Apostolia Papadamaki says the idea for “Breath of Light” arrived in a dream while she was still drafting her proposal to the Greek Culture Ministry in January.
“I saw women dressed in ancient Greek ‘peploi,’ moving through the Temple of Apollo,” Papadamaki says. “It was not simply choreography that appeared to me, it was beauty itself: the beauty of the temple, the beauty of the feminine presence, and the beauty of movement in harmony with the sacred landscape.”
That vision became “Breath of Light,” a site-specific ritual performance that will unfold at the Temple of Apollo in Ancient Corinth on July 28 and 29, part of the Culture Ministry’s “All of Greece, One Culture” program. It is one of 94 productions staged this summer at 95 archaeological sites, monuments and museums across 12 regions of Greece, all free to attend. The program is now in its seventh year, organized by the Greek National Opera under the ministry’s supervision and built this year around a line from Athenian dramatist Menander on what it means to be humane.
Choreographer Apostolia Papadamaki at the heart of ‘Breath of Light,’ a ritual performance inspired by the Temple of Apollo in Ancient Corinth and the relationship between movement, nature and sacred space. [Panayiotis Simopoulos]
