For Schools: Risk

Ioanna Portolou’s new work focuses on risk. Her approach, though, does not explore so much the physical aspects of the notion, but rather the cost entailed in subjective risk, in conquering or losing what is important to each one.

She positions herself on that fine dividing line, where the body is freed from fears and resistances, loses control, and opens itself to what remains secret, repressed, and untold. Six performers take as their starting point a musical universe that flirts with the excess and lightness of the 1980s, chasing the fleeting aspect of happiness, carefree fun, and the sense of sharing with others this unexpected joy without censorship.

Happiness in life presupposes a risk. But do we take the risk in order to be happy? On the one hand, there is intense fear of exposure, of a ‘plunge in the void’. On the other, there is the rare sense of freedom when we are called to take a risk, to chase our dream. The choreographer creates an imaginary space, through which each one feels safe enough to offer an unknown and unique version of oneself.