Extracts from reviews
Conceptual in its deepest structure, the performance of Ms. Koliopoulou brings on stage specific qualities of "intensity" in movement and contrasts them with the static, the monumental character of the naked body..in a show where the nude is deprived of its one-dimensional sensuality and unleashes its countless possibilities..
Nikos Xenios | Bookpress | 27/09/2021
Le 6e Festival culturel international de danse contemporaine se déroule depuis le 15 et jusqu'au 22 Novembre au TNA (Théâtre National Mahieddine Bachtarzi d'Alger). La compagnie Prosxima a offert un moment d’une rare intensité ce lundi 17 novembre aux spectateurs venus nombreux. Le public a apprécié la performance de la danseuse Ioanna Paraskevopoulou, dans une chorégraphie de Maria Koliopoulou.
Si la danse contemporaine apparaît souvent comme élitiste, la compagnie Grecque prouve qu’elle est avant tout un art vivant accessible et élémentaire.
HuffPost Algérie | Par Aurélie Lecarpentier /18/11/2014
Through her [actions] series, created for the Prosxima Dance Company since 2006, Maria Koliopoulou has been crystallizing her choreographic intent and the ways she approaches dance composition. She seeks to create open works that invite audience participation. The stage area takes the form of an installation, revealing eclectic links to the visual arts. Her eighth [action] carefully sub – headed Singularity, is a duet on the constant shifting states of the individual searching for their “own branch of the inviolate”.
From the Athens & Epidaurus Festival programme/June 2010
“Greek dancer Maria Koliopoulou,.., had introduced herself as a consequential conceptual choreographer versed in contemporary trends... Her current performance entitled [action 8] – Singularity affirmed her crystallizing conceptual direction and was witness to a marked shift towards a greater articulation, a greater clarity of communication and at the same time vigour and singularity of artistic expression..
We lean forward – we the audience – physically forward, for the fervent rotation of the dancers creates gravity. We take control of ourselves, we straighten up, we lean forward again and thus the performance exercises its influence on us right to the end;..The conceptual, abstract performance of Maria Koliopoulou and the Prosxima company does not neglect sensual perceptions, even pure hedonists will find satisfaction..you follow the performance with curiosity, with excitement, with a sensual and all encompassing aesthetic satisfaction..“
Nina Vangeli in Dance Zone Magazine, Prague, May 2010
Among the works that aroused the most interest are three duets, one by the dancer/choreographer Maria Koliopoulou.
It is a self-infundant duet and restraint taken by the creator and dancer NicoletaKarmiri.
two women gather hair, sitting on a seat diagonally placed on the left side of the stage. the lighting is deceptive, sometimes seen as being behind a high seat, in the other as sittings on an elevated lumpy bench. the ambivalence of course is related to the lighting as well as the special garments that included a garment, a type of dress full of fabric topped with a layer of leather or dark rubber-like material with openings, which perfected the ceremonial impression and was grounded in the variety of sensations that yielded its presence. we saw the two holding each other's hands and moving the arms that were slowly down and up until the grip was breached as an external force. it takes a while for them to reach the floor and there share a space as if magnetized to each other, even when there is no unison, even when they are tight back to back, skin to skin. for moments they are ancient animals driven by unconscious genetic memory that leads them in a certain orbit, and it is that it drives them to raid the top layer and it is that it returns them upwards, as ascending to the immigrant, asthal and louise gallow in slow motion to the cliff , to the void behind it.
ora brafman/june 16, 2010 in Athens Dance Platform 4th edition, June 2010. Athens Concert Hall | DanceTalk