Isadora Duck

Alternative Stage founding donor 

Alternative Stage sponsor: PPC (Public Power Company)

The imaginative musical Isadora Duck is the GNO Alternative Stage's production for children of all ages for the 2024/25 season, filling the hall with swans, ducks, seagulls, blackbirds and nightingales who tell a tender and at the same time tough adventure of self-discovery.

The performance is based on the highly successful fairy tale of the same title by Stella Michailidou, who is also the director, while the music is composed by Kostas Vomvolos. It is a play that speaks about diversity and acceptance, which is also an ideal introduction for children to the art of dance.

A tiny duck living in the Swan Lake dreams of becoming a ballerina, even though she is the last one in her class. When her teacher, Mr. Coup de Pied, kicks her out of class, Isadora wanders desperately until she slowly comes to believe in herself and discovers her own unique dance. A free dance, in perfect harmony with nature, without the restrictions imposed by classical ballet. A dance that allows her to express her true feelings, that helps her to overcome fear, loneliness and difficulties.

"A play between the names Isadora Duncan and Isadora Duck became the trigger for writing this play. But the lives of the great American dancer and choreographer Isadora Duncan and our heroine were very different. Duck and Duncan meet only in their passion for dance, in their longing to communicate more deeply and meaningfully with the world and themselves, to say things that words struggle to convey. They both learn by observing nature, recognizing that everything dances even though they seem motionless. The Isadora of our story lives in Swan Lake where the only dance that exists is classical ballet. Her body type does not meet the standards for dancers there. She does not have a long slender neck, long legs, she is not all white and tall with large wings; she is not a perfect swan, and this results in the dismissive, violent and cruel behaviour of her classmates.

Isadora’s huge weapon to endure all that is dancing. She dances non-stop and so she resists, grows stronger and moves on until she comes to discover, accept and love who she really is. In the play, we are led from a world of closed, arrogant, unresponsive Swan Lake to a world of inclusion, acceptance and recognition of the unique other. I wish we could make this happen also in our world," Stella Michailidou notes.

Co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and National Resources.