© Stephie Grape
Artist statement
Stereo Nero contemporary dance group was founded in 2015 by Evi Souli, based in Athens and counts six productions so far. It has presented works in Greece and abroad with the support of the Ministry of Culture and other private and state organizations such as Athens and Epidaurus Festivals, Greek National Opera/Stavros Niarhos foundation, Arc for dance festival, Stegi Onassis Cultural Center, Jarmila Jerabkova Prague festival, Young choreographers festival Haute scene Copenhagen, Volos 2021 festival and 8th m.p.art festival in Larisa. The group’s productions in chronological order are as follows: Arsis / Thesis (2015), Beyond collapse (2016, 2017), Dalga (2017,2018), Vocal Passions (2019), Kwaidan (2020), 442 or a game without score (2021). At the epicenter of the group’s artistic research is always the “Human Being” and the contradictions inherent in all aspects of life. Key parts of the group’s themes is “The Past”, as a nostalgic situation and the “Future” as a vision of things getting better. The group also emphasizes on strong emotions such as desire and loss and the ways to be imprinted on stage. Also, the themes deal with the position of the individual in a whole, alongside the strength of the mass and the dipole of the individual and the collective. The group explores and questions the way a unit seeks, finds and loses its place again and again in a team. The main motivation inherent in all Stereo Nero works is the creation of new universes, new worlds, where a dreamer abandons, processes and reconstructs everyday life.
Stereo Nero is an artistic group that is not limited to purely dance models. It holds cinematic influences: the cinematic perspective on the body, the individual and the relationships, the internal conflicts that the performers are called to highlight, and the path to the Aristotelian purification. In other words, the eye functions as a camera whose lens magnifies the movement and the emotion of the performers. The group often goes beyond theatrical and dance boundaries and opens up to the community by choosing to present the works in places such as a folklore live music stage or an underground nightclub. Therefore, site specific is a part of the group’s extravert philosophy, as a means to bring the art of dance closer to diverse communities, as well as the mainstream public and enable the direct communication between the audience and the group’s creations. Finally, the group’s desire is to travel abroad and have the opportunity to meet new artistic experiences and appeal in wider audiences, expanding the communication abilities of its productions. So far, the group has traveled to Czech Republic and Denmark for international festivals.