Kalamata, Greece’s city of dance, is set to host its 23rd annual Kalamata International Dance Festival in July, 2017. For ten days, from 14 to 23 July 2017, leading Greek and international artists will be showing their work to art lovers from all over the world. The 23rd Festival pays tribute to the great lady of the Greek Dance, Zouzou Nikoloudi.
This year, the festival will host a number of Greek (Kinitiras, Creo dance company, Zita Dance Company – Iris Karayan ) and international dance groups such as the Centre Chorégraphique National – Ballet de Lorraine (France), Moving Into Dance Mophatong (South Africa), Vertigo Dance Company (Israel), and Andrea Costanzo Martini (Italy).
Parallel Events will include film screenings and a piano recital while Εducational activities include Barbara Kane’s Dance Seminar “The Revolutionary Dances of Isadora Duncan”.
The Festival’s identity
The Kalamata International Dance Festivalis the key event in the year of the city’s International Dance Centre. The Centre was founded in the spring of 1995, charged with supporting and promoting the art of dance via research, education, and artistic activities and creativity.
After twenty two years as an active presence in the Greek dance scene, thanks to the support of the local authorities the Kalamata Festival has earned itself a special place on the festival map of the Mediterranean South, and built bridges to international dance creativity.
A number of influential figures, whose work is shaping the history of contemporary dance made their first Greek appearance at Kalamata, while the Festival has also taken care to promote and support Greek creativity in the field by commissioning works from talented Greek choreographers and supporting new companies in their experimental explorations.
Another integral part of the Festival are the workshops and talks aimed at dance students and professions alike, while other parallel events include publications and video dance productions.
From the very start, the Festival was programmed with two considerations in mind: the wide range of trends in contemporary dance and the ever-larger audiences this art-form attracts. Today, twenty years down the line, every year sees a widely-varied audience enthusiastically respond to the call of the Festival.
Kalamata International Dance Centre was founded in spring 1995 within the framework of the Hellenic National Cultural Network of Cities, aiming to support, to improve and to present the art of dance. Its activity aims at three sectors: research, education, artistic creation and production. It has established and organises Kalamata International Dance Festival.
Kalamata and the Messinian Bay
Kalamata is also the ideal base for those who want tounlock the secrets of Messinia, since it is situated in a central spot of the region, and all the tourist and cultural destinations are within one hour driving distance. The legendary Mani region is also nearby.
The area is situated in the heart of the crystal-blue Messinian Bay and on the roots of the imposing Mountain Taygetos, a heaven for its inhabitants.
Patrick Leigh Fermor’s Kardamyli: thirty-five kilometers southeast of Kalamata
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