OPAF19 PERFORMANCES – Online Performance Art Festival

Catherine Chliaras (Athens, Greece): Promise me you’ll shoot yourself

“Promise me you’ll shoot yourself” Choreography – Concept: Catherine Chliaras Dancers: Christina Gazi – Magda Goebbels Ellie Raftopoulou – Ellen Ainsworth Maria-Augusta-Agapi Nungovich – Ida Cook Anna Kokkinaki – Louise Cook Niki Paouri – Cheng Benhua Maria Gika – French woman Nicole Maltezaki – Rosalina Kharitonova Erina Korouti – Zippa (Lalechka’s mother) Direction – Cinematography – Editing: Petros Skoutas Music: The Big Smoke Composer: Stuart Roslyn, Matt Founding Album: La Belle Époque (2018) The Gallows Composer: Harry Lightfoot Album: La Belle Époque (2018) Wars of Faith Composer: Ivan Torrent Last Shot Composer: Lorne Balfe Survivor Testimony Rachel Gleitman Hofstra University “Generations” HMTC Conference 08/06/2014 I hereby declare that I do not own the rights to this music. All rights belong to the owner. No Copyright Infringement Intended. A few words “Promise me you’ll shoot yourself” is a promise French mothers asked of their daughters when the German Nazis took them away. It is a dance about the value of woman power during World War II, the love, the misery, the protection, the sacrifice, and the difficulties of being a mother. In order of appearance: Erina Korouti – Zippa Poland 1942. Zippa and Jacob have a little girl named Rachel / Lalechka. Nazis are hunting all the Jews in town. Zippa does everything to protect her daughter from being killed, so she gives her to two ladies that exit the border. A few days after that, she and her husband are killed by the Nazis. Maria – Augusta – Agapi Nungovich & Anna Kokkinaki – Ida & Louise Cook Ida and Louise Cook are two sisters who love opera. They travel across Europe to enjoy the brightest opera singers, ask for their autographs, and become their friends. An Austrian singer asks them to accompany her Jewish friend in the UK, from which they learn about all the difficulties that Jewish people face because of the Nazis. The two sisters saved hundreds of Jewish people from the Germans, sacrificed a large part of their wealth for them, and risked their lives. Ellie Raftopoulou – Ellen Ainsworth February 1944, Italy. Ellen Ainsworth is a 24-year-old nurse. She is the only American woman from Winsconsin that will die in World War II. A bomb destroys the hospital where Ellen works and she manages to save all the patients and get them out of the building. She becomes a role model for her colleagues. Ellen is really hurt though, and six days later she dies, having taken care of every patient. Ellen won the third highest award for bravery, the Silver Star, and the Purple Heart award. Nicole Maltezaki – Rosalina Kharitonova Stalingrad 1942. Rosalina Kharitonova is a kid when she starts to work in a tanks factory for the Russian army. It is bombed by the Nazis. Rosalina loses her family and her younger sister, who she loves most in the whole world. She thinks that she must be dead, so she keeps in mind the only memory she has – of them playing with a sleigh in the snow. But, her sister has not died and they meet again 78 years later! Niki Paouri – Cheng Benhua China 1938. Cheng Benhua is the leader of the anti-Japan resistance. The information we have about her is minimum, but the 5-metre-tall statue in Nanjing, a city that is well-known for the biggest slaughters in WWII by the Japanese, shows the importance of her heroism. Cheng crosses her arms and smiles at the photo taken a bit before the Japanese soldiers rape her and kill her with a bayonet. Maria Gika – French woman after WWII After Hitler’s suicide, French women were tortured. All the French women who came in contact with German men either for a relationship, cooperation, or just for ways to survive in exchange for their body, were shaved bald and paraded publicly under the sounds of drums. Some of them had the sign of swastikas painted with lipstick on the forehead or the chest and walked semi-naked on the streets. Most of them died in exile and in degradation. Christina Gazi – Magda Goebbels Magda Goebbels was married to Hitler’s right hand, Joseph Goebbels. She was considered the First Lady of Nazi Germany. She had six children and lived a rich life. When the Nazi soldiers started losing the war, she got sick and got thinking about how to protect her family. Hitler commits suicide. Her family stays loyal to Hitler and does the same. Magda kills her six children with a pill after she has brushed their hair and wished them goodnight and the next day she asks their helper soldier to kill her and her husband in the yard and then burn them.

BIO: Catherine Chliaras is a 27-year-old choreographer and dance teacher in Greece. She has a Master in Choreography from the University of Lincoln, UK. She has done further research in “Acting in Dance” and she teaches using this method in her contemporary, musical, and hip-hop classes. She has choreographed in musical shows in Athens, Greece. She has attended seminars in Acting and Body Expression. Her first degree was in International & European Studies, University of Piraeus, Greece, which inspire most of her works for her newly established dance company “Conclave”. Her latest project ‘Promise me you’ll shoot yourself\’ has been awarded in the Platartistic Festival of Barcelona, in the category of Documentary dance. ARTIST’S WEBSITE