Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Professsional Development Award 2024!
Miroloi - Lament 2024-25 ( In development)
A interdisciplinary creation expressing diasporatic grief, loss and belonging. Exploring memoir and ageing through a movement vocabulary - a hybrid of contemporary dance Greek folk and ancient feminine archetypes in a mythic-poetic landscape, with experimental music, video and spoken word.
" This piece is an ode to my maternal Grandmother, our Greek heritage, the last shepherdess of her village in Peloponnese, Greece."
Presented as a work in progress at Theatre on King during an Artist Residency in November 2024
Peterborough, Nogojiwanong, Ontario.
Artistic direction and choreography, Soloist, Irèni Stamou
In collaboration with the Creative Team:
Bennett Bedoukian: Live music
Kate Story: Dramaturgy
Ryan Kerr, Lighting Design
Ava Brown - Mantha, Videography
Shannon Leblanc, Project /Stage Management
Thank you to Fujiwara Solo Dance Labs, Toronto: Denise, Lucy, Kate, and Augusto
Montreal collaborators: Evridiki Spiliadis, Xiao-Jen, Anthy Mouzourakis
Thank you to the Electric City Culture Grants to Individual Artists and Trent Theatre.
Special Thank You to the Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Professional Development award to work with my mentor, Elizabeth Langley, CM, in Montreal studio intensives that inspired this creation.
Image of Irèni Stamou
Photographer: Evridiki Spiliadis
Miroloi (Lament ) Solo dance by Irèni Stamou with live music by Bennett Bedoukian. Photographer Andy Carroll
Unearthing Medea 2023
A modern-day interview in a devised theatre context - A deep dive research project into the mythology and character of Medea during a patriarchal siege of her rights as a woman, betrayed by her husband, exiled and framed by the Corinths of Ancient Greece - where she reveals that the playwright Euripides was bribed to write the play against her. An experimental work in progress as part of Alternating Currents by Public Energy Performing Arts at Theater on King -Peterborough Ontario.
January 2023
Artistic direction and choreography, Irèni Stamou
Performed by Irèni Stamou and Naomi Duvall
Artist Collaboration with :
Naomi Duvall, Theatrical research & props
Kate Story, Dramaturgical Mentorship
Eryn Lidster, Slide projection and special effects
Ryan Kerr, Lighting Design
Electric City Council / Grant for Individual Artists One
Image of Irèni Stamou
Photographer: Andy Carroll
Anatomy of a Trio 2022
Erring at King George Festival, May 2022
Presented by Public Energy Performing Arts.
Hidden Anatomy 2022 by Bennett Bedoukian
Theatre on King St, February 2022
Peterborough, Ontario
Improvisational performances where a musician, poet and dancer create in the moment - live.
With Bennett Bedoukian, Justine Million and Irèni Stamou
Image of Irèni Stamou and Justin Million
Blackboard text, Leslie Givens
Photographer, Anita Erschen-Pappas
Bone Stories Reimagined 2021
A powerful series of solo dance vignettes, storytelling in motion revealing feminine archetypes, ancestral memory, and violence against women.
As a site-specific performance, this work explores the distance between restoring performance as a cathartic experience during Covid 19, an ode to nature and our connection to the earth during these pandemic times.
Bone Stories Re-imagined
Artistic Direction and Choreography Irèni Stamou
Performers Dreda Blow, Irèni Stamou
Bone Stories was presented as a site-specific offering at
Millennium Park, Peterborough, Nogojiwanong Ontario
September 16, 2021
Part of the PIvot 2 Festival
Presented by Public Energy Performing Arts
Bone Stories Reimagined was created during a two-year-long COVID lockdown period, including an Artist Residency by Public Energy Performing Arts 2020-2021.
The origins of Bone Stories started as a work in progress at Theatre on King in the Dances for Small Spaces Festival in February 2020. This included an interpretative collaboration and mentoring for the ballerina Dreda Blow to integrate Irèni's Contemporary Dance vocabulary and somatic movement anatomy, guided subtle yoga, mudra's and philosophy orienting the dancer towards the essential elements for solo work, choreography, and artistic direction by Irèni Stamou.
Supporting Organizations: Theatre on King, Monocle Center of the Arts, Inner Quiet Yoga, Kits Cafe, ArtSpace, Peterborough, Nogojiwanong, Ontario
Irèni received an Electric City Council Arts Shift one mini-grant to explore creating an experimental film of Bone Stories with interdisciplinary artist Eyrn Lidster.
See the video below.
Image of dancer Irèni Stamou
Photographer: Anita Erschen-Pappas
Inside the Sculpture 2020
Created and performed for the PIVOT I Festival.
This site-specific performance was held in downtown Peterborough Square during the COVID lockdown. It was inspired and performed in the sculpture Figures Dancing by Don Frost; the dancers interweave within the sculpture of a family dancing against the reality and desolation of urban life and those roaming in homelessness.
Artistic Direction and Choreography Irèni Stamou
Performers Dreda Blow, Irèni Stamou
Presented by Public Energy Performing Arts and Reframe Festival, Peterborough, Nogojiwanong, Ontario
Image of dancer Irèni Stamou
Photographer: Anita Erschen-Pappas
Contemporary Dance Biography
Irèni Stamou is an award-winning Canadian dancer. Born in Athens, Greece, Irèni moved to Canada at age five and was raised in Montreal's multicultural environment, where she developed her passion for dance. She graduated with honours and the Outstanding Choreography Award in Contemporary Dance from Concordia University.
In 1994, Irèni founded her dance company, Métaspora Danse, in Montreal, leading it to international success until 2007. She toured Canada, Europe, New York, and Costa Rica to critical acclaim.
Irèni's work is a captivating blend of contemporary dance, innovative folk-mythical forms, and somatic movement inquiry. This unique blend has not only earned her numerous grants and awards but also solidified her as a pioneering artist. Her influence on diversity, inclusion, and belonging in Canadian Dance is undeniable, with institutions like the Canada Council for the Arts and the Quebec Council for Arts and Letters recognizing her contributions.
Currently Peterborough, Ontario, where she founded Irèni Movement Arts. This unique venture combines healing arts with dance, a testament to her innovative and accessible approach to art-making with empathy. Recognized by Public Energy Performing Arts and the Electric City Culture Council and recipient of The Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Preofessional Development Award 2024.
