THE STORY
From its first production to a living space for creation and education
The history of LOAD is not simply a succession of productions. It is the development of an ongoing investigation into the body, dramaturgy, education and the relationship between individual and collective experience.
2012–2014 | The beginning
LOAD Dance Company was founded in Athens in 2012 by Tasos Bekiaris. Its artistic activity began on 7 June 2013 with the dance-theatre work Anasfallo, conceived, choreographed and directed by Bekiaris, with texts by Christina Mitropoulou.
In November 2013, the work was presented in a new form as Anasfallo revised at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, where all three performances reached full capacity.
In February 2014, the production became the starting point for the photographic exhibition Anasfallo by Petros and Konstantinos Sofikitis. LOAD participated in the exhibition’s opening with a new visual and performative version of the work.
2014–2015 | Research and expansion
Over the following two years, the company’s activity took on a more exploratory and educational character. Workshops, seminars and encounters with artists from different fields established the foundations for a more complex approach to dance theatre and interdisciplinary performance.
This period was not a pause, but a preparation for the expansion of LOAD’s artistic language.
2016 | Different worlds meet
Tasos Bekiaris’ collaboration with the rock band KollektivA led to the creation of the music and dance-theatre production The Ballad of the Prison, presented at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation in January 2016. Movement, spoken language, live music and theatrical action came together within a single performance environment.
During the same year, LOAD organised a six-month interdisciplinary training programme that brought together professional dancers, students from professional dance schools and people with no previous dance training.
The process led to Anthrope ΧΨ, presented at Argo Theatre in June 2016. The work became one of the earliest defining examples of LOAD’s belief that artistic value does not depend on the uniformity of a group, but on the way different bodies can develop a shared stage language.
2017–2019 | From production to permanent education
In May 2017, LOAD presented Sti[zo] at Anesis Theatre, using the deconstruction of movement and the creation of stage images as central tools of narration.
This was followed in January 2018 by EPI_SKEPSI, a work inspired by Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and developed through an extended educational and dance-theatre process.
In September 2019, LOAD Dance School was founded in Athens. Education was no longer a periodic activity; it became a permanent pillar of LOAD, equal to its artistic production.
2021–2023 | New fields of creation
In 2021, LOAD began developing ROOM, a festival dedicated to the encounter between different approaches to dance theatre. The festival took place at ARROYO Theatre in 2022.
From 8 October to 27 November 2022, LOAD Dance Theatre presented Saragini on ARROYO’s new stage. The production emerged from the first annual LΣY programme and brought to the stage an investigation into individual identity, mass behaviour, confinement and the “speaking body”.
In 2023, the research of LΣY continued through a second programme with a new group of participants.
During the same year, Tasos Bekiaris brought his artistic research into the context of a large-scale production, participating as choreographer, dancer and coordinator of movement and stage action in the opening ceremony of the 3rd Mediterranean Beach Games in Heraklion.
2024–2026 | The school as a space for artistic production
In June 2024, Rogmi (Rift) was presented at Porta Theatre. The production marked a new period in which the educational process of LOAD Dance School began leading to complete works of dance theatre with a unified concept, dramaturgy and stage identity.
In 2025, LOAD developed R.O.A. — Rhythm of Awareness, connecting education with choreographic and audiovisual creation. Through works such as I Skia tou Nou (The Shadow of the Mind) and To_morRow, people of different ages and levels of experience came together through rhythm, presence and the relationship between the individual body and the collective.
On 30 June and 1 July 2026, LOAD presented To Trapezi tis Kouzinas (The Kitchen Table) at Katerina Vassilakou Theatre. Performed by students of the school, the work explored how family, care, authority and imitation become inscribed in the body and participate in the formation of identity.
Today
LOAD continues to develop through three interconnected areas: the artistic work of LOAD Dance Theatre, the educational practice of LOAD Dance School and the movement and performance research of LΣY.
Its journey is not defined by the pursuit of a fixed style, but by a question that returns through every production and educational process:
How can the body acquire knowledge, presence and a voice without losing its individuality?
