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The 3rd Tango Festival in Athens 26 - 28 October 2007

Worldwide known tango masters, as well as shows, exhibitions and live orchestras will dazzle you in Athens.

Tango, the dance with the stop “Baille Con Carte”, is one of the most fascinating of all dances. Originating in Spain or Morocco, the Tango was introduced to the New World by the Spanish settlers, eventually coming back to Spain with Black and Creole influences. Ballroom Tango originated in the lower class of Buenos Aires, especially in the “Bario de las Ranas”.

The Festival will take place this year at the Estia of Nea Smyrni, a neoclassical building near Syngrou Avenue. The classes will be held in the two main halls of the building.
For more information please check > www.estia-ns.gr

The milonga is set on Friday 26 Ocober and will be at the Ianos Bookstore, 24 Stadiou Street, Athens, from 22.30am. Tango happenings and music from Dj Elia. The milonga-masters’ show is on Saturday 27 October and will take place at the Estia Neas Smyrnis. Live orchestra from Locos de Atar and after music from Dj Carlos.

For more information visit > http://www.athenstango-festival.gr/index.asp

Thessaloniki’s Demetria Festival was established in 1966 > Richard Strauss’s ‘Salome’ is being staged at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall. In this production, the story takes place in a lunatic asylum.

As early as the golden age of Byzantium, about the 14th century AD, Thessaloniki hosted a regular spectacular “New Festival” each autumn. In modern times, since October 1966, a reborn festival bearing the name of Saint Demetrius, also known as the Great Martyr, Megalomartyr in Greek, and as he whose tomb gives forth a sweet fragrance, Myrovlitis in Greek, takes place here. Saint Demetrius is Thessalonikis’ Patron Saint.

This year’s festival is organized in several cycles of events. Opera is being represented by Verdi’s “Aida” performed by the Opera of Thessaloniki several weeks ago without the customary camels and elephants for the triumphant march in Act II, and by Strauss’s “Salome”, famous for its dance of the seven veils. The daughter of Herodias, Salome, the Bible tells us, danced for her stepfather, Herod Antipas, and demanded the head of John Baptist as a reward.

In Thessaloniki, the director Nikos Petropoulos transferred the action to the early 20th century, when Richard Strauss composed the opera and when the founder of the psychoanalytic school of thought, Sigmund Freud, created his theory of sexual desire as the primary motivational energy of human life. A hundred years have passed since those vigorous days. Understandably, Salome’s story as told in Thessaloniki’s Concert Hall takes place in a lunatic asylum.

Incidentally, the Thessaloniki Concert Hall has just embarked upon its new season with a rather limited program. Its stable, yet meager, funding, which amounts to just 1.5 million euros, has resulted in very few events taking place this autumn. Considering the Athens Concert Hall’s funding, the sum for its northern sister seems ludicrous. At any rate, there are no flamboyant opera openings in this city. Do not imagine black-tie at the inaugurations in this Balkan capital. Instead you come across the arty, mini-skirted, bearded and habitually casually dressed local glitterati. During intermissions, one can easily chart the social and cultural changes of the, once, second city of two empires, reduced today to an unremarkable provincial capital.

However, and just for the record, Maria Callas once sang here. In one of her first appearances, in July 1940, la Divina was one of “the girls” in the choir of the Greek National Opera, when it was touring with “Die Fledermaus”. At any rate, no one remembered the event, with all the Callas festivities also happening in Thessaloniki.

Back to Strauss’s opera where the dangerous, sensual, tempting character of Salome has John the Baptist beheaded just to touch her lips to his. A Thessalonian actor and a C.P. Cavafy scholar, Nikos Naoumidis, reminded me that there might have been other reasons as well for the beheading, beyond those in Oscar Wilde’s imagination.

There is a Cavafy poem titled “Salome” which was not published during the poet’s lifetime. In it, Salome instigates the death of John the Baptist as part of a futile effort to win the interest of a young sophist who seems indifferent to the charms of heterosexual love. And when Salome presents him with John the Baptist’s head, the sophist rejects it, remarking in jest: “Dear Salome, I would have liked better to have received your own head.” Now, taking this jest seriously, the hopelessly wounded Salome lets herself be beheaded and her head is duly brought to the sophist on a golden platter. He, however, rejects it in disgust and turns to studying the dialogues of Plato. “Salome” will be performed another two nights, on October 17th and 20th.

