Resisting Extinction program

Concept: Olive Bieringa
Direction & Choreography: Olive Bieringa & Otto Ramstad
Writer: Olive Bieringa
Writing assistant: Laressa Dickey
Costume design: Kristine Gjems
Performers: Belinda Papavasiliou, Melissa Garcia Carro, Maria Papageorgiou, Ioli Kaskani, Arianna Economou, Vasiliki Tsagkari, Maria Lothe, Otto Ramstad and Olive Bieringa

Funders: Made possible with support from PAHN, Norwegian Embassy of Athens and Perform Europe, who is supported by the European Union, and is a funding scheme for the European performing arts sector. It facilitates international networking and supports inclusive, diverse, and eco-friendly touring projects across the 40 Creative Europe countries. Perform Europe emphasizes practices rooted in sustainability and inclusivity, aiming to transform the performing arts sector and ensure a balanced distribution across the continent. Perform Europe is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union and implemented by a consortium of six organisations: IETM – International network for contemporary performing arts, European Festivals Association (EFA), Circostrada, European Dance Development Network, Pearle * – Live Performance Europe and IDEA Consult.

Biographies

Vasiliki Tsagkari is a dance artist, a pedagogue and a farmer based in Southwest Greece. Her main interests are sensitivity and sensuality in movement, as well as the transformation of everyday living into physical poetry. She is a practitioner of Skinner Releasing Technique since 2017.

Ioli Kaskani is a dancer, performer from Nicosia, Cyprus. In 2021 she completed her studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London. She then continued her training in Berlin at Dart Studios Intensive, where she also started freelancing. She has worked with Charles Washington, Marcos Morau Dukowshka, Zoe Georgallis, Eva Papavasileiou, Nefeli Kentoni, Viky Kalla and Annie Khouri. She has also collaborated with the artists George Dimitriou, Max Tobin, Nefeli Kentoni, Marita Anastasi, Stella Stylianou and Pol Andres Thio in film productions for Xarkis Festival, Cyprus Contemporary Dance Platform and independent projects. In 2022 and 2023 she was a resident artist at Dance House Nicosia and in 2024 she was a resident artist at Dance House Lemesos. Her work has been presented at Open House Festival, Cyprus Choreography Platform- Parallel Events, Dance Days Chania- video dance and Athens Video Dance Project.

Belinda Papavasiliou is an artist and movement practitioner based in Cyprus. She creates performance works, installations, experimental dance films, curates sensory walks and facilitates open practice sessions and workshops. She also works as a performer, choreographer and movement director collaborating with various artists, cultural collectives and organisations in Cyprus and beyond. Her artistic practice is informed by eco somatics, practicing and working in outdoor environments in all weathers, dance and somatic practices, hiking, bodies coming together (human or other) and notions of time, materiality, reciprocity, and attunement. Belinda’s multidisciplinary approach to creation, often extends the choreographic to other mediums beyond dancing and humans in motion. Creating chaotic relations with body and sites, objects and materials she attempts to activate the sensorial realm and to create environments that can host ephemeral communities and collective participation in co-imagining radical actions and futures. Her works and collaborations were presented at Thkio Ppalies, Atelier Becoming well Again at Dance House Lefkosia, Sessions x Spel State Gallery, Prague Quadrennial, Rialto theatre, Open House Festival, Majestic State Gallery, Xarkis Festival, Cyprus Choreography Showcase, ONCA Gallery, 4bid gallery OT301 Amsterdam Cultural Center and others.

Arianna Economou is an interdisciplinary performance artist, choreographer, dancer and somatic movement teacher. As choreographer she likes to build improvisational scores so as to include the time and chance element within each performance/ bordering on the ideas of ritualistic performances. She is the founder of Echo Arts Living Arts Center and Dance Gate Lefkosia (EDN-European Dance Development Network Member) that since 2013 is a founding member organization and member organization of Dancehouse Lefkosia. Creating work for over four decades, she has developed a personal performance practice based on a mixture of somatics and embodiment techniques to create interdisciplinary performances to include text, voice and performative writing. Her choreographic work explores the interrelationships between perception, imagination and memory. Arianna has developed her own methodology in building site specific autobiographic performances.  Arianna is a pioneer in working across the divide for peace since 2004 – today within  many intercommunal projects  and programmes created, such as Sharing Echoes One Square Foot, Urban Bodies Video Dance. Her recent solo performance pr2ojects have been:  “ Home is a Journey” 2018, “Breathing Eye” 2021, “META2” 202  Happy Happier Days (2023). Her most recent performances have been in collaboration  with Melissa Garcia Carron with the work  MATTER specially  created  for the Summer Dance Festival of Arianna is now preparing a performance inspired by Ithell Colquhoun’s journey to Cyprus titled DEAR ELEKTRA to be presented 9^th and 10^th of November at Dance House Lefkosia.

Melissa Garcia Carro is a dancer and dance educator. She initially trained in contemporary dance and ballet at the National Conservatory of Toulouse in France and later continued her education, earning a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree at Laban Trinity Conservatory in London. Her dedication to continuous learning led her to further studies at the National Centre for Contemporary Dance in Angers, France. Beyond her dance practice, Melissa engaged in pedagogy, developing her skills through AMI Montessori training and expanding into special education. Melissa divides her time between teaching dance and engaging in choreographic research that leads to the creation of performances. She teaches both adult amateurs and children, aiming to enhance self-awareness, comfort, and creative empowerment.  As a choreographer, Melissa finds deep joy in movement, constantly seeking to evolve and explore new creative horizons. Her artistic pursuits are characterised by a commitment to self-transformation and the cultivation of imaginary spaces that invite immersive experiences. After a decade of living in the Cypriot countryside and embracing motherhood, her approach to choreography has undergone a profound transformation. Her artistic vision now intricately weaves together the challenges of parenthood, the specific rhythms of the Cypriot arts scene, and a deep connection to nature, which serves as a central element in her life. In her quest for balance, Melissa navigates the interaction between her creative projects, ongoing research, and the realities of family life. She embraces this balance with a philosophical commitment, considering her bodily experiences as fundamental sources of knowledge. As a result, her choreographic research emerges from a blend of professional and personal dimensions, reflecting a holistic perception of the body as a deeply expressive medium, inherently linked to the natural world around it. Collaboration is at the heart of her artistic work, as she frequently engages in creative partnerships with fellow artists, including dancers Mathilde Olivares, Pascal Caron, Zoe Georgalli, Ariana Economou, and musician Panayiotis Mina. These collaborations have not only deepened her artistic practice but have also led her to take on administrative and curatorial roles in artistic organisations, including La Collective (France) and Αλατού (Cyprus).

Maria Papageorgiou (1998) is a dancer, performer from Limassol, Cyprus. She completed her studies at ‘Aktina’ Professional Dance School in Athens in October 2021. She then continued her training in Spain at the ‘La Faktoria Choreographic Center’. She has worked with Marta Coronado, Laida Aldaz Arrieta, Konstantina Skalionta and Harry Koushos.  Her work has been presented at On Bodies festival (CY) and Summer Dance Festival (CY). She is additionally teaching dance to kids, teenagers and adults.

Maria Lothe is a dance artist, working as a mover, maker and producer. She has a two year degree from Skolen for samtidsdans (The School for New Dance) in Oslo and a BA (Hons) in Contemporary Dance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. As a performer, Maria has been working within dance, theatre and performance art, with companies/artists such as Martin Creed, What’s Coming out of the Box, BitterSuite Company, Livia Rita and the Bicycle Ballet Company, and performed in venues such as The Twist Museum, The Royal Opera House London, Rich Mix, Roundhouse, Royal Academy of the Arts, Whitechapel Gallery and has toured across the UK. She has also been a member of Backspace Collective. Her work often involves questions around climate change and our relationship to nature. Her work has been shown in venues such as The Place, Chisenhale Dance Space, Turner Contemporary, Ugly Duck, Røros Museet, Galleri TM51, Ælvespeilet, Norsk Skogmuseum and Musea i Nord-Østerdalen. She performs with STICKY, Karstein Solli, amongst others.

Otto Ramstad is a dance artist who makes performances, video works and installations for theaters, galleries, museums and different site and context specific encounters. He has an MA in Choreography from KHiO, Oslo, a BA in Dance, Improvisation, and the Moving Image, from Goddard College, Vermont and is a Certified Teacher of Body-Mind Centering®. He has worked intensively for over twenty years with three primary dance/somatic artists: He assistant teaches for Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, founder of Body-Mind Centering®. Researching and teaching Lisa Nelson’s Tuning Scores. With Steve Paxton’s contact improvisation and Material for the Spine, which he taught in the exhibitions Steve Paxton: Swimming in Gravity, Brussels and Steve Paxton / Drafting Interior Techniques, Lisbon. He also has taught, amongst many other places, at organizations: Praxis Oslo, Independent Dance, TanzFabrik and ImPulsTanz, companies: Cullberg Ballet and Carte Blanche, universities: KHiO, Oslo; SKH, Stockholm and Yokohama University. His commissions include Lyon Opera Ballet, Walker Art Center and Performance Space New York. He has been featured as a dancer in the work of DD Dorvillier, Miguel Gutierrez, Shelton Mann, Karen Nelson, Lisa Schmitt, Scott Wells, Kitt Johnson and Mia Habib. He is the recipient of an Arbeids Stipendieum from Norsk Kulturrådet for 2021-2024.

Olive Bieringa works at the intersection of creative practice and pedagogy in dance, performance, somatics and media. Together with Otto Ramstad as the BodyCartography Project their artistic practice cultivates approaches to support our collective evolution in this moment of planetary crisis. She holds a BA in Dance from European Dance Development Center in the Netherlands and an MFA in Performance and New Media at Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY. She is a doctoral candidate at Uniarts, Helsinki. She is Certified Movement Therapist (ISMETA), and Infant Developmental Movement Educator®, Body-Mind Centering® Teacher and is Program Director of Somatic Education Australasia. Since 2018 she works on the board of PRAXIS Oslo as a curator and producer for the local dance and performance community.

Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad have been collaborating as BodyCartography Project since 1998. Our artistic practice cultivates approaches to support our collective evolution in this moment of planetary crisis. We engage with the vital materiality of bodies, minds, and the more than human world, co-creating live experiences to generate re-enchantment, relationship, and presence through somatics, dance, choreography and performance. Over the past twenty-six years BodyCartography’s offerings have functioned to deepen the conversation in dance, somatic practice and site work, to give value to other ways of experiencing and making dance. Movement research, somatic and improvisational practice inform the ground of our dance-making and teaching practice.