AXION ESTI: A full length Dance / Drama

Choreography and Direction by ALICE CONDODINA

Sets designed and created by GEORGE PAPAKONSTANTIS

Translation of the Narration by THOMAS DOULIS

Alice Condodina and Dance Company 1969/70

Created under the sponsorship of the Hellenic Universities Graduates' Association

The blurb in the poster by Nikos Samaras reads: “The poem 'Axion Esti' by Odysseus Elytis is a synthesis, abridgement and contraction of the infinity of time to single moment of continuity, using as its material the recent history of Greece, expressed in a Byzantine form–Present Embraces Past–in the form of ritual and adoration. It is a poem written with moral austerity but with youthful purity–where the sunlight is without wrinkle and the Aegean sea without darkness. It is a classic poem set to music by Mikis Theodorakis with sensitivity, fidelity and originality"

The poster also features blurbs by Walter Terry (Saturday Review), Deborah Jowitt (The Village Voice), and Jacqueline Maskey ( New York Times)

The Dance/Drama was performed at the Clark Center Y.W.C.A., New York, in June 1968, among other venues.

Of interest to Greek/American studies: Miss Condodina performed as Dancer/Actress “with the Ypsilanti Greek Theater (in the debut season) and with the American Dance Theater" (information from her bio in the Poster). For a more recent biography see, http://www.theaterdance.ucsb.edu/people/alice-condodina

Source of this archival material: Litsa Kozyris and Phaedon John Kozyris family archive.