Dying On Stage

by Christodoulos Panayioutou and Jean Capeille
Thu 27 Jul, 7.00pm
The Great Hall at Queen's

Dance history is at the heart of Panayiotou’s lecture-performance Dying on Stage. Inspired by Rudolf Nureyev’s lavish 1991 staging of the classical ballet La Bayadère, choreographed while his health was critically deteriorating, Dying on Stage is a romantic meditation on the impossible theatrical representation of death. Exploring various literal, metaphorical, symbolic deaths, and playing dead on stage, Panayiotou examines the vicious relationship between the spectator, the actor, and the characters trapped in the action.  The lecture-performance incorporates a wide range of readings, video clips and archival material, and includes an interlude by dancer Jean Capeille addressing the concept of “tragic irony”.

Dying on Stage has been previously presented at the Stromboli Volcano Extravaganza 2015; the Serpentine Galleries; Performa 15; and, more recently, at the Onassis Foundation, Athens, and at the Centre National de la Danse, Paris.  Solo exhibitions of Panayiotou’s work have been held at Rodeo Gallery, London; Galerie Kamel Mennour, Paris; The Venice Biennial, The Cyprus Pavilion, Venice; CCA Kitakyushu, Japan; Centre d’Art Contemporain de Brétigny, France; the Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Louis, USA; and Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland.