S. Guraziu – Ars Poetica, K 2022 (Comment)
In the last two or three weeks, from time to time (but “faithfully”), I visited the video-channel of the Greek artist and choreographer Vasilis Petropoulos (on YouTube — I didn’t know about it before, but lately I “discovered” his channel).
It’s as if words can’t describe his wonderful work. It comes off as an abstraction, but it’s not excessive to say that I was amazed by the “miracle” itself, or (at least more concretely) by his tireless work, the volume of his output, his dedication, artistic talent, and choreographic genius.
To “map” the diversity of dances from around the world and present them as simply and fully as possible in a few 10-minute videos is not easy at all. Individually, it is a huge endeavor, requiring studies, structural planning, and systematic commitment. Almost as if UNESCO itself has not done anything “more” than this. I’m talking about the “online cartography of the cultural heritage of mankind”…
Or, to simplify, their work is essentially similar. Both UNESCO and the young Vasilis are inspired by humanity and humanism, approaching their work with unconditional love—towards culture and towards everything. As if Vasilis “justifies” his dedication with the motto “dance is the hidden language of the soul.” Being a member of the International Dance Council of UNESCO, his smile (among hundreds of improvisational dances, executed by himself for the videos) definitely has evoked the smiles of millions around the globe.
Personally, I am grateful for his commitment with all my heart and warmth. From a cultural-informative point of view, as far as the beauty and delicacy of dance are concerned, I’ve learned more in the last two weeks from his work than in decades of my life put together.
As simple as that, his video-channel has likely accumulated millions of visits by now. Not only has Vasilis impressed the audience of the world, but he has also managed to “prove” that the cultural complexity of human “timeline” is essentially one mosaic alone. It looks clumsy to us, with the “scattered” parts, but in fact, it is compact. The mosaic pieces are just “dancing”—not that there’s anything “chaotic,” on the contrary.
As if we could not point out either the completeness nor the complexity of the mosaic if we did not elevate our perspectives a little bit. Man once believed that the earth is a flat plate, lying somewhere in the “stellar lawn” of universal infinity. With his work, Vasilis as if “insists” that the entire cultural development and advancement of peoples is actually the “same frame,” as if everything is one “global dance,” a balancing dance of the cultural “mosaic” itself.
He calls the Balkans “the most beautiful peninsula of Europe, but at the same time the most complicated and troubled.” For the Balkan peoples, he stated:
“…the message (of my videography) is very simple; PEACE! The Balkans is considered the powder keg of Europe, the keg ready to explode at any time. We must throw away this infamous title and work towards a brighter future. Work towards PEACE. Through this video, I hope you can see that all the peoples of the Balkans are so similar to each other. War (verbally, or even worse, in reality) brings nothing at the end. We eat the same things, we have the same mentality, the same instruments, we have similar dances and rhythms, the list of ‘Balkan similarity’ goes on. We are powerful if we are all united, not divided.”
I already mentioned above that perhaps we need 2-3 weeks to “grasp” the beauty of his work. But putting aside the entertainment, the learning alone, which comes back to us as “compensation,” is worth our time. We don’t finish reading a book of 400-500 pages in one day. The rush after work, obligations, the hustle and bustle of life in general, lately have exhausted our time resources considerably. Of course, the lack of time is always justified. As a “simplified” line, our life itself is no different but a continuity, a timeline of seconds, minutes, days, months (unfortunately, it isn’t endless : )