CANCELED: Amalgama Dance Company

press release: On April 6-10, 2020 the University of Wisconsin-Madison Dance Department welcomes Greek artist in residence Maria Gorgia, and her Amalgama Dance Company to teach master classes to UW dance students, speak about her work and perform a 90-minute work titled “What are you suffering from?/From Existence.”

The work, which will be staged in the Margaret H'Doubler Performance Space, April 9, examines the unresolved issue of death's non acceptance, of the body's wear and the circular connection between life and death. It is heavily inspired by the poetry of Nikos Karouzos, whose poems frequently feature the sea. Drawing on the sea, Gorgia's work is heavy with water related symbolism, transforming the stage from a pool into a resort adorned with a plethora of plastic water bottles. The work is also designed for audience participation, where the performers call upon the audience to interact in this 'resort.' The work will be performed by Maria Gorgia, alongside Amalgama Dance Company members Dafni Stathatou and Lito Messini.

NOTE: This performance will include full nudity by three of Maria Gorgia's company members from Greece.

Thursday, April 9, 2020 at 7:30 p.m., H'Doubler Performance Space, Lathrop Hall. Admission is free. Q&A immediately following the performance

ABOUT MARIA GORGIA AND AMALGAMA DANCE COMPANY

Maria Gorgia, an Athens native, has studied dance in Athens and London, earning her MA in Dance Studies in 1996 with a focus on choreography from the National School of Dance., Athens, Greece.  She founded Amalgama Dance Company in London in 1996 and relocated the company to Greece in 1998. The company performs contemporary choreography with a strong element of society as well as aesthetic reflection of art in today's social as it relates to marginal and mass consumer art. Amalgama has toured twenty-three of Gorgia's original works in theaters across London, Greece, New York, Bologna, Milano in Croatia, Cyprus, and Athens. 

Maria Gorgia has taught contemporary dance, choreography, and improvisation at the American College of Greece  and at the University of the Peloponnese in the Department of Theater Studies. She has provided choreography and movement direction for theater productions directed by George Gikapeppas (“Sea Landscape” by Edward Alby) and Stathis Livathinos (Durenmatt’s “Visit of the Elderly Lady”).

Gorgia's latest work “What are you suffering from?/From Existence” has performed for 50 shows in Athens and is still running.

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

Maria Gorgia's residency and the performance of  her work “What are you suffering from?/From Existence" at the UW-Madison is supported by the Anonymous Fund, the Global Engagement Office of the School of Education, and the UW-Madison Dance Department.