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Performing the Greek Crisis: Navigating National Identity in the Age of Austerity
Performing the Greek Crisis explores the impact of the Greek financial crisis (2009–19) on the performing arts sector in Greece, and especially on contemporary concert dance. When Greece became the first European Union member to be threatened with default, the resulting budget cuts pushed dance to develop in unprecedented directions. The book examines the repercussions that the crisis had on artists' daily lives and experiences, weaving the personal with the political to humanize a phenomenon that, to date, had been examined chiefly through economic and statistical lenses. Informed by the author's experience of growing up in Greece and including interviews and rich descriptions of performances, the book offers a glimpse into a pivotal moment in Greek history.
In Greece, dance (and, by extension, the body) has historically held a central role in the process of national identity construction. When the crisis broke out, artists had to navigate through a precariously fluctuating landscape, with their bodies as their only stable referent. By centering the analysis of the Greek crisis on the dancing bodies, Performing the Greek Crisis is able to examine the various ways that artists reconceptualized their history and reframed ideas of national belonging, race, citizenship, and immigration.
Figure 19. Promotional videos for the 2019 Dance Days Chania festival. Screenshots from separate videos on the festival’s Vimeo page: Image on the left is from (Dance Days Chania 2019b, 0:10) and image on the right is from (Dance Days Chania 2019a, 0:48).
Figure 20. Promotional video for the 2017 one small step festival. Community-building and recreational activities are emphasized. Video screenshots from one small step (2017, 01:14; 01:13; 01:11; 01:16).
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