Maria Katsipatakis Tapping to the Rhythm of Success…

Maria Katsipatakis

It took four years for a reunion with Heather Cornell (her teacher and mentor) but Maria Katsipatakis, a dancer and a choreographer, came to New York to participate at the ‘Rhythm Tap Intensive with Live Music’, which took place this past July at Valley Cottage in New York. The Tap Dance Intensive is one of the most popular of its kind and gets worldwide recognition from the practitioners of rhythm tap dancing and music. This tap dance laboratory, 24 years now, is created and taught by Heather Cornell in collaboration with a number of musicians.  Attached to the intensive is a world percussive music and dance festival, Walk to the Beat that Cornell is co-producer of.  This festival takes place in Nyack, NY and Maria was invited to perform as a Wandering Musician, playing 5 min sets at venues around the village.

Maria Katsipatakis

Maria Katsipatakis not only studied and performed as a tap dancer but was also selected by Heather Cornell to be the cinematographer for the event. This young, talented and distinguished director-choreographer came to New York earlier this summer in order to further expand on her studies at the famous New YorkFilmAcademy. It was there that the faculty of the Academy selected her to be the director of Photography of a professional music video clip of a well-known band.

During her stay in New York she attended a performance by the Point 2 Jazz group and she proposed to its members to direct the music video clip of one of the most popular track of the cd. Both Petros Klampanis and Christos Rafalides were happy to accept this proposal.

Maria Katsipatakis

Maria Katsipataki is an internationally renowned interdisciplinary artist from the island of Crete. She works as filmmaker, choreographer and performer. She holds a BA in Film Making following the completion of Bellou’s Drama school of Arts. From an early age she trained in ballet, contemporary dance and improvisation at ‘Choroekfrasi dance school’ and ‘Studio Metsis’. As her main influence being the ‘body limits’ approach to Musical Theatre from Bob Fosse, she has developed her dance culture in Musical Theater, Rhythm Tap and Body Percussion through workshops and festivals in Greece and abroad from well-known artists as Heather Cornell, Chet Walker, Ric Ryder, Guillem Alonso, Max Pollak. In collaboration with the National Conservatory, in 2010 she created and directed a musical called ‘Street of Dreams’ dedicated to the Greek composer Manos Hatzidakis. One of her interdisciplinary project is the ‘Body Rhythm beyond the Oceans’, which took place in Arctic in 2011. In 2012 she awarded from the International London Greek Film Festival and the International Independent Film Festival of Patras for her short film ‘Think_Erase_Move’. Her research in Social Choreography under the mentorship of Michael Klien inspired her to create the social choreographic project ‘Why Antikythera? Playing for Real. Performance as Life.’ which took place in Antikythera Island in 2012. The book of the project presented in the artistic communities of Shanghai in 2013. She is interested in blending the diverse realities of cinematography and choreography; that of the sight and body.  She focuses on the interdisciplinary dialogues being created in their between space. Stay tuned!