i creator
i creator.
i creator means to position oneself in the world as an artist be it a performer, a director or a pedagogue. it is the beginning in Maria Gaitanidi's work.
open call: laboratory work with Mario Monopoli & Maria Gaitanidi in Tuscany
The encounter with Mario Monopoli in Venice happened in 2010. Since then, like two fraternal souls we have been walking side by side as artists and human beings.
We are delighted to announce a new residency in Tuscany in September 2025 (17-28/09) continuing our research on Pirandello's Mountain Giants. You can apply to join an international ensemble until the 30th July 2025. For more info click here
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performance & film.
about.
My path began in Africa when I wrote my first short story and staged shadow puppetry. Of Eastern origins, between Vosporos and Crete, I navigated for twenty years in the West. I am a theatre and film director and my work cannot be dissociated from research and pedagogy.
I have led my own projects for the last ten years in Greece, Italy, Poland, France and the UK with the international ensemble of performers We Are Raw Material. Everything begins within laboratory settings, an encounter with a text that is burning in the moment, with people who are searching for their I Creator and with a space that speaks with its own force.
Anatoli Vassiliev and Maud Robart have been my teachers and I hold a Phd in Theatre Practice as Research from the University of Kent, UK on Ancient Greek Drama, Ludic Structures and the art of the Tao.
Teaching Ancient Greek Drama and Actor's Training at the University of Kent, Central School of Speech and Drama, the Young Vic Theatre amongst others has given me the opportunity to further develop my research in the art of the actor.
Writing and experimenting with cinematography work and acting approaches between fiction, poetry and documentary have given birth so far to two short films, Salt Wound and Erofili-Score.
Since 2016, I have been sharing my practice and research with Mario Monopoli travelling between Italy and Greece through residencies, sponsored by Teatro GranBado in Verona and recently funded and supported by Creative Europe and the Verrocchio Art Centre in Tuscany.
Currently I am creating a green space in the Cretan nature called Selena Retreats aiming to host and welcome artists in an auto-sufficient environment.
Whilst in Athens I teach Tao Te Ching Internal Practices at Ananda Unity in Petralona and since October 2024 I teach at the Peiraikos Syndesmos Drama school in Pireus. From January 2025 I will be also teaching Ashtanga Yoga Mysore style.
My passion for music has found its home in the study of Ney, Bendir and Oud and as of October 2024 I have begun research in Ethnomusicology and Musical Anthropology at the Kapodistrian University of Athens.
