En–Knap, City of Women & Fotini Stamatelopoulou

Near Misses

45 min

#guest performances

2026

Appropriate for youth over 16 years of age and adults. The performance features nudity, stroboscopic lights and fog effects.

How does the body react to fear, vulnerability and failure? What connection is there between these uncomfortable emotions and feminist joy? Sara Ahmed argues that emotions are not private psychological states, but arise from the relationships between bodies, institutions, and norms. In her solo contemporary dance performance, NEAR MISSES, Fotini Stamatelopoulou uses her body as a platform to encourage collective engagement with these affects, opening up the possibility of transforming them into different forms of freedom and collective resilience. The performance captures the moments just before the body, treated as a battlefield, either succumbs to defeat or triumphantly reinforces its power.

C Efi Gousi for Onassis Dance Days 2025 2
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Wearable metal objects embody the social burdens imposed on the body while simultaneously serving as protection, making the body resilient to social blows. Metal accessories function as both a burden and an extension of the body. They create an auditory and vocal altar that gradually reveals the raw gesture of seeking freedom and resilience amidst chaos. This process is gradually unfolded through a series of actions interweaving the spoken word, raw facial expressions, self-defensive movements, rattling props and intense physical states, revealing a constant process of becoming that oscillates between silence and rage. The words of Audre Lorde also resonate in this work, teaching us how silence can be transformed into action and how anger can be channelled constructively. NEAR MISSES demonstrates that affects course through our bodies and transform us. This is why collective reflection and a willingness to confront fear and failure are more necessary than ever, both in feminist struggles and more broadly in our society.

press

If this performance feels like an invitation into a private shelter, you soon realise that the patterns employed resonate with something personal, reminding us that the idea of wholeness is never quite achieved; on the contrary, if there’s a path to recovery then it must involve empathy, embracing at times ugly feelings and letting go of anger with poetic exuberance.

Anastasio Koukoutas, Springback Magazine

bio

Fotini Stamatelopoulou is one of the more distinctive and increasingly interesting voices on the contemporary Greek dance scene. She is a choreographer and performance maker with a degree in performance psychology and studies in contemporary dance, which she completed at Panteion University. In her artistic work, she explores the intersections of performance, sound, the spoken word and text, focusing on contemporary representations of the body, the dynamics of performative labour, the mediation of emotional responses, and cultural articulations of rage. She also works as a creative and movement director and choreographic assistant in theatre, visual art and film.

credits

Concept, choreography and artistic direction Fotini Stamatelopoulou

Dance and performance Despina Sanida Crezia

Original music and sound design Panos Alexiadis

Wearable metal and sculptural elements Dimitris Tampakis

Dramaturgical support Elena Novakovits

Texts Fotini Stamatelopoulou

Lighting design Nysos Vasilopoulos

Photography Pinelopi Gerasimou, Allard Willemse, Efi Gousi

Production management Alex Papasimakopoulou

Text Jasmina Založnik, Pia Brezavšček 

 

Production Onassis Stegi

Co-production Latitudes Contemporaines, SPRING Performing Arts Festival, MIRfestival

 

Guest performance production En–Knap Productions and City of Women Festival

Supported by EFFEA (European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists)

Onassis