, she attended the postgraduate program in choreography at the ArtEZ University of the Arts in the Netherlands, where she researched  the  interaction of body with space as  means for both  body transformations and movement creation   within   the lens of design.
Using  design as a tool for    reading and investigating the way movement manifests itself in the material environment in which we live and move , as well as objects and installations,  she creates dance performances through the fusion and intersection   of performing arts  with  other   spatial practices. (graphic design , visual arts , crafting ,architecture )

In 2010, she created the work “Daidalus” a choreographically study on space, which was presented at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin.
In 2012, in collaboration with Dansatelier Dance Centre   in Rotterdam, she choreographed the project “These Little Nothings,” with which she participated in the Punch Festival of rising choreographers in Amsterdam. Other works of her   have been supported and presented by different organizations and festivals including: Artez University of the Arts, (2011),  Greek choreographers Festival Athens,(2009),Onassis Stegi (2023). She has also   collaborated with the director Zacharias Mavroeidis, as a movement advisor for the film ‘’ The Defunct’ (2019)
In recent years, due to a health problem, she has been experiencing mobility problems.
As such she researches the senses as means for stimulating movement and memory.
Through the use of objects as sensory encounters, she develops a range of sensorial practices and unfolds movement possibilities in relation to her own particular physicallity and experience in dissability, which she then transcribes through a collaboration process into a set of sensory objects and choreographic scores as a way to document, transmit and enhance movement exploration among different audiences and within an interactive enviroment.
In the framework of this research , she created the solo ” Ephemeral Body” (2023)in collaboration with Onasis Stegi . In addition, she gives lectures and she designs and curates workshops for people with all abilities in several places in Greece, promoting the idea of integration and collaboration between people of all identities.




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PROJECTS

Ephemeral Body (2023)

Ephemeral Body ,a solo dance performance by Valasia Simeon  portrays   the reconstruction of the performer’s body who after a health problem she know encounters kinetic disability

How does the body remembers what once felt?
Using a paper architectonic folded  object, which has been her last dancing partner   before disability came  into her life as a  bearer of memories , that folds inside it the traces of her movement, the performance explores the experience  of the body through  the  object and the   memories that it carries.

Penetrating into the materiality of the  object,, the performer unfolds inner gestures by transforming the object into live moving images punctuated of moments and experiences   until fold by fold, she finally reconstructs her self .

Therefore the matter – fold acquires form through the folds of the soul,  and   it  becomes the medium for unfolding the performer’s self ,in  accordance with the G. Deleuze’s   theory of the Fold.  

Through an inner dialogue, body and object breathe life into each other, while at the same time they construct, develop and create spaces where dipoles, such as movement – stasis , human -non human coexist and correlate incorporating in that way the changes of life. 

These Little Nothings (2012)

These Little Nothings is a dance performance about the forgotten time in urban cities. By zooming in and out of ways in which bodies move and communicate physically in space , it evokes questions about movement, stillness and time. How much time do we allow ourselves for listening ? for seeing ,for doing nothing ? How fast can we go ?And what do we lose on the way ? In a world that is rushing upwards to the extent that it becomes almost impossible to follow it , the body seems to have been caught in its own wings
choreography : Valasia Simeon
performers : Anand Bolder, Marin Lemic, Alma Sua, Donna Scholten, Daniela Cruz
Dramaturgy : Konstantina Georgelou.
Light design : Remko van Wely
Sound design : Hugo Moralles
Production : Dansateliers  Art House , Rotterrdam, NL
Presentations : Schouwburg Theatre Rotterdam,,,Punch Festival , Amsterdam

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Lug Nut / Vortex (2011)

Lug Nut is an ever changing human –sculpture resulted from the  collaboration of the choreographer Valasia Simeon with the musician Thanasis Dontsis.The work uses the graphical representations of Thanasis Dontsis’s musical patterns, as an analogy for the way our everyday routines are developed in modern times.
Starting from the circularity of Thanasis Dontsis’s sound patterns and in combination with the visual imaginary arised by these patterns,, the work transcribes this into a volume in space through the simultaneous movement of two bodies, bringing in mind what we experience when we look out of the window of a moving train.
Choreography : Valasia Simeon
Performers : Aida Guirro Salinas, Mirella Castagna
original Music : Thanasis Dontsis
supported by: Artez University of the Arts , Arnhem , NL
Presentations : Artez Institute of the Arts, Arnhem,2010 and Theater a/d Rijn, 2011, Arnhem, Netherlands  

Daidalus (2010)

Daidalus is both a journey into a labyrinthian space and into our inner self. Having as a starting point the labyrinthian structure, the choreographic work negotiates with  the dynamics of a transformable space  and  body transformations. It is a dance performance between a body and an object.
By performing partly as a unit as well as apart, body and object sculpt each other, creating a series of body transformations and visual landscapes, that invite the viewer to witness upon his/her own labyrinthian journey.

Choreography : Valasia Simeon
performer:Francois Renault
Presentation : Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts ,June 2010

Alles Gut (2009)

Alles Gut : Having as a canvas Franz Kafka’s novel work ‘’ The Metamorphosis , the work    is the physical manifestation of  a person’s attempt to live  and confront with the forms of authority that  exist    within a group .
Choreography : Valasia Simeon
Performers : , Antonis Vais, Aura Kavoura , Michalis Theophanous , Giorgos Androulakis , Julie Ioannidou
Created with the support of Hellenic Dance Company
presentations : Athens International Dance Festival, May 2009,
Theatre Roes, Festival of the Greek choreographers Association,2010

WORKSHOPS

Syn Project : movement workshop for people with and without disabilities

Syn project :Syn is a series of inclusive movement workshops , designed for people with all abilities. Through a sequence of exercises raised from dance practices and in fusion with visual arts, the workshop aims to introduce dance to people with all abilities  as a way of learning to move and collaborate  together , creating thus, a ground for diverge and equitable societies.
Created with the support of  Akropoditi International Dance Festival, Syros , Greece , 2016-2018
presentations : Asocciation of people with mobility problems ”Perpato , Komotini , 2015 , Akropoditi Interational Dance Festival Syros, Greece, (2016-2018)
more aspects of exercises :https://vimeo.com/728391222
Open panel discussion for inclusive practices:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOopiv

RESEARCH AND VISUAL WORKS

Fold research project / unfolding bodies movement and practices

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A research on the senses as means for stimulating movement and its poetic documentation/ writing

Fo/d : unfolding bodies .movement and practices

Similar to how a folded paper οr garment carries the traces of the movement of the body that once touched it, ”Fold project is a symbolic representation of one’s experience and motion
Drawing on Deleuze’s concept of the fold as a process that moves between the exterior landscape (material ) and the interior (subject-soul ) the project investigates how one’s own experience and movement can be stimulated and documented through their interactions with external material ( objects , patterns ).


Using a folded object as a tapestry of recall a and in combination with somatic practices as well as different sensory modes such touch and vision to stimulate movement. the research aims at developing a practice of embodiment that moves from the landscape of the material to the landscape of one’s own movement.

The research Folds of bodies and movement led to the creation, of the solo performance ’Ephemeral Body (Onassis Stegi , 2023) as well as in a range of visual works- poetic documentation of movement.

VISUAL ARTWORKS:POETIC DOCUMENTATION OF MOVEMENT THROUGH DESIGN AND CRAFTING PRACTICES

Visual works that raised out of my investigations on the Fold practice that manifest movement memories from my dance experience and their development within my disability

Fold : the act of bending something over another