Panos Malactos Brightest Heroine

Sometimes I’m happy, a couple of times I’m sad  

 but I’m always a true heroine, the brightest heroine  

TAMTA 

The old world is dying; a brave new one is struggling to be born. This is the time of the monsters. In his new solo performance, dancer and choreographer Panos Malactos is inspired by the body that reacts, awakens, and revolts against the monsters of our time. The core of his performance is familiar: the energy that gathers when bodies refuse to remain silent against the ruthless reality of war, political oppression, state power abuse, and injustice. And blow up.  

In a work that unravels as a challenge of endurance, the body –charged by the burden of collective uprising – recites its own journey, a strange loop of resistance, exhaustion, and reset. While avoiding an imagery-based choreography and taking a distance from vivid representations, Malactos crafts a statement-performance that protests in flesh and bones; a channel for collective tension to find a way to release. But can releasing be the solution?  

The work’s references stem from video games, anime, programming languages, and glitches – a particular homage to error, “bugs,” and the effort of overcoming obstacles when it seems plainly futile. The performer-heroine is on the final level of a never-ending game, looking for the final boss – the monster – to defeat them and complete the game. However, it always escapes. Is there a decisive movement that could end the battle once and for all? Or is the battle never-ending by design? And in a world where spells are cast but wizards apparently don’t exist, who’s the enemy?  

Watching the performer’s body overcome all challenges, we feel like we’re watching our own bodies on stage, caught in a Sisyphean cycle that reflects our separate lives. Brightest Heroine is, therefore, a solo that becomes a multitude through a body that is sometimes a field of exercise, sometimes a vessel of memory, and other times a weapon of reclaiming. Within an intermediary space where digital and physical reality swallow one another, the audience faces the realisation that refusing to give up is the only true act of resistance in a world that seems to be dead right trolling us.