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Choreographer Evangelos Poulinas’ new production I share therefore I am premiered in Staatstheater Kassel in October 2016. It explores the role social media plays in identity construction and the presentation of the self in the age of internet. The piece utilizes the way social media users show their selves, rather than tell about their selves to reveal hidden and chosen aspects of their personality. Moreover, it deals with the way users edit their experiences and choose their "likes" carefully to create a controlled desired representation of themselves. The piece asks whether we got addicted to sharing our experiences, and when does this need to share our identity, aiming to be "liked", becomes compulsive. In this social environment, we focus on the individual behind the profile, and check how possible it is to fulfill the desire to connect through online social behavior.
I share therefore I am aims to translate the online personal and social experience into a real-life situation. The aesthetics are inspired by the interface of social media and social media phenomena, such as viral videos, action buttons (like, star, retweet, share, comments, selfies and posts).
Two characters, interpreted by dancers Karim Afoun [DE] and Niv Melamed [IL], enter a new realm and put on an assortment of personalities and expressions. On the way, they learn how to take a selfie, how to communicate with the new tools of this world (pokes, hearts, etc.), and how to cope with the manic flow of information and stimuli flooding them. Whether expressing their voice, or taken over by the voice dictated by the environment, the characters try desperately to get approved and liked. The characters fluctuate between enjoying the ride, getting lost in it or getting run by it.
Evangelos Poulinas holds an MFA in dance from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, a Diploma from the Athens State School of Dance and a Bachelor from the Physical Education Department, Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki. He has been credited scholarships from numerous prestigious foundations: The Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, New York University, Greek State Scholarship Foundation and DanceWEB Europe. As a creator, Evangelos has shown work in U.S.A. and Europe and as a performer he has danced creations by Johannes Wieland, Maxine Doyle, Katarzyna Gdaniec and Marco Cantalupo, Marcel Leemann, Constanza Macras, Konstandinos Rigos, Nigel Charnock, Jasmin Vardimon, Wim Vandekeybus among others. As a teacher, Evangelos has taught contemporary technique, partnering and community dance classes in Germany, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Greece, Austria, Sweden and the U.S.A..
