KIDF Workshops
26.07 | 14:00-17:00
Kalamata Municipal Stadium
KAT VÁLASTUR
DANCE AS A (QUANTUM) RITUAL
How can we create a ritual in contemporary choreographic terms, and what are its patterns?
In this masterclass, we will explore these questions through an analytical approach to the concepts of ritual and pattern. What is the state of the body, and what is its purpose when we aim to create choreography that functions as a transmitter, rather than merely as a spectacle—without dismissing the latter?
What distinguishes a body that dances from a body that is in a state while dancing? What is a pattern, in both choreographic and musical terms, and how can we construct one? How many elements can we weave together into a pattern before it becomes overwhelming?
We will explore these ideas and attempt to orchestrate our movements, thoughts, and fragments into a cohesive, if partial, whole. We may also experiment with newer tools, such as AI (so bring your computers), as well as older tools, such as notebooks and pens. And of course—bring yourselves.
With the support of the Goethe Institut.
PARTICIPATION INFORMATION
- Participation fee for DANCE AS A (QUANTUM) RITUAL Masterclass: 25,00 €
- Participants can attend a combination of workshops and masterclasses with a 10% or 15% discount, depending on the number of hours and days.
- Detailed discounted prices can be found here.
- Registration and information: workshops@kalamatadancefestival.gr
- Enrollment will be open from 07/05/2025 to 21/06/2025 and until all available spots are filled.
- Registration is completed only upon payment of the participation fee.
- Refunds are not accepted.
- Registrations are accepted until all available spots are filled.
- Workshop participants are eligible for a special discount for festival performances at the 31st KDF.
Kat Válastur aka Katerina Papageorgiou is a Greek choreographer who lives and works in Berlin and Athens. Her works bring to the stage the ruins of a world considered obsolete. Archaic elements of the Mediterranean South—and particularly the Greek South—such as spirituality, magic, mysticism, and rituals, which remain active mainly in rural life, as well as the wild Mediterranean landscapes and their soundscapes, are elements that permeate her works. Válastur brings these elements as fragments of a world of rhythms, sounds, and voices into the contemporary techno-capitalist era, into a field of forces where the modern technological world and the archaic coexist outside the framework of linear time.
Through a mythical construction that abolishes the linearity of time between past and future, Válastur translates the force field of this coexistence into a hybrid choreographic and visual language between the archaic and science fiction. Poetic, mesmerizing, seductive yet raw, her works—such as Ah! Oh! A Contemporary Ritual (2014), Rasp Your Soul (2017), Stellar Fauna (2018), Eye, Lash! (2021), Diana, Even (2022), The FarNear (2022), and Strong-Born (2023)—convey a sense of urgency and function as contemporary rituals.
Válastur was a guest artist at Olafur Eliasson’s Institute for Spatial Experiments and was recognized as a promising talent by Tanz magazine (2016). She has received support from the Hermès Foundation, the Live Works–Performance Act Award, and in 2023 was a resident artist at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Her work is presented internationally at venues such as HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), and the Athens-Epidaurus Festival, among others.