“Oh My Dolly!”
“Oh My Dolly!” expands the study on childhood and adolescent ideals and examines how digital filters, social media, and contemporary beauty standards influence young people’s self-image and identity. While in progress, the piece focuses on the generation growing up within the “image culture” and investigates how this condition affects the body, expression, and self-perception, highlighting the psychosocial pressures of the era of filters. The work explores how artistic research for the creation of a performative installation can evolve through a process of artistic education. It is a continuation from m[e]rror, which was presented as part of the Open Up Festival, under the mentorship of Lia Charaki. Part of the research was created and developed within the framework of Artists in Process 2025: Collaboration at Dance House Lefkosia, with an emphasis on dramaturgy as a collaborative praxis — a combination of theory and practice — led by Christos Polymenakos. The mentor during the creative process is Anthi Ketterou.
Credits
Idea / Text: Maria Charalambous
Mentor: Anthi Kettirou
Theoretical and Practical Tools
(Body/Word Performance Writing – Dramaturgy as a Collaborative Praxis & Multimodality): Christos Polymenakos
Sound / Creation: Alkis Nicolaides
Voice / Recording: Simone Khenkin
Sounds: Gothenburg Sound Workshop as part of Open Up 2022,
HDK-Valand Academy of Art and Design: Mick Wilson
Sound Editing: Anthi Kettirou
Video Editing: Anthi Ketterou
Photography: Kyriakos Christodoulides
Costumes: Maria Charalambous
Set Design: Anthi Kettirou, Maria Charalambous
Set Installation: Konstantinos Charilaou, Maria Charalambous
Acknowledgements: Melina Sofocleous, In Progress Ballet Studio, Dance House Lefkosia
hrough her performance, Maria Charalambous invites viewers to reflect on the concept of beauty, the standards defined today through social media, and the restriction placed on the expression of each individual’s personal identity—more specifically, on the self-determination of teenagers.
Maria Charalambous studied Contemporary Dance, Ballet, Jazz, and Pedagogy at the Iwanson International School of Contemporary Dance in Munich and completed a master’s degree in Performance Research Studies at Sozo Visions in Motion in Kassel. During her studies, she received scholarships for workshops with Inaki Aspillaga (Ultima Vez) and Dominique Mercy (Solo en face de Pina Bausch, Tanzwerkstatt Europa).
She has collaborated as a performer with Petro Dias, Quim Bigas Bassart, Johannes Hartl, Sissi Doutsiou, Machi Dimitriadou, and Sebastian Zuber, participating in festivals such as Junger Tanz, Sardam, Lange Nacht der Museen (Munich), B12 Research or Die (Berlin), as well as the Performance Lab / Open Up (NiMAC, Nicosia).
Her works have been presented in venues including Kranhalle (Munich), WUK (Vienna), Black Box (Munich), and Egomio Cultural Centre (Nicosia). She also took part in the 59th Venice Biennale alongside Helen Kirwan and Simon Pruciak.
As a movement director, she contributed to the group “Aigaia” in the production Bacchae at the 36th Pancyprian Amateur Theatre Festival, which received the first prize from THOC (2023). In 2024, she completed her teaching practicum in Athens at the Danceway school for the Royal Academy of Dance’s Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies (CBTS). She currently teaches classical ballet and contemporary dance at various dance schools.