P A N T E L I S M A K K A S
Genie, 2016
Video Dance Performance
The dancer and choreographer Angeliki Stellatou and visual and video artist Pantelis Makkas study and reconstruct on stage, each from its own perspective, the story of a girl who never managed to speak. Genie a 13 year old girl, grown up without any trace of human communication, lived for ten years tied to a chair for toddlers. The physical limitations kept her body anchored in childhood and her emotional deprivation removed every capacity of speech unless the words "stop" and "end". The case of Genie raised in the scientific community questions that were left unanswered regarding human learning and development. The scientists wanted to investigate complex functions of learning in a mature brain which not exposed to stimuli gradually from the beginning of her life. They were based on the assumption of the time, that for a child to develop speech they should feel that they are associated with another man. Like all sensory organs if speech will not developed in a specific time will be lost.
Concept, Live Video: Pantelis Makkas Choreography, performance: Angeliki Stellatou Costumes: Eleftheria Arapoglou Music: Giorgos Poulios
