Piraeus - Athens

This one-hour concert celebrates the rhythms, songs and dances of Guadeloupe and Haiti. The first part is devoted to Guadeloupe and the Gwo-ka tradition, featuring rhythms such as the Léwoz, Toumblak, Mendé, Graj and Mass à Saint-Jean. On stage: René Burin on the boula drum, Roger Raspail on the makè drum, Annette Nicolas on vocals and chacha, and singer Gildas Lutin, with her powerful yet gentle voice. The audience is invited to parade and dance. The second part is dedicated to Haiti, with the Yanvalou, Rabordaille, Rara and Petro. Master drummer Kébyésou performs the great classics of Haitian Vodou, while dancer Nerlande Bazelais draws the audience into her spellbinding dances, so everyone can share in the energy of this tradition.

Originally created at the Bourse de Commerce in Paris, Dancehall Weather brings together Argentine choreographer Cecilia Bengolea and her collaborators Craig Black Eagle (Jamaica) and Nika Mad Spirit (Ukraine) in a performance where dance and video archives intertwine. Drawing from Jamaican dancehall — which Cecilia Bengolea sees as a powerful medium for healing — the performance opens with an Early Settings session, a musical moment of reflection and collective energy, before giving way to a liberating shared dance.

*Verse from “Axion Esti” by the Nobel Prize-winning poet Odysseas Elytis. The Odyssey meets the musical tradition of the islands. In the universal history of the written word, the Homeric epic has always been a constant point of reference. There is no author or poet of major or even minor importance who has not been inspired or influenced by the rhapsode's work. Many other stories have fallen into oblivion, many adventures sunk. But the Homeric epic has not ceased to be sung in antiquity, in Byzantine times, right up to recent times. These sung verses express the gradual path to virtue, the thread that connects each man with his soul and then with the divine.

As part of the annual “Read Aloud” campaign of the online magazine “Kokkini Alepou”, Zoe Koskinidou reads The Secret of Parents by Nicolas Mathieu, illustrated by Pierre – Henry Gomont and translated by Katerina Schina.