Co-OPERAtive: An intercultural and collaborative opera hub for young people

Presentation

Co-OPERAtive is an opera hub for a mixed group of 60 young Athenians and unaccompanied minor asylum seekers aged 15-17 across Attica. This project is inspired by the ability of opera – as a universal art form that encompasses all art forms – to function as a common language for creating the first intercultural youth opera hub in Europe.

Co-OPERAtive aims to broaden opera’s appeal and raise its awareness to younger audiences, alongside with highlighting cultural diversity and social cohesion. Foregrounding the collaborative nature of opera, Co-OPERAtive places collaboration at the heart of its design and implementation by building strong alliances with two partner organisations, ARSIS and The HOME Project. Furthermore, it encourages collaboration between the Artistic team of the project and GNO’s Learning and Participation Department on an educational, artistic and managerial level.

Co-OPERAtive is an innovative model of non-formal creative learning that will accommodate intensive training on music, dance, and theatre on a weekly basis between January and June 2020, free of charge for all participants. This intercultural and vibrant community will be hosted in the facilities of the GNO at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), with the aim of providing a space of belonging for the mixed groups of participants.

Inspired by its dreams and aspirations, this project aims to create as its artistic output, the first intercultural and collaborative opera created by a youth opera company. Acknowledging the cultural disparities that arise through migrant settlement, Co-OPERAtive uses the art of opera as the platform on which local and migrant youth will be encouraged to creatively voice matters of ownership, belonging and identity. All partner organisations will employ their forces alongside the expertise of the Artistic team to readdress the role of opera in contemporary Athens – a city whose multicultural identity awaits to be celebrated by its youth.

GNO Learning and Participation Major donor Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

Artistic Team

The Co-OPERAtive project unfolds the art of opera in 3 of its basic disciplines: music, theatre and dance. Each category is further divided in various actions. Music is divided in instrumental, vocal and improvisation workshops; theatre is divided in creative writing, acting, and directing workshops; dance is divided in ballet classes, contemporary dance, and choreography. Each basic unit includes at least two experienced professionals in the field of arts education, who share the same ethics and philosophy about the role of arts in social integration. The GNO’s Learning & Participation Department has chosen professionals who are engaged in one or another way in educational projects involving refugees/immigrants and the targeted age group. Alongside the artistic team, the GNO’s professional personnel will contribute in areas of lighting design, stage management, sound engineering, etc.

Opera Director: Themelis Glynatsis (theatre and opera director, theatre and English literature teacher)
Music supervision/ Conductor: Andys Skordis (conductor, composer, workshop leader)
Music Workshop Leaders: Evi Nakou (musician, workshop leader, long experience in leading/project managing intercultural and educational projects) & Ann-Kristin Sofroniou (musician, workshop leader, experience in leading intercultural/educational projects for the targeted age group)
Theatre Workshop Leaders: Panagiotis Exarcheas (actor, workshop leader with experience in working with unaccompanied minors), Eleni Moleski (actress, creative writing, workshop leader with experience in leading theatre projects for the targeted age group)
Movement supervision: Edgen Lame (choreographer, dancer, dance teacher for professional and amateur dancers and actors)
Workshop Leaders: Edgen Lame, Katerina Gevetzi (dancer, choreographer, ballet and contemporary dance teacher for the targeted age group)
Set & Costume design: Christina Spanou (visual artist, set and costume designer, workshop leader)