Regional tour and workshops: „Dünya Maskara“ by Mairi Pardalaki

Dünya Maskara is a bilingual group performance that uses dance and spoken word to engage with 19th-century bilingual songs and funerary inscriptions written in karamanlidika, a system that used the Greek alphabet to transcribe the Turkish language.

Choreographer Mairi Pardalaki conceived this work, which includes nine bilingual Greco-Turkish songs. Turkish poet Çağla Meknuze and choreographer Mairi Pardalaki create new connections between the two languages, juxtaposing their feminist writing with archival themes such as love, death, religion, and the role of women in them.

Embodied by a group of five performers, these songs and dances reflect the dialogue between the represented languages and cultures. Dünya Maskara is staged between Turkey and Greece, with local performers in each country. An artist from the Rum community serves as a link between the two teams, reinforcing the cultural and linguistic bridge that this performance aims to establish.

About Mairi Pardalaki:

Mairi Pardalaki is a choreographer and dancer from France and Greece, currently based in Paris. Her performances typically combine music and literature and are often held in non-traditional theater spaces. She has been involved in productions such as Romeo Castellucci’s „Moise et Aaron“ and Alexandra Pirici’s „Parthenon Marbles“. Additionally, she regularly collaborates with director Fanny Travaglino to lead workshops for young migrants.

The show was created with the support of Teatroskop in 2023, and the current tour is supported by the French Institute of Paris and as part of the Teatroskop 2024 call for projects.