Wooomanhood 101

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Approaching dance as a holistic art form and in a quest to expand her practice as well as to develop her own personal language, she explores and experiments in a fluid yet hybrid conceptual framework, drawing and creating material from different art fields such as movement, writing, video, photography, sound and costume design/creation. 

Her most recent works 

address the matter of 

female existence in regards 

of body and identity and its 

status in today’s society, 

through personal and collective records and memories, but also 

through the scourge of gender based violence.

 Christos Polymenakos (www.christospolymenakos.com) is a creator, performer, researcher and educator, creator of the body/word – Performance Writing method. He holds an MA in Performance Writing (Merit) from University College Falmouth Incorporating Dartington College of Arts, where he studied with a scholarship from the Hellenic Centre for Theatre and Dance.

Christos develops and applies the body/word method in the field of Performance Writing as practiced in Dartington College of Arts, since 2010, in creation and dramaturgy, in teaching dramaturgy, improvisation, acting, critical analysis and feedback for professionals, amateurs and students.

He has collaborated as a dramaturg, performer, researcher and educator in various fields of theatre, dance, creative and Performance Writing.

His creative, research and educational work has been hosted by state and private artistic and educational institutions and festivals in Greece, abroad and online. He was the chief dance editor of highlights, arts and culture magazine, and a member of the State Committee for Dance Subsidies of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. He is a member of Kinitiras since 1996 and an Onassis AiR Fellow.

Areti Chourdaki is a Cypriot creator and performer based in Brussels. In 2020, she graduated from CNDC in France, and in 2021, she created E|C|H|G|O, a three-hour choreographic situation presented at the 18th Summer Dance Festival by Nea Kinisi. That same year, Areti joined the master's program Danse et Pratiques Chorégraphiques at Charleroi Danse, L’INSAS, and La Cambre in Brussels, where she explores The body as an archive of systematic processes. 

Her choreographic work revolves around exploring the limits of the human body, particularly endurance. She approaches repetition as a process that is both physical and perceptual, a play with limits: those of her body—its boredom and exhaustion—as well as those of the gaze and attention, which gradually fade and grow weary.

Knitting is a central medium in her practice: a mode of creation in which repetition becomes structural. In her performances, her handmade creations serve as costumes and scenographic tools, extending the dialogue between body and material.

in 2023 she began a research project named Le chemin se fait en marchant with which she joined the G.incubator 23-24 at Garage29, supported by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles - Dance Department and Charleroi Danse (research grant).

Γεννήθηκε το 1999 στη Λευκωσία. Σπούδασε Σύγχρονο Χορό, Μπαλέτο, Jazz και Παιδαγωγικά στη Διεθνή

Σχολή Σύγχρονου Χορού ‘Iwanson International School of Contemporary Dance’’ στο Μόναχο της Γερμανίας

και συνέχισε τις σπουδές της με μεταπτυχιακό στο Κάσσελ της Γερμανίας, με τίτλο ‘Performance Research

Studies’ στο Sozo Visions in Motion. Συμμετείχε με υποτροφία στα σεμινάρια με Inaki Aspillaga από την

ομάδα χορού ‘Ultimavez’ και με τον Dominique Mercy με τίτλο ‘Solo en face de Pina Bausch στο πλαίσιο του

φεστιβάλ ‘Tanzwerkstatt Europa’ στο Μόναχο. Συνεργάστηκε σαν περφόρμερ με χορογράφους όπως Petro

Dias, Quim Bigas Bassart ,Johannes Harlt, Ανδρομάχη Δημητριάδου Lindahl, Σίσση Δούτσιου λαμβάνοντας

μέρος σε εκδηλώσεις όπως ‘Lange Nacht der Museen’ (Long Night of Museums) , Φεστιβάλ ‘ Junger Tanz’

και Σαρδάμ Φέστιβαλ. Συμμετείχε στο πρόγραμμα «Performance Lab / Open up» στο Δημοτικό Κέντρο

Καλών ΤεχνώνΛευκωσίας (NiMAC) σε επιμέλεια Λίας Χαράκη. Παρουσίασε την δουλειά της στο Kranhalle,

