Mirage
a solo in 17 scenes
Premiere Culturgest Theater
Lisbon, Portugal, November 2014
Mirage conveys fragmented reflections about the darkness of our age
and the search for beauty to combat that darkness,
through dancing, music, film, and word dances.
about what you want…
I know you’re in there…
I feel as if I could touch you,
if I could only put you in focus…
like a deserted overgrown battlefield,
a beautiful battlefield, hidden,
untouched for years…
I don’t want to allow us to slip into the sophisticated dark ages
towards which we seem to be headed…
excerpts filmed by
Gioia Emidi & Valerija Zabret
directed, composed & performed by ANN PAPOULIS
film director & assistant dramaturg LUDIVINE LARGE-BESSETTE
additional filming JASNA HRIBERNIK
photos by GIOIA EMIDI
music recorded at AMPHION MUSIC STUDIO, NYC
clarinet, voice & piano ANN PAPOULIS
sitar & guitar IVAN VRHUNC
flute JAMES PAPOULIS
violins MARY PAPOULIS & DAVE HAB
in memory of
IVAN VRHUNC
reviews
In one of the 17 scenes of Ann Papoulis’ solo Mirage,
a video is projected of the performer standing static in the middle of the street in New York,
with people walking by, while her gaze stays fixed on the camera…
what she opens up is a fissure in reality,
creating a transcendent plane that coexists with the daily life moving around her…
her body is immersed in her imagination…
her music places her between Laurie Anderson and Diamanda Galas…
GONÇALO FROTA
Ipsilon Publico November 2014
Speaking of performing solo, Papoulis says,
‘Something happens there in the dark theater – a beauty, a mystery, a suspension of time.
It is something very private that is shared and dependent on the presence of the audience…
I am interested in the stories that are embedded inside of pure movement.
The movement is the starting point,
but then the movement extends into my imagination, my history…’
MARIA JOÃO CAETANO
Diário Notícias November 2014
Mirage is divided into chapters that use dance, voice, text and video,
including autobiographical material, all of which evoke, as the choreographer puts it,
‘a dimension of life that cannot be named or described,
something, that hovers in and around our reality…’
CLAUDIA GALHÓS
Expresso November 2014
