Music, Dance and Movement Workshops in Penitentiaries

The GNO Learning & Participation Department continues for one more year its music, dance, and movement workshops in even more penitentiaries across Greece. These workshops are organized with the goal of promoting the importance of artistic education and contact with the arts in penitentiaries and enhancing the participants’ creativity and free expression. In this season, the workshops will be realized with the support of the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation in the Female Penitentiary of Eleonas in Thebes, the Male Wing of Korydallos Penitentiary I, the Special Youth Detention Centers in Avlonas and Volos and the Penitentiary of Chania. After a series of weekly meetings, each of these workshops will come complete with the presentation of the artistic result of each creative trajectory.

Music Workshops in the Male Wing of Korydallos Penitentiary I

Through improvisation, participants will experiment with sound and music, develop performance skills and co-create new compositions. The workshop’s main goal is to cultivate creativity, group spirit and free expression. It will come complete with a concert, in which participants themselves will perform their own music pieces.

Planning / Implementation: Maria-Christina Harper (composer/music therapist), Andreas Gyftakis (musician)

Final performance date: T.B.A.

Music Workshop in the Penitentiary of Chania

Using strings and percussion, participants will embark on a journey across the traditional folk music of the wider Mediterranean region. Through a melodic wandering across their homelands they will remember, converse and work collectively. The workshop’s main goal is to cultivate communication, creativity, team spirit and free expression, as well as to enhance the contact with the participants’ roots. It will come complete with a concert given with the participation of the workshop’s members.

Planning/Implementation: Giannis Papatzanis (musician), Stelios Sykakis (musician)

Final performance date: T.B.A.

Movement and Dance Workshop in the Female Penitentiary of Eleonas in Thebes

Participants will be invited to activate their bodies and develop their creativity, work as a team and interact with each other, but also to explore dance as a way to bring joy and well-being, and unleash expression. The workshop will come complete with the presentation of a single dance-theatre performance, which will result from the blend of the original choreographies that will be co-created by the participants through guided physical exercises.  

Planning/Implementation: Katerina Spyropoulou (dancer, choreographer), Margarita Trikka (dancer)

Final performance date: T.B.A.

Movement and Dance Workshop in the Special Youth Detention Center in Avlonas

Through hip hop and break dance techniques, participants will explore movement improvisation, learn how to express themselves through dance, and improve their musical motor skills. The workshop’s primary goal is to become a space of fertile discussion and exchange of ideas, knowledge and inspiration, in an effort to promote collaborative culture, meaningful communication among the prisoners, and free expression. The workshop will come complete with a presentation, in which prisoners will synchronize their moves to the rhythm and perform their own choreographies.

Planning / Implementation: Elias Hadjigeorgiou (dancer, choreographer), Aidi Ormeni (dancer)

Final performance date: T.B.A.

Movement and Dance Workshop in the Special Youth Detention Center in Volos

Participants will be taught movement motifs of modern dance and break dance and will work as a team to express themselves freely and co-create their own material. Through a collaborative creation process, they will cultivate mutual respect, regardless of their differences, develop creative thinking and individual skills, and boost their own confidence. Moreover, they will discover their body’s movement limitations and acquire a better perception of space through different movement levels and directions.

Planning / Implementation:  Dimokritos Sifakis (dancer), Dimitris-Evangelos Dokouzis (dancer)

Final performance date: T.B.A.

Donor to the educational programme in penitentiaries

GNO Learning & Participation Lead Donor