το WUK στην Βιέννη, στο Black Box στο Μόναχο και στο Εγκώμιο Πολιτιστικό Κέντρο στη Λευκωσία στο

πλαίσιο του D.A.I.R Residency. Παράλληλα συμμετείχε στην 59η Biennale της Βενετίας στο έργο ‘Grief

Work’ σε συνεργασία με Helen Kirwan και Simon Pruciak. Συνέλαβε σαν κινησιολόγος στο 36ο Παγκύπριο

6

φεστιβάλ ερασιτεχνικού θεάτρου με έργο ‘Βάκχες’ στο θέατρο Αιγαία, το οποίο βραβεύτηκε με το πρώτο

βραβείο του ΘΟΚ.

Semeli Paraïka was born in Nicosia in 2011 and is currently a 3rd-grade student at Dianellos and Theodotou Gymnasium. She has been taking classes in ballet, contemporary dance, and improvisation from a very young age and participated in the More than Dancing program of the Nicosia Dance House in 2024, under the guidance of professional educators Maria Kamperi, Natasa Hadjiandreou, and Leontios Toubouris.
She performed in The Nutcracker with the Nicosia Youth Ballet in 2023, as well as in the Christmas Celebrity Gala in 2024, where she had the opportunity to share the stage with dancers from some of the world’s leading companies.
She is also deeply engaged with music, playing both the flute and piano, and has collaborated with Eleonora Roussou in the presentation of her album Chara at the Nicosia International Festival and at the 20th Cyprus Rialto World Music Festival. 

Giorgos Bizios is an improviser and composer of experimental and contemporary music as well as an interdisciplinary maker and performance artist from Limassol. 

Driven by the perpetual need to unfold and understand the complexities of the contemporary era, he approaches the performing arts as a way of cultivating spaces for connectivity and change with focus on identity, the earthly in relation to the spiritual and alternative narratives of the human experience.

Some of Bizios' latest works are the solo performance 'right in the center of the matter' (On Bodies festival, 2025), the interdisciplinary performance work 'almost definitely present' (in collaboration with choreographer Anthi Kettirou, 2025), the experimental solo guitar project 'PSEEHEEKAWN' (Breach festival, 2024) and the guitar duet AGGA-GAGA (Irtijal festival 2022, Beirut) in collaboration with Alkis Nicolaides. 

 Suzana Phialas is an artist who bridges the gap between the digital and physical realms through her cross-media art. She is a performance maker, AI artist, curator, and a prominent figure in PerformanceNFT Art since 2021. Her most recent work explores the essence of movement as an algorithm—marrying her knowledge in choreography and performance with the intricacies of code and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. 

Her works have been presented internationally in both physical and digital art exhibitions, dance, performance, site-specific festivals, and screen dance events. A number of her projects have received funding by the Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Culture, and her art has been collected by the Cyprus State Gallery and by avid Digital Art Collectors.

Since 2023, Phialas has been recognized as a leading AI video creator and is represented by FELLOWSHIP AI in their DAILY curated releases program —a platform that serves as the hub for AI visual art experimentation. Phialas studied Dance and Fine Arts in New York and graduated with BA, BFA & MFA degrees. In 2018, she completed a course at  (UNIC) and obtained a certificate in Blockchain Technology and Digital Currencies. 

Christos Charalambous serves as the Technical Director of the Nicosia Municipal Theatre and the Nicosia International Festival. Since joining the theatre team in 2021, he has overseen the technical coordination of numerous large-scale productions, ensuring the seamless integration of lighting, sound, video, and multimedia design. His expertise lies in bridging artistic vision with technical precision, allowing international and local productions to unfold with uncompromising quality.

Over the past years, he has collaborated with leading companies and creators, including the Schaubühne Berlin (Hamlet), Dimitris Papaioannou (Transverse Orientation), and international co-productions such as The Rite of Spring, presented in Cyprus as part of the Festival’s programming. His role extends from supervising complex touring requirements to adapting cutting-edge technologies for live performance.

Charalambous is recognized for his ability to translate artistic concepts into immersive stage experiences, making him a key figure in Cyprus’ contemporary performance landscape. Under his technical direction, the Nicosia Municipal Theatre has become a hub for world-class productions, offering audiences a blend of artistic excellence and flawless execution.