Is it chaotic?Not at all! If anything the work is about
the resilience and cooperative qualities of individuals when they are
confronted with challenging situations.
What does “Krima” mean?
“Krima” is loosely translated as “what a shame” or “quel dommage”.
The first version of “Krima” was born in Athens Greece, where this modern Greek expression is part of everyday conversation. It is said sarcastically by sympathetic friends when one complains about some everyday annoyance, and used empathetically and with great passion when serious troubles occur.
“ KRIMA! ….what a shame” we say, with a smile in our voice when the something just melodramatic & ultimately inconsequential. “ KRIMA! ….what a shame” we say, in a totally different voice, when the something forces itself deeply into our lives. And when that Something Shameful never should have happened – or should never happen again “ KRIMA!” we exclaim, or whisper.
The ancient form “Krimata” actually means “Crimes”.
Why use the Greek here? Well, it splashes itself across the page. It sounds like how it feels. And have you ever had an unexpectedly annoying experience that seems to defy description? That begs for a new unheard of word to identify it? Mmmmm….we offer this word…”krima” !
Where did the idea come from?
( Maxine Heppner) “I had been working as mentor for Athens dance artist Mariela Nestora since 2001 when in late 2005 Mariela, out of the blue, asked me to make a solo for her. The phrases and vocalizations accumulated into a preliminary 6 minutes of wacky and strangely moving little dance. It was not until the next summer that we revisited the material. By then it had developed in my imagination. At the same time world news events were compounding with disasters daily. 2006 was a bad summer. We all knew of them, the regional wars, floods, political violence, epidemics. When an earthquake ripped apart the central Javanese city of Yogyakarta where I have artist associates, the brewing ideas came together. I was watching the tv news – a small apartment, a big TV screen, first the local personal stories, then the international news reports. As the news hour progressed I felt that the room was being progressively packed with all these stories. What connected them all were that they were all happening to individual people (even the mass disasters), that each individual was surprised by the event, that in spite of “it” the “victims” were coping and carrying on with life in any way they could by caring for each other and making jokes, and that I was in a privileged position to be watching all this from a distance, yet at any moment I too could be terribley surprised. I actually did find myself muttering “ach, ti krima” (trying to practice my Greek whenever possible!) The next day I told Mariela my idea and we agreed that I use the 6 minute series of wacky calamities that I’d made for her as the basis of a massive group piece. The accumulation of world disaster reports both numb and terrify us. The piece would accumulate calamities, performed by more and more people, and increase exponentially until the audience was witnessing 1000’s of them so tightly packed into a small space and time frame that for a moment there might be a shock of empathy. For some reason, the climate of the moment perhaps, 15 of the most prominent performers in the Athens dance scene immediately volunteered. They found the material to be a quirky and appealing combination of fun and pathos. This created a momentum; the cast quickly grew to 100. Primary performers attended 2-4 prep rehearsals. The bulk of the cast (about 60) learned their roles in only 4 hours prior to the show! The piece was performed 3 times in the one night to full houses. Onsite fundraising raised moneys for the central Athens immigrant aid centre.
The Toronto show took 3 years from proposal to show time. For the piece to work, the cast had to be a cross-section of the Toronto population so I invited several leaders of different communities to help gather the performers when the time came. The performance space had to be a public space, both small enough to set the environment and big enough for the audience and also reflect the city’s vibe. Torontonians typically have very structured schedules so I adapted the Athens model for rehearsals, which was wild 3-week blast, to a more extended 10-week advance. The original 6-minute dance and the concept of accumulation is still the backbone of the work. Added to this are spicy moments created uniquely for this Toronto premiere drawing on the specialities of the performers. The music is combination of an urban electronic underscore and the natural heartfelt vocals of the people, much like life in a city. The songs sung are contemporary pieces from Canadian, European, Middle Eastern and Asian backgrounds.
Thanks for the generosity of all the performers, crew and support people who have been involved in the Athens, Toronto and Hamilton shows, and to several anonymous "angels". And special thanks to those who have run with me and the idea: Mariela Nestora, Atalanti Moussouri, Teti Nikolopoulou, Nikos Louvros and Lia Stamopoulou of the fabulous artspace “Booze Cooperativa”, Takako Segawa, Rosslyn Jacob Edwards, Sara Meurling, Jonathan Heppner and Christos Giotis.