upward panic

upward panic is a frantic, ritualistic performance about the life and work of Eva Palmer Sikelianos, a queer artist who opposed fascism, challenged traditional gender stereotypes, and reinvented ancient greek theatre. she was born in the Unites States, but at a young age she moved to Paris and co-founded the first sapphic community of the modern world. she fell in love with Sappho’s poetry, and, in 1906, she moved to Athens. in Greece she did it all: she studied byzantine music, learned how to weave, closely examined archaeological findings, lived with the choreographer Isadora Duncan, and became the first woman to direct a greek tragedy in an ancient theatre.

we dived deeply into her archives, researched the newspapers of her era, read the letters she exchanged with her friends and lovers, and we composed a modern, revolutionary performance about this contemporary legend, this pioneer of feminism and anti-fascism, who has been overshadowed by her male collaborators. upward panic is a ritualistic performance, with narrative political and historical elements, that aspires to correct a historical injustice. this is the story of a woman who devoted her life to the secrets of antiquity in order to find a way to escape the narrow constraints of the first half of the 20th century.