Rethinking fragile landscapes during the Greek crisis: precarious aesthetics and methodologies in Athenian dance performances

ABSTRACT

The financial crisis in Greece brought about significant changes in the sociopolitical and financial landscape of the country. Severe budget cuts imposed on the arts and performing practices have given rise to a new aesthetic which has impacted the themes and methodologies of contemporary productions. To unpack this aesthetic, I explore the ways that the discourse and the experience of precarity molded methodological frameworks for artistic production in Greece during the crisis. Specifically, I address trends constitutive of a ‘precarious aesthetic’ in dance performance on Athenian stages and highlight the ways that the uncertainties caused by the financial crisis in Greece served as an opportunity to rethink dance performance aesthetics, devise new approaches to creation, and advocate for sociopolitical change.

KEYWORDS:

• Precarity
• Greece
• dance
• crisis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Natalie Zervou, is a Lecturer in Dance at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Zervou has a Ph.D. in Critical Dance Studies from the University of California, Riverside. Her research explores contemporary dance in Greece during the sociopolitical and financial crisis and focuses on the ways that dancing bodies negotiate national identity construction in this fluctuating landscape (www.nataliezervou.com).

Notes

1. The performance was Στην Άκρη του Βατήρα/At the edge of the Springboard and took place in November 2015. It was produced by Amalgama Dance Company and choreographed by Maria Gorgia. The performers were Sania Strimbakou and Timos Zehas.

2. Violent confrontations between immigrants and refugees on the island of Lesvos were triggered by a food shortage in July 2015. Another example that has generated significant media coverage is the sewn-lips hunger strike launched by a group of refugees stranded at the Greece–Macedonia border in November 2015.