At 25 Years of the Dance Platform – Revisit, choreographer Arianna Economou revisits the solo performance “End-Lessness”, which was presented at the 6th Dance Platform in March 2006 at the Rialto Theatre, featuring dancer–performer Fotis Nikolaou. The work was based on a text/story by Samuel Beckett titled SANS (1969), which Beckett himself translated a year later as LESSNESS (1970)—a text that received great attention, written one year after the author was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Now, 20 years later, the choreographer collaborates with Ilias Clarke, a rising performer–dancer of the new generation, in End-Lessness II, questioning the role of art today—at a time when we are overwhelmed by ruins and relentless wars, and when, although we have the obligation to express, living truth can no longer be spoken. In Beckett’s words: “We have nothing to express, nothing with which to express it, no power of expression, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express".

While in 2006 the choreographer framed movement through the creation of a visual environment and soundscape—with the text heard in three languages (English, French, and Greek)—in this new version, presented as part of the Parallel Events of the 25 Years of the Platform – Revisit, she turns toward a minimalist yet structural approach, focusing primarily on mirroring the structure of the text itself. It is a text that speaks of ruins, vastness, the unspeakable, the unuttered, the nameless meaning, the sharp edge of silence—constructed from 62 phrases repeated through the use of chance across 24 stanzas. This text was used in an art magazine in 1990 to comment on the wartime situation in Lebanon.

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Today, we think of Gaza.