Startup Starters: Ilias Chatzigeorgiou
Read | 1 September 2024Aerowaves continued its annual Startup Forum at Spring Forward 2024 in Darmstadt, Mainz and Wiesbaden, inviting ten emerging dance presenters to be guided through the festival by five Aerowaves Partners, and to propose a curatorial project. Three projects were awarded €10,000 each to follow through, those by Ilias Chatzigeorgiou (GR), Dimitris Chimonas (CY), and for the first time a group project, co-ordinated by Samuel Retortillo (ES) with Simona Deaconescu (RO), Nina Fajdiga (SI), Tony Tran (NO) and Masako Matsushita (IT).
We are publishing snapshots from their production journeys to track their progress, problems and practical solutions. Here, Ilias Chatzigeoriu talks about his project called DANCELLS/DANCE/FESTIVAL, taking place in the largest prison in Athens.
Interview by Betina Panagiotara
Ilias Chatzigeorgiou, a warm and friendly individual in his early 40s, has been deeply involved in the world of dance for almost over two decades. As a self-taught street dancer, choreographer, and curator, he has worn many hats, his most recent venture being a dance consultant at the esteemed Athens & Epidaurus Festival. This experience has not only honed his skills but also sparked a desire to create his own curatorial projects “smaller in scale but things I would be interested in doing and seeing,” he says.
It’s this passion that has led him to develop DANCELLS/DANCE/FESTIVAL, a three-day festival to be held 11–13 September 2024 at Korydallos detention centre, the largest male prison in Athens. His project is selected by Startup Forum for 2024 and will run with the support of Greek National Opera Learning & Participation Department and in collaboration with Flux Laboratory Athens.
We met online in early August to discuss his project.
How did you come up with the idea?
Early this year, I organized a dance festival in my village on Taygetus Mountain. With a small budget and the support of local authorities, we created a cultural event featuring three solo performances in different locations, which attracted a crowd of young people who visit the village yearly for the popular Chestnut Festival. The aftermath was interesting, with some villagers praising the event, while others were sceptical. However, this experience inspired me to consider taking dance to places challenging to reach. In Startup Forum meeting, Aerowaves co-director Roberto Casarotto said “We want to reach places where Aerowaves hasn’t yet reached.” This sparked an idea: why not bring dance to prisons by creating a festival?
What about the title?
It derives from my thinking about the dancer seeking freedom in their body, in their cells. The title is a pun denoting both the cells of our human bodies and the cells of the prisoners.
Where will it take place?
The festival will take place at Korydallos detention centre, which has a wonderful courtyard that you wouldn’t expect to see in a prison. The courtyard features peacocks, turtle doves, plenty of greenery, a water fountain, a very nice café, and a multi-purpose venue for sports and cultural activities. There is also a soccer field larger than 5x5m. We’ll set up an 8×8 stage next to a graffiti mural curated by an inmate. Our goal is to create a theatre setting that mirrors a typical outdoor festival.
Could you talk to us about the festival?
Due to the numerous restrictions and permit requirements at the prison, we’ve designed it as a two-day festival, each day with an identical programme, to ensure a high attendance rate. There is capacity for 250 prisoners per day, and inmates can attend one of the two days. We have already informed them about the performances.
Who is it addressed to and what is its goal?
The festival is addressed to all of the prisoners and I hope that it will challenge established perceptions and foster empathy. The project seeks to facilitate connections between dance professionals and inmates, providing opportunities for networking and support. By doing so, we want to empower inmates to successfully reintegrate into society and pursue further education, hoping that it will have a lasting impact on individuals and communities alike.
Which are the featured performances?
The festival will feature three performances back to back, showcasing choreographies by Mary Giannoula (GR), AerowavesTwenty24 artists Yotam Peled & the Free Radicals (DE), and myself, Ilias Chatzigeorgiou (GR). The common thread among these performances is the body’s relationship to others, itself, and society. The dance triptych will explore human sensibility, interconnection, and personal narratives.
My performance, which will be the final one, invites audience participation and we are now trying to get permission for that, which would be very interesting. We also aim for an after-talk where the audience can share their reflections. Nevertheless, there are practicalities that we need to consider such as that inmates need to be in their cells by 21.30.
What about the educational seminars?
The seminars will run for three days and will feature different artistic associates, including the contemporary dance group, Yotam Peled & the Free Radicals (DE). While I’m not yet sure of the specifics, I anticipate that their seminar will be related to their performance, a combination of dance and martial arts, which was one of the reasons I was drawn to it. It begins with two male bodies in a violent conflict but ends up in tenderness. Thus, I believe that the seminar will be somewhat similar.
The next seminars are held by Aidi Ormeni & Pavlos Lykoudis, two dancers from my team who will focus on hip hop culture. Additionally, Michalis Zeitinidis and Stavros Mavropoulis will be teaching popping and breaking. However, due to practical constraints, participation in these seminars will be limited to up to 30 prisoners, selected by the prison’s social service department.
What are the difficulties you envision?
There are organizational hazards given that it will occur in an open space, so it might rain for example. But my actual concern is how the inmates will receive the festival, and that’s why I think the after-talk is important. The detention centre has its own unique environment, with its own space, time, and rules – we’re essentially guests there. That makes me anxious about the reception and the value of this project. But whatever the case, I would think about how it could become more valuable the next time, if we get the chance to do it again.
My other concern is not being intrusive, and I worry that by putting on a festival, we’re imposing an idea. However, I think this is a starting point for us to understand what the inmates would like to see and experience. That’s why I’d like to open the discussion in an after-talk session, but I’m not sure how easy it will be. Maybe I’ll do it with questionnaires afterwards, as a way to gather feedback and gauge their thoughts and opinions.
Finally, women rarely enter men’s prisons, so we had to be careful in our choices. As a teacher, my first instinct was to include women instructors at the seminars, but the social workers objected and I respected their reservations. However, we do have two female performers in my show, and I’m also interested in seeing how the audience will react to Giannoula’s solo, which features a dynamic female body that rebels on stage in an enclosed space that looks like a ring or even a cell. I’m curious to see what kind of perceptions will be raised, even though I think that society’s preconceptions are often mirrored in prison life.
What are you hoping for?
The inmates are already involved in theatre and music, and I hope that the festival will motivate them to ask for dance classes. Also, I imagine creating a greater network to the outside world. My goal is to invite people from the artistic community to the festival, so that it becomes known not only within the prison environment but to a wider cultural network. By doing so, I hope that other people will be inspired to get involved. It would be a great joy to create a team that will work together, and I picture us working on this project in other prisons as well.
How do you imagine the future of this festival?
My vision for the festival’s future is to not only present our own performances, but also to provide a platform for the prisoners to showcase their own creative work. This will enable a two-way conversation between us, while we will also be able to invite their families and friends to see them in a new light, so that this festival becomes more important in the future for all involved.



