REVIEWS
A SLIGHT ANGLE TO THE UNIVERSE
By Stamatia Laoumtzi
2026
Artistic Director of the Michalis Pieris Cultural Centre of the University of Cyprus
In attempting to approach the work of Panayiotis Tofi, one immediately encounters an artist who constructs his own distinct poetic language through a conscious departure from the certainty of interpreting a direct field of meanings. Instead, his work