Within the objectives of this conference, I would like to present the work of “En Dynamei Ensemble” and briefly explain how it conceptualizes art and raises questions that challenge traditional performance aesthetics. “En Dynamei Ensemble” is a Greek, non-profit young performers collective, in which disabled and non-disabled artists work as an Ensemble. In my paper, I seek to explain some of the ways by which “En Dynamei” extends the limits of conventional theatre by using unusual narrative and visual techniques. Bringing to the stage a purely physical reality (the performance is not about the disabled body, but the disabled body is the performance) and shedding light on the true stories behind those bodies, the Ensemble asks the audience to stare at them. This way, the stage pushes the viewers out of their comfort zone and invites them to reevaluate familiar cultural notions not only about disability but also about the boundaries of theatre itself.
Kyriaki Demiri was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, and currently is a Post-Doc researcher. She has a B.A. both in French Literature and in Drama Studies, and an M.A. in Theory of Literature and Theatre. In September 2018, she received her PhD at the Department of Theatre, working on Elfriede Jelinek’s plays. For the past five years, she has been teaching German and German-speaking theatre at the School of Drama, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She has also worked as a coordinator of the cultural program at the School of Modern Greek, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and as a drama teacher for a public primary school. She has made several publications and attended conferences and lectures. In 2013, she received a three-month DAAD Fellowship in Munich for young researchers. In 2014, she was selected by Goethe Institute Thessaloniki to participate in Theatertreffen Berlin, as part of the “International Guests Group”.
General information about En Dynamei Ensemble: http://www.endynamei.com.
Teaser of the performance The Fan Man or how to dress an elephant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Maenbdn-sIQ.
Information about the performance The ‘Other’ Home: http://en.endynamei.com/to-allo-spiti.
An excerpt from the performance titled Horses in love: https://vimeo.com/701694584/5245dec95a.
Video The Garden of Eden: https://vimeo.com/701694759/201c130814.