Then, about halfway through the show (which lasts 55 minutes), two of the ten dancers look at each other for the first time. Later, in one of the diagonals that structure the space, in the background on the right, one of these artists (Georgios Kotsifakis, who is also assistant to the choreography and stands dazzlingly at the head of the platoon) touches a companion for the first time. And those two small gestures, looking at each other and touching each other, so common in group dances, are felt My ferocious ignorant step (My fierce and ignorant step) as a real shock. Like the tremor of a whisper.
In the shows of the choreographer Christos Papadopulos (Greece, 43 years old) the artists usually look straight ahead, towards the audience. They are dancers who reveal themselves to be disturbing, almost dehumanized subjects, in an atmosphere of intrigue and ritual. They move in sync (with each other and with the music) without almost touching each other, in a moving bodily discourse growingeven from the minimum and without haste. Aspects that say a lot about the choreographer’s confidence and commitment to his research and which are appreciated because they are done truthfully. Therefore, something as common as looking or touching each other involves My Ferocious and ignorant step a real turning point: both in the choreography itself presented this Friday at the Teatros del Canal in Madrid, and in the entire speech of the Greek creator, who in just 10 years of career has revealed himself as one of the most sought after on international billboards.
From the program of the 43rd Autumn Festival, where it is on the bill, it established itself as the flagship and last night it was confirmed. Last summer he already conquered the Grec festival in Barcelona.
But there are other elements that make this work by Papadopoulos a mutation of his belief. Like that awareness in dancers of knowing where they are, why and what they are doing. That is, dancing together knowing that you are dancing. As a collective, but also as individuals, synchronized by the contagion of the group. Humanized by effort, which is neither hidden nor contained here. Expanded in a free movement, revealed in all its breadth, the dancers use every part of the body, which is sometimes also a musical instrument, through breathing or with the words of leader Kotsifakis (with a very discreet headband microphone) which dissolve before receiving their meaning. The force that seems to move the group, and which in previous productions was the absolute protagonist, here competes with the individual strength of each member.
It is told in the program and Papadopoulos has explained in several interviews that this work arises from the vital impulses of adolescence, when we believe in the world that awaits us. And it alludes to hope as an act of resistance and optimism as a mission of peace. But it does not remain a mere abstract celebration, but rather presents itself as a necessary and concrete research placed in the lived political and social context. “How not to feel angry, how to bear this reality?” he asks himself in the text that accompanies this work on his website. And he denounces genocide and the rise of fascism. And he recreates a journey towards hope without forgetting the situation and his denunciation.
Even the original music by Kornilios Selamsis, which is fundamental in the work as it coexists inextricably with the dance, building each other up, and the lights, which tell from the minimum, even in the use of flashes, which appear only as a brief glow, contribute to highlighting this dark picture of the present. The joy of the first times is recreated on stage, but let’s not forget where the need to recover it comes from.
Everything else that characterizes Papadopoulos’ artistic language is in this work: the strength of the detail, of the large hidden in the small, the infinite cycle of the gesture, the floor as a support for a perpetual verticality, the symmetrical thrust between movement and music, exceptional performers and the possibility of becoming passionate about all this as an audience, without effort. The artistic revolution that Papadopulos is signing, especially in the last five years on the international scene, involves stripping his creations of extras or supplements, to the point of making it so complicated to trust in the body above all else and surrender to movement before any other aspect. As the final climax approached (which the choreographer likes to leave high and without final lines) you could see in the audience how some of the backs leaned forward, seduced by the strength of the group.
My ferocious ignorant step and Heating (latest creation by Rocío Molina, at the Matadero Dance Center until this Sunday) sign one of the most jubilant weeks of 2025 for dance. It’s a shame that this discipline remains so unknown.
My ferocious ignorant step. Concept and choreography: Christos Papadopoulos. Dancers and collaborators: Themis Andreoulaki, Maria Bregianni, Amalia Kosma, Georgios Kotsifakis, Sotiria Koutsopetrou, Tasos Nikas, Spyros Ntogas, Ioanna Paraskevopoulou, Danae Pazirgiannidi, Adonis Vais. Dramaturgy consultant: Alexandros Mistriotis. Original music: Kornilios Selamsis21 and 22 November. Canal Theatres (Madrid). Red Room. 43 Autumn Festival.
