BAMbill

Transverse Orientation

DATE:
Nov 7—11, 2022

LOCATION:
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House

RUN TIME:
1 hr 45 min

Conceived and directed by Dimitris Papaioannou

Season Sponsor:

Leadership support for BAM Access Programs provided by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation

Leadership support for programming in the Howard Gilman Opera House provided by:

Leadership support for theater and dance at BAM provided by The SHS Foundation

Leadership support for theater at BAM provided by The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc. and The Shubert Foundation, Inc.

Leadership support for dance at BAM provided by:

Additional support provided by Onassis Foundation USA

Transverse Orientation

Conceived – Visualized + Directed by Dimitris Papaioannou

With Damiano Ottavio Bigi, Šuka Horn, Jan Möllmer, Breanna O’Mara, Tina Papanikolaou, Łukasz Przytarski, Christos Strinopoulos, Michalis Theophanous

Music Antonio Vivaldi

Set Design Tina Tzoka & Loukas Bakas

Sound Composition + Design Coti K.

Costume Design Aggelos Mendis

Collaborative Lighting Designer Stephanos Droussiotis

Music Supervisor Stephanos Droussiotis

Sculptures + Special Constructions - Props Nectarios Dionysatos

Mechanical Inventions Dimitris Korres

Creative - Executive Producer + Assistant Director Tina Papanikolaou

Assistant Directors + Rehearsal Directors Pavlina Andriopoulou & Drossos Skotis

Assistant to the Set Designers Tzela Christopoulou

Assistant to the Sound Composer Martha Kapazoglou

Assistant to the Costume Designer Aella Tsilikopoulou

Special Constructions - Props Assistant Eva Tsambasi

Photography + Cinematography Julian Mommert

Technical Director Manolis Vitsaxakis

Assistant to the Technical Director Marios Karaolis

Stage Manager – Sound Engineer + Props Constructions David Blouin

Props Master Tzela Christopoulou

Lighting Programmer Stephanos Droussiotis

Set adaptation Evangelos Xenodochidis

Costumes Construction Litsa Moumouri, Efi Karantasiou, Islam Kazi

Stage Technicians Kostas Kakoulidis, Evgenios Anastopoulos, Panos Koutsoumanis

Lighting Constructions Miltos Athanasiou

Silicone Baby made by Joanna Bobrzynska-Gomes

Props Team Natalia Fragkathoula, Marilena Kalaitzantonaki, Timothy Laskaratos, Anastasis Meletis, Antonis Vassilakis

Executive Production 2WORKS in collaboration with POLYPLANITY Productions

Executive Production Associate Vicky Strataki

Executive Production Assistant Kali Kavvatha

Props Production Manager Pavlina Andriopoulou

International Relations + Communications Manager Julian Mommert

A production of ONASSIS STEGI

Created to be premiered at ONASSIS STEGI (2021)

Co-Produced by Festival d'Avignon, Biennale de la danse de Lyon 2021, Dance Umbrella / Sadler's Wells Theatre, Fondazione Campania dei Festival - Napoli Teatro Festival Italia, Grec Festival de Barcelona, Holland Festival – Amsterdam, Luminato (Toronto) / TO Live, New Vision Arts Festival (Hong Kong), Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, Saitama Arts Theatre / ROHM Theatre Kyoto, Stanford Live / Stanford University, Teatro Municipal do Porto, Théâtre de la Ville - Paris / Théatre du Châtelet, UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance

With the support of Festival Aperto (Reggio Emilia), Festival de Otoño de la Comunidad de Madrid, HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, National Arts Centre (Ottawa), New Baltic Dance Festival, ONE DANCE WEEK Festival, P.P. Culture Enterprises Ltd, TANEC PRAHA International Dance Festival, Teatro della Pergola – Firenze, Torinodanza Festival / Teatro Stabile di Torino - Teatro Nazionale

Funded by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports

Dimitris Papaioannou’s work is supported by MEGARON – THE ATHENS CONCERT HALL

About the Artist

Dimitris Papaioannou

Born in Athens in 1964, Dimitris Papaioannou gained early recognition as a painter and comics artist before his focus shifted to the performing arts as a director, choreographer, performer, and designer of sets, costumes, make-up, and lighting.

He was a student of the iconic Greek painter Yannis Tsarouchis before studying at the Athens School of Fine Arts.

He formed Edafos Dance Theatre in 1986 as an initial vehicle for his original stage productions, hybrids of physical theatre, experimental dance, and performance art.

Originating in the underground scene, the company challenged perceptions and gained an expanding number of dedicated followers. MEDEA (1993) marked the company’s transition to big theatres and is considered its iconic work. The Edafos company spanned 17 years to 2002 and set its indelible stamp on the arts scene in Greece.

Papaioannou became widely known in 2004, as the creator of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games.

Restarting in 2006, with his production 2, he found himself in the odd position of creating avant-garde works in major theatres in Athens that enjoyed record-breaking long runs, with over 100,000 tickets sold.

In 2009, he began using this platform to create theatrical experiments on a large scale: NOWHERE (2009) for the inauguration of the renovated Greek National Theatre and INSIDE (2011) for the Pallas Theater.

In 2012, stripping down his work to bare essentials, he created PRIMAL MATTER for the Athens Festival, with him back on stage after a ten-year absence.

On the same quest for simplicity, he created STILL LIFE (2014), the first work that toured extensively in Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia.

In 2015, he created the Opening Ceremony for the Baku 2015 First European Games.

Papaioannou’s 25 productions range from mass spectacles with thousands of performers to intimate pieces. They have appeared in a wide variety of venues, from his famous underground squat theater in Athens to the ancient theatre in Epidaurus and from Olympic stadiums to Théâtre de la Ville – Paris and Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza.

In 2017, he created THE GREAT TAMER, his first international co-commissioned work with ten co-producers, including the Festival d’Avignon. THE GREAT TAMER, presented at BAM in 2019, toured for two and half years through 4 continents, 23 countries, and 38 cities. It was presented a total of 112 times before over 90,000 spectators. The work was bestowed with the special award Europe Theatre Prize in Rome in 2017, and Papaioannou was nominated in 2019 for the Olivier award for “outstanding achievement in dance.”

In 2018, Dimitris became the first artist to create a new, full-length work for Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. SINCE SHE premiered in May 2018 in Wuppertal (Germany) and was presented in Amsterdam, London, Athens, Paris, and Catanzaro.

In 2020, Dimitris premiered INK, a duet performed by Šuka Horn and Dimitris Papaioannou, which premiered at the Torinodanza Festival and had been invited to the 75th Festival d’Avignon in 2021.

His second international co-production, TRANSVERSE ORIENTATION, premiered in June 2021 and is touring to more than 30 cities worldwide. The production was nominated for ‘Best New Dance Production’ by the Oliver Award in 2022 in London.

dimitrispapaioannou.com