adLibdances / Lang

Kat Papageorgiou alias Kat Valastur was born in Athens. After studying as a dancer at the Hellenic School of Dance she continued her studies at Trisha Brown Studio in New York on 2000, as she was awarded with a full scholarship by the Fulbright Foundation. In 2009 she obtained a Masters in solo/Dance/Authorship from Universitat der Kunste Berlin.

As a dancer she has collaborated with Dimitris Papaioannou in Edafos Dance Theatre productions and at the 2004 Olympic Games opening ceremony as well as with Konstantinos Rigos, artistic director of Oktana Dance Theatre.

In 2001 she founded the group adLibdances. The work of the company is motivated by the essential question "what is left to be danced?", a question which arises a number of issues related to contemporary dance in the context of contemporary society. The desire to diverge from the normalising forms of dance history place her into the avant-guarde scene with works that reveal a ritualistic character. Her latest pieces - "Wonderful Rooms", "What scratches the glass from the inside", "Lang" and "So many Gens Dark" - investigate the solo as form and the multiplicity of its reflection in performative art.

She has participated in major festivals including Tanz im August (2008), Aerowaves (2009), Athens Festival (2008), Kalamata International Dance festival (2009), Madrid en Danza Festival (2009). She has received the Jermila Jerabkova Choreography Award for her solo "What scratches the glass from the inside" at the New Europe Festival in Prague (2007). She has collaborated with the director Yorgos Lanthimos in videodance film productions. Their work "the Date" officially represented Greece at the Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and Mediterranean in Sarajevo (2001). Her work "9:00 am", co-produced with videoDance festival 2001, won the project/ exchange competition and was shown in major festivals. Since 2007 she is based in Berlin.

BMOTION is the dance programme of the Operaestate Festival Veneto. It represents the most innovative international scene, and goes far beyond language barriers to voice the daring forms of contemporary dance. A body which goes across the infinite tumults of the soul. A group of artists from all over the world. Enthralling, original, eclectic languages. Differing choreographic approaches, differing life experiences, differing political, artistic, social commitment. Private diaries penetrating through lights and shades of an increasingly unintelligible contemporary society. For a borderless geography of human feelings!