Rebetiko (Rembetiko)

(54 min; 2010)
Director/Choreographer: Yannis Adoniou
Music: Minos Matsas
Vocalist: Catherine Clambaneva
Shadow Theatre Artist: Leonidas Kassapides

Yannis Adoniou, the artistic director of KUNST-STOFF, has become known for his unusual and highly visual theatrical dance works, which merge different art forms, often creating unexpected collisions and provocative beauty. Rebetiko explores the origins and evolution of Rembetiko, the “illegal” folk music of the underground hashish dens of Pireaus and Thessaloniki, frequently compared to the American blues as a form of musical expression for the desperate and despairing. The Greco-Turkish War uprooted some two million people, and Rembetiko gave voice to their extreme anguish. Using elements of Greek folk and post-modern dance, darkness and song, choreographer Yannis Adoniou, vocalist Catherine Clambaneva and shadow theatre artist Leonidas Kassapides excavate their homeland’s history to create a sensorially captivating work.