As part of the Demetria Festival program, the National Theater of Northern Greece opens its winter season with a tribute to Nikos Kazantzakis, this time on the 50th anniversary of the death of one of Greece’s most important writers and thinkers.

Although the play “Julian the Apostate” was written some decades before Gore Vidal’s homonymous best-seller, it is reminiscent of the spirit of the novel. Could Vidal have ever read the French translation Kazantzakis did in 1948?

“Julian the Apostate” is a heretical, provocative, grandiloquent play little known to a wider audience. It was written in 1939, in the house where Shakespeare’s daughter lived, in Stratford-upon-Avon, under the roar of combat warplanes. Through the historical figure of Julian, Kazantzakis expresses his personal thoughts, creating a drama of extreme situations, rapid plot development and bombastic theatricality. He focuses on the contradictory and unpredictable personality of the Emperor, on the lonely struggle of a fighter and philosopher who sought freedom and self-awareness since he was a child. The Roman Emperor Julian, AD 331-363, linked his name to the effort to convert the Empire to the ancient Greek religion, as he was deeply influenced by his education, which was focused on antiquity. The Church branded him an enemy of Christianity and he was stigmatized with the epithet Paravatis, Transgressor, or Apostatis, the Apostate, although some believe that what he had really attempted to do was to reconcile the Greek spirit with the Christian religion.

Why did Thessaloniki’s National Theater of Northern Greece choose this play? Well, perhaps because of a paragraph, from Gore Vidal’s well-researched historical novel,  that perfectly suits our TV-adoring city: “In every city there is a special class whose only apparent function is to gather in public places and look at famous men… An elephant would have pleased them most, but since there was no elephant, the mysterious Prince Julian would have to do.”

Related Links >
http://www.dimitriathess.gr [available only in Greek language]

http://www.thessalonikicity.gr/English/index.htm

Mama Africa Festival > Athens > today Saturday
The Mama Africa Festival will reach its peak on Saturday, with live shows by Max Romeo, One Drop Forward, Michalis Tzouganakis and others, at the Petra Theater. The event further includes performances, African delicacies, exhibitions and much more.
At the Petra Theater, Damari Petroupolis, Athens, tel 210 5012402.

Nature Regrowth Event > Athens > today Saturday
The Bafi refuge in Parnitha will host a one-day conference on the Natural Farming method with clay seed-balls and how they can be planted on Greek mountains this Saturday, starting at 10.30 a.m. The method was launched by Japan’s Masanobu Fukuoka.
For information call 210 2469050 and 210 3833168.

Documentary Festival > Lavrion > to October 9
The 10th Mediterranean Documentary Festival will kick off at Lavrion’s Technological Park on Saturday. Apart from screenings of Greek and foreign films, the festival further features a concert by Savina Yannatou on Saturday, exhibitions and a discussion.
For information call 210 8253065 and 210 5033050-2.

The Film Festival will present six films from the contemporary Brazilian film industry at the Weaving Mill in Nicosia throughout the coming month. All films will be screened with English subtitles, with a great mix and match of genres to suit all tastes.

If you fancy a tragically romantic story, then go along to watch O Maiaor Amor do Mundo, The Greatest Love of All, directed by Carlos Diegues and awarded best film at the Montreal Film Festival in 2006. Born in a favela from an unknown mother, an astrophysicist working in the United States named Antonio returns to Brazil with the aim of finding his true roots. Suffering from an incurable disease, he discovers the reality of Brazil but also finds love in the arms of a girl from the favela. Violent and tragic at the same time, this film takes the audience through a roller coaster of emotions in a non stop search for the comprehension of the human soul.

If you’re in the mood for watching a documentary, then don’t miss a film dedicated to one of Brazil’s most famous songwriters and poets, Vinicius de Morales (1913-1980). He wrote some of the most memorable Brazilian poems of the 20th century and the lyrics of dozens of the best bossa nova and samba songs like ‘Garota de Ipanema’ and ‘A Felicidade’. The great appeal of the Vinicius documentary is the way it is intimately directed by his ex-son in law, experienced filmmaker Miguel Faria, and is co-produced by his daughter Susana.

Spending, drinking and marrying wife after wife, nine in total, there is not a single dull moment in this greatly deserved homage to his life. Sit back and enjoy archive footage of the man in action, interviews with his partners, friends and family, on-screen recitation of some of his best poems, and musical numbers played live by Brazilian stars.

Brazilian Cultural Month > October 2 until October 25 > 4th Brazilian Film Festival with six film screenings from the contemporary Brazilian Film Industry. The Weaving Mill, 69-71 Lefkonos Street, Phaneromeni, Old Nicosia, tel 22 762275.

October 16 > Piano Recital with Arnaldo Cohen with works by Levy, Gnattali, Braga, Villa-Lobos and others. PASYDY Auditorium, Nicosia. 8.30pm. Tel 22 663871.

October 25 > Opening of contemporary at exhibition by Anna Maria Maiolino. Opens October 25, 8pm, until December 15. Pharos Centre for Contemporary Art, 24 Demosthenis Severis Avenue, Nicosia, tel 22 663871.

October 26 > Brazilian Contemporary Music with Ive Mendes. Half Note Music Club, Corner of Saripolou and Socratous Street, Limassol. 10.30pm. £10 including one drink. Tel 25 377050 and 96 531315.

A Brazilian book month will also be organised within the framework of events, organised in association with the Moufflon bookshop, showcasing the richness and diversity of Brazilian culture. Books will be available from the Moufflon Bookshop in Nicosia and at all venues of the Brazilian Culture month.

For further info visit www.thepharostrust.org or call 22 663871.

Theodorakis Orchestra Concert, Saturday and Sunday
The Mikis Theodorakis Popular Orchestra will join forces with well-known Greek singers and artists for two three-hour concerts with the parallel screening of artworks, in aid of those stricken by the recent fires, at the Herod Atticus Theater. Tickets are available at the Hellenic Festival box office, 39 Panepistimiou Street, Athens, tel 210 3272000.
At the Ancient Herod Atticus Theater, Acropolis, Athens, nearest metro station “Acropolis”.

Multiculturalism Festival in Athens > To Sunday
The Anthropos Greek Center for the Promotion of Volunteerism is organizing a mini-festival with concerts, dance, video screenings, photography exhibitions, international delicacies, workshops and more at Heroon Square in Maroussi, in collaboration with various NGOs and immigrant communities.
For information call 210.883.8914, or visit www.anthropos.gr

Guided Walking Tour of Athens > Sunday
The Friends of the Australian Archaeological Institute are organizing a guided walking tour of central Athens’s Byzantine monuments with Dr Stavros Paspalas, which will start at the Aghia Triada Church, 21 Filellinon Street, near Syntagma Square, at noon on Sunday.
AAIA, for information call 210 9243256.

Colorful dolls, marionettes, masks and traditional figures from 13 different countries and three continents will come together in Kilkis, northern Greece, and revive old myths and true stories at the 9th International Puppet Theater and Pantomime Festival.

For 15 days, a total of 23 ensembles from Greece, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Hungary, Canada, Brazil, India, Syria and Kazakhstan will entertain their audience with 82 performances, four seminars, 10 workshops, an exhibition of puppets and other events that will be held in the city’s Public Library, streets and store windows.

Each country represented at the festival will present aspects of its traditional local culture as well as contemporary tales through performances of pantomime, marionettes and puppets. There is a lot on the festival’s bill, from performances starring feet and legs, acrobatics, props created from trash, variety puppet shows, juggling and singing, shadow theater and plays using masks, shadows and videos.

Among these are “The Princess of Pages and the Prince of Colors” (Greece), “The Stork Man” (Spain), “9 Short Plays” (Jogesh Pantomime Academy, India), “The Story of the Girl in Blue” (Hungary), “The King’s Journey” (Germany), “Sonnet With Four Feet” (Italy and Argentina), “The Belly Button” (Canada), “Upside-down Dreams” (France), “Garbage Tales” (Brazil), “Anxiety” (India), “Golfo 2.3Beta” (Greece) and many more improvised performances.

Related Links > http://www.kilkis-festival.gr/festival/index.php

Reworks Festival > Thessaloniki, Today and Tomorrow

Thessaloniki port is hosting the two-day Reworks Festival, which features concerts, from electronica to hip hop, reggae and soul, music showcases, screenings, art installations and exhibitions, performances, happenings and more.

Reworks Festival, Thessaloniki Port, www.reworks.gr