Past Events

	The Girl of the Neigbourhood (opereta, Acropol Theatre, until 20/4/2003)
	Series of lectures on Dance and traditional culture (Greek Dances Theatre "Dora Stratou"- Plaka, until 17/4/2003)
	Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost" ( National Theatre of Greece, until 24/4/2003)
	Suburbia: The vast lands of Athenian suburbs (Athens Centre of Contemporary Art, until 1/3/2003)
	The Sleeping Beauty (Greek National Opera - Olympia Theatre, 10/4/2003-19/4/2003)

The Girl of the Neigbourhood
	The new stage "Acropol" of the Greek National Opera opens its curtains with one of the most famous operettas by the "troubadour of old Athens", Nikos Hadziapostolou. It is "The Girl of the Neigbourhood" directed by Yorgos Remoundos, responsible for the libretto's version, as well. "The Girl of the Neigbourhood" has been a great success wherever it was performed.
The main character is a moral poor girl who gets highly impressed by the rich people's life. She tries to run away from her miserable way of living and falls in love with a young student who is engaged with a rich woman. They broke their engagement when the secret liaison is revealed. But due to his parents' involvement the student decides to get married with the rich woman. Abandoned, the poor girl leaves for abroad where she stays for a long period. When she comes back, fate plays a strange game to her. She is the one who helps her ex-boyfriend to save his marriage...

   

Series of lectures on Dance and traditional culture
	Greek Dances Theatre "Dora Stratou" organizes a series of seminar lessons under the general title "Dance and traditional culture. The seminar supplies historians, folklorists, dance teachers and all those interested in the lessons with specific knowledge on traditional dance. The seminar takes place at the Theater's headquarters in Plaka of Athens. The series of seminars combines theoretical propositions by special researchers with practical knowledge on tradition.
The seminars are not simple lectures or common lessons but a combination of propositions, audiovisual mediums, demonstrations and exhibitions. The programme of the seminars goes as follows: - Dance and music memories from Pakistan (9th Jan 2003) - Palestinian dance and music tradition: Collective identity (23rd Jan 2003) - Tradition and improvisation in East Thrace: Relations between music and motion (6th Feb 2003) - Traditional female costumes from Pogoni province(20th Feb 2003) - Marriage between traditional and contemporaty dance (6th Mar 2003) - Ancient Greek rythm: Speech, limb, motion (20 th Mar 2003) - Greek antiquity and the dancer Isadora Dankan (3rd Apr 2003) - Reference to the musical instrument ud: History, technics and ways of playing (17th Apr 2003)

   

Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost"
	With the play "Love's Labour's Lost" by William Shakespeare, translated by Stratis Paschalis and directed by Stathis Livathinons, opens the Experimental Stage of National Theatre. Stathis Grapsas, Yiannis Mavritsakis, Dimitris Emellos, Alexandros Logothetis, Maria Nafpliotou and Katerina Evangelatou hold the leading parts. Love's Labour's Lost is an early comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, performed in 1594-95 and published in an extant second quarto edition of 1598, from foul papers. Its central comic device is that of four young men, dedicated to study and the renunciation of women, meeting four young women and inevitably abandoning their absurd principles.
The play opens as Ferdinand, the king of Navarre, and three of his noblemen -Berowne (Biron), Longaville, and Dumaine (Dumain)- reveal their intellectual intentions. They then meet the Princess of France and her three attendants -Rosaline, Maria, and Katharine- and cannot help but be interested in further acquaintance. For variety, and as an escape from pretty, gay, young courtiers, Shakespeare provides a group of entertaining eccentrics: Nathaniel (the curate), Holofernes (a schoolmaster), Dull (the constable), Costard (the clown), Mote (or Moth, a page), and Jaquenetta (a country girl). Linking both groups is Don Adriano de Armado the ineffable, who grows more interesting as his character grows in pathos. Toward the end, the play takes on a new dramatic vitality through a brilliant coup de theatre: the sudden arrival of Marcade as the messenger of death and the herald of responsibility. Shakespeare's deliberate abstention from the customary "and they all lived happily ever after" conclusion of the genre is remarkable: "Jack hath not Jill," but he will (presumably) have her after a twelvemonth, when he has done something to deserve her. Thus the play ends with hope -perhaps the best kind of happy ending.

   

Suburbia: The vast lands of Athenian suburbs
	An exhibition, which explores a new way of life and a culture that was produced from the breathtaking speed of the city's expansion beyond its historic nucleus, is "Suburbia: The vast lands of Athenian suburbs," organized by Alpha Station-Athens Centre of Contemporary Art in the Psirri neighborhood of central Athens. This is Alpha's second exhibition since it started operating at the end of 2001. The first one, entitled "Extreme Pop Media" (November 2001 - February 2002) was very successful and showcased samples of pop and trash culture from the Third World, commenting on the question of Global Culture.
Architects participating in Suburbia remind us elements of the modern architectural reality of 21st century's Athens. They explain how -- in parallel with a number of new types of residences that were introduced (modern villas, traditional villas, luxurious pilotis homes, maisonettes) in the capital -- a mostly new culture was developed. This was a culture that often leads inhabitants of the suburbs to adopt a way of life that is luxurious, or more luxurious than the one adopted by people living in the city centers. Of course, in the suburbs one can meet a broad variety of houses types, public space quality, models of social behavior, etc. In some suburbs we see a predominant uncontrolled building, in some others we meet shacks, elsewhere we run into poor imitation of more lavish houses, expensive cars parked in filthy paved streets, flamboyant weddings in half-built churches, young bike-riders in very modern cafes. In other words, Athens' suburbs are the image of a reality that we rarely see analyzed in Greek exhibitions or publications. They highlight on a reality that seems to monotonously refer to the virtues of the city's historic center, while at the same time the majority of its inhabitants live in the suburbs. Alpha Station has invited visual and video artists, cinematographers, architects, city planners, authors, critics, sociologists and philosophers to analyze the phenomenon of Athens' suburbs. In 2002 Alpha organized successfully a workshop in which experts in cooperation with the curators gathered and elaborated the audiovisual material of the exhibition. During the Suburbia exhibition, Alpha Station also organizes a number of parallel events. More specifically: - Book publication by Futura Editions - Daily conference in cooperation with the School of Fine Arts - Invitation to a speaker in cooperation with the Network of Architecture of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture - A visit to Olympic Athens - Round of talks with Local Administration

   

The Sleeping Beauty
	The entrancement of Dance The premier of Tchaikovsky's "The Sleeping Beauty" on 3rd January 1890 at Maryinsky Theatre was a failure. It's hard to explain why, since the ballet is one of the most famous and stunning of all times. It is presented at the Greek national operas on December and July for only six performances. It was "a very good performance" was the polite remark of Tsar Alexander III, after he saw the original choreography in 1890. The truth is that it is an excellent performance which bears the seal of the prominent composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Igor Zelensky's choreography. The original choreography by Marius Petipa is based on a famous fairy tale;
King Florestan and His Queen celebrate the christening of Princess Aurora. Fairy Carabosse's invitation is overlooked and in revenge for the insult she curses the little Princess. One day Aurora pricks her finger on a needle and falls in deep sleep. She will be awakened one hundred years later by the kiss of Prince Charming. Dancers are Alina Sterianou, Yannis Ntontsakis, Synthia Frida, Stratos Papanoussis, Emilia Gaspari, Yorgos Varvariotis, Natassa Siouta and others. The costumes and stage design is by Sofia Pantouvaki. Yannis Theodoridis is the light designer.