Elpida Orfanidou and a pontic lyra

Over the past three years, Frankfurt choreographer Fabrice Mazliah and his colleague Marialena Marouda have invited six fellow choreographers to enter into dialogue with a handmade object of their choice. Each duet unfolds the encounter between the two bodies and their consecutive intertwinement.

In the third duet of the series, the performer Elpida Orfanidou is collaborating with a pontian lyra – a traditional musical instrument from Pontos, a region in modern day Turkey adjacent to the Black Sea. The creation process of this duet unfolds simultaneously with the fabrication of the lyra itself: Elpida and her performance partner enter in a dance of manufacturing and of being manufactured in the months preceding the premiere of this creation. What is shared in this duet is this process of the craftswoman learning how to be touched while touching, shaping while being shaped, being played while playing the instrument. To enter in relation with the wood, of which the lyra is made, also implies a listening to the songs and a dancing of the dances that appear, when the bow and the strings come in contact with each other.