LC DANCERS

KATERINA TSAGARI - ASSISTANT CHOREOGRAPHER, LC TEACHER, GRADUATE OF MORIANOVA TRAST HIGHER VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

 

I have the honor of growing up for 17 years next to Tasos Bekiaris. A man who considered to be a landmark and a benefactor to me in many aspects of my life. The last 10 years have defined who I am now. Going into the process of attending the seminar, I thought it would be easy to adapt and follow his course since I have been part of the team since day one and have experienced every development to date. Wrong assessment!

There is a big difference between experiencing it as part of it and being the outside view of it all. There's a difference between realizing that yourself is your own biggest fear than what you think. It's not just a five-hour program to develop technique in dance and acting. Besides, that was never the main goal of the group and that's what makes it different. You discover yourself, face your insecurities and fears when you are present to what you feel without judging it. You take it with you and walk with it until you see where it takes you. It certainly has more to give you as long as you are open to the best and worst of you. It takes time to process what's really going on inside you as the real work with yourself happens after the lessons. That's where you realize how much it has affected you, when you look at the people around you, known and unknown, and see a little bit of yourself in their eyes.

Every day was the same but different. I can't say I learned and finished the seminar here. Maybe now it's the beginning. As long as I am "alive" with active senses in my “now” it will work. Even this text has no end. It has so many of my living images in it. If I wrote it yesterday it would be different, if I write it tomorrow it will be different again. The only thing in common will be my truth yesterday and today and tomorrow.

Tasso, thank you.

 

THEODORA MANOLAKOU - DANCE STUDENT / STUDENT AT THE NATIONAL CAPODISTRIAN UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS (EKPA) IN THE DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY

 

LC started for me as a door to the unknown. Having little dance experience and looking for a way to approach dance, I joined the LC team. The journey began last November. It was my first time following a daily, intensive program. Initially the focus was physical and technical. As the difficulties and physical demands increased over time, the more difficult the process became, especially mentally. It's very hard to feel like you're not enough and that was my main obstacle. There were moments when I wondered if I could really go on. But I knew I wanted to. I could see the physical progression but I didn't realize it. Gradually the courses focused more and more on the senses, on interaction, on the here and now, and the element of performing was integrated into them. Every day I faced my biggest obstacle, my insecurities and fears. The seminar began to affect my life in general. And all this time inside me, unconsciously and consciously, I was processing the information and it began to be assimilated gradually. Some are still in the process of assimilation. The group was and is still a living organism. Within it, the freedom was so great that I could not perceive it and often became self-enclosed. Slowly beginning to notice and feel my truth, even if it was dark, grounded, I could move forward facing my insecurities. Throughout this physical and spiritual journey, my teacher was there, open to everything, and it was this that gradually made me open up as well, crumple up and be able to integrate my own creativity.

 

VASILIS KARAOGLANIS - GRADUATE OF THE STATE SCHOOL OF ORCHESTRAL ART (KSET) / TEACHER OF CONTEMPORARY DANCE

LC is a unique experience and journey. I could say that each day was different from the next. If I had to describe what I experienced in one word, I would choose the word "transformation". Obviously there were personal ups and downs in the whole process, which I learned to accept and love. I never stopped feeling that transformation, not only physically but also spiritually. I realized that as long as I choose to be present and "open" to people, to the resources they offer me, and to the whole of this process, I allow myself to evolve in my performing, in my daily life, and in my interactions. This is just the beginning...

 

ANASTASIA GEORGAKOPOULOU - COMMERCIAL/HIP HOP DANCER / HIP HOP TEACHER

LC for me was a lifetime experience. I find it very difficult to describe by words how I experienced it. I discovered aspects of myself and let myself go down paths that were previously unknown to me. A completely personal process that, in experiencing it, provided me with valuable "tools" not only in dance but in my life in general. I feel gratitude and joy for having experienced it with all my senses active and present in every moment. This journey with incredible people as companions and of course Tasos Bekiaris as a guide played a crucial role for me, where development on all levels was inevitable. I owe a big thanks to the creator of LC for giving me this opportunity, as a teacher but mostly as a human being.

 

BASILEIA PROSPATHOPOULOU - GRADUATE OF CHICHESTER CONSERVATOIRE AS MUSICAL THEATRE PERFORMER

 

The LC method has been a personal journey of self-exploration for me. Myself as a dancing body, soul and spirit. Beyond the educational process and my professional development, I was given the space to explore, experiment and express a reality of my own through dance theatre. Above all, I was given the space to "be afraid". The space to discover my limits and to push them. I was given the space to "fail", to "fail to endure" and to finally communicate my weaknesses, which was absolutely enlightening. All of this, through the prism of dance theatre and the way Tasos Bekiaris approaches it. It was a new, unfamiliar, heavy, difficult, universal, beautiful, subjective process that changed me radically. If I was given the opportunity again I would repeat it. Knowing that each time, I would discover and realize something different.

 

DIMITRIS KOUTIS - DANCER

 

LC is one of the most difficult but also one of the most beautiful things I have ever done. Apart from the daily physical training that went extremely every time, the biggest difficulty I encountered was the process I had to do with myself confronting my truth. I didn't know that this could affect my dancing, but every day I was seeing myself grow, not only as a dancer but also as a person. I can only be grateful to have experienced all of this, with all the people who have guided me on this journey. 

It is an experience that I will never forget!