From ethnography to performance: transforming interview narratives into artistic performative acts – The project ‘Greco’ at the Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival

ABSTRACT

The current paper presents the recontextualization process of ethnographic narratives collected during the five-year research project GRECO ‘Language and identity among Romeika speakers in Cyprus’, into a participatory performance at the Nicosia Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival 2019. The project focused on the narratives of Romeika speakers, a sub-group of Turkish Cypriots who had Greek and not Turkish as a home language. The paper focuses on the theoretical concepts of performance and ethnography to describe the way a group of researchers, students and artists engaged in a dialogic process with raw data and transformed it into a fully-fledged participatory performance. The project and the festival are described as two sites of crossings in the heavily politicized context of Cyprus, where issues of identity and language, space and belonging are contested in a constant processing of othering. The process of formulating narratives into performance text is presented through five different stages: narratives, dialogicality/agency, space/multiple contexts, embodiment, performance. The project’s outcome, an interactive performance, served to challenge the dominant discourses on the binarity of space, identity and border, both in the local context of Cyprus and in other contexts of conflict and borders.

Το παρόν άρθρο πϵριγράφϵι τη διαδικασία ϵπαναπλαισίωσης των ϵθνογραφικών αφηγήσϵων από το ϵρϵυνητικό πρόγραμμα 'GRECO: Γλώσσα και ταυτότητα σϵ ομιλητές των Ρωμαίικων στην Κύπρο', σϵ μια συμμϵτοχική ϵπιτέλϵση στο φϵστιβάλ παραστατικών τϵχνών Buffer Fringe Λϵυκωσία 2019. Το ϵρϵυνητικό πρόγραμμα GRECO μϵλέτησϵ τη γλώσσα και τις αφηγήσϵις των ομιλητών των Ρωμαίικων, μιας υπό-ομάδας Τουρκοκυπρίων οι οποίοι μιλούσαν Ελληνικά και όχι Τουρκικά στο σπίτι. Το άρθρο ϵπικϵντρώνϵται στις θϵωρητικές έννοιϵς της ϵπιτέλϵσης και της ϵθνογραφίας μϵ στόχο να πϵριγράψϵι τον τρόπο μϵ τον οποίο μια ομάδα ϵρϵυνητριών, φοιτητριών και καλλιτϵχνών ϵπιδίδονται σϵ μια διαλογική διαδικασία μϵ ϵρϵυνητικά δϵδομένα και τα μϵτασχηματίζουν σϵ μια ολοκληρωμένη συμμϵτοχική ϵπιτέλϵση. Το ϵρϵυνητικό πρόγραμμα και το φϵστιβάλ αναδϵικνύονται ως δύο σημϵία διασταυρώσϵων στο έντονα πολιτικοποιημένο συγκϵίμϵνο της Κύπρου, όπου ζητήματα ταυτότητας και γλώσσας, χώρου και ένταξης τίθϵνται υπό αμφισβήτηση μέσω της συνϵχούς ϵπϵξϵργασίας της έννοιας ‘του άλλου’. Η διαδικασία της διαμόρφωσης των αφηγήσϵων σϵ ϵπιτέλϵση παρουσιάζϵται μέσα από τα ϵξής πέντϵ στάδια: αφηγήσϵις, διαλϵκτικότητα/αυτϵνέργϵια, χώρος/πολλαπλά πλαίσια, ϵνσωμάτωση, ϵπιτέλϵση. Το αποτέλϵσμα αυτής της διαδικασίας αποτϵλϵί σημαντικό ϵργαλϵίο αμφισβήτησης των κυρίαρχων λόγων για τη δυαδικότητα του χώρου, της ταυτότητας και των συνόρων, τόσο στο τοπικό συγκϵίμϵνο της Κύπρου όσο και σϵ ϵυρύτϵρα πλαίσια. συγκρούσϵων και συνόρων. τοπικό συγκϵίμϵνο της Κ.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnography
• performance
• narratives
• language and identity
• embodiment
• Romeika speakers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For a complete mapping of the Displacement and Resettlement in Cyprus: http://www.prio-cyprus-displacement.net/default.asp?id=245

2 The community uses the term Romeika/Romeka to refer to the variety they use. The term Romeika is a derivative of the older term Rumca, an umbrella term, which included all the different varieties of the Greek language spoken in the areas of the Ottoman Empire from the 19th century (Özkan, 2013). More synchronically the term Romeyka has also been used by Sitaridou (2013) to refer to the Pontic Greek variety used in some villages in Pontus.

3 EOKA (Greek Organization of Cypriot Fighters), was a Greek Cypriot underground guerilla organization which fought against the British colonizers to end colonisation and for Union with Greece (1955–1959). TMT (Turkish Resistance Organisation) was a Turkish Cypriot underground organization fighting for Taksim (partition of the two communities) of the island, and was active during the 50s and 60s.

4 Lepit (λϵπίδα) is the Greek-Romeika word for blade.

5 The Home for Cooperation is a unique, one-of-a-kind space: inaugurated in 2011 from the initiative of the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research, a Cyprus-based, inter-communal NGO comprising of primary school teachers, it came about thanks to funding from the EEA Grants (Norway Grants) and the EU. The Home for Cooperation houses NGOs and activities, most of which are related to peace-building and reconciliation between the communities of the island.

6 The Festival has had a consistent presence in the cultural landscape of the island, maintaining much of its marginal character, although it became international in 2016, acquired the EFFE Label, ‘Europe’s quality stamp for remarkable arts festivals’ and has become a part of the global Fringe family through meetings and collaborations. It is indicative that it has not received funding from any of the state cultural bodies and has relied entirely on external funding sources.

7 The title of the 2019 festival was ‘Defining the/a Buffer Zone, the In-Between Space’ and this was defined by the Artistic and Executive Director of the festival, Ellada Evangelou and the team of the Home for Cooperation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elena Ioannidou

Elena Ioannidou is an Associate Professor in Language Education and Sociolinguistics at the Department of Education, University of Cyprus. Her research interests focus on a social theory of language, language variation and multilingualism, critical literacy education, discourse analysis and language and identity. Elena Ioannidou is an ethnographer and she has conducted research with linguistically marginalized groups such as the Romeika speakers in Cyprus; she has also worked with prisoners in the Central Prison of Cyprus in developing more critical and social models of literacy for enhancing their literate identities and for becoming acting subjects in terms of language and literacy.

Valentina Christodoulou

Valentina Christodoulou is a Teaching Fellow at the Department of Education, University of Cyprus and a Lecturer in English at CDA College Paphos. She holds a PhD in Sociolinguistics (King’s College London), an MA in Gender, Sexualities and Ethnic Studies (University of East London) and a BA in English Language and Literature (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens). She has taught in various programmes of study, with an emphasis on language teaching and learning methods, language for professional purposes and multiliteracies. Her research interests lie on issues of language as social practice, multilingualism and identity, language and new media and digital literacy practices.

Ellada Evangelou

Ellada Evangelou is a dramaturg and a theatre specialist. She has studied in Cyprus (BA in English Studies, PhD in Theatre and Identity) and the United States (MFA in Dramaturgy) and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship for graduate study in the US. She has worked as a dramaturg, theatre director, workshop facilitator, independent consultant in collaboration with theatre companies, NGOs, and international organizations. She teaches theatre and dramaturgy in higher education in Cyprus and the United States. She is interested in the relationship between theatre/dramaturgy and identity, and works in the intersection of aRtivism and scholarship in post-colonial, post-conflict communities.