RED RIDING SHOES

A dark fairytale by Hans Christian Anderson about a girl doomed to dance herself to death. A legendary 1948 dance film. A femme boy coming of age in Athens, dancing in red shoes. Director Vasilis Vilaras has brought these three elements together to create “RED RIDING SHOES”, a piece that blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction, with the 18-year-old Polish-Egyptian performer and model Adam Khalil (aka terpsichorree) in the lead role.

The director of the work notes: “In 2009, a restored print of the 1948 film ‘The Red Shoes’ was screened in theaters – a landmark film in the history of classical ballet. That same year, in a cinema in Athens, a seven-year-old boy watches the film with his grandmother. Dazzled by the story, the lead ballerina, and her passion for dance, he develops an impassioned bond with the acclaimed 15-minute ballet scene, which he recreates daily in his own, modern-day way. Today, now aged 18, he continues to be inspired by this choreography, by the film’s female lead, and by the color red itself. He uses them as tools in his coming-of-age journey, in an attempt to shake off any and every stereotypical masculine characteristic that ties him to an image that seems neither to fit nor interest him. He aspires to bring himself closer to the image of the film’s heroine, a woman oppressed by the patriarchy that plagues the dance world. To celebrate her weaknesses, along with his own. To feel like he’s battling the same demons she was, 73 years ago. A femme boy in the modern world who wants to be accepted without sacrificing his identity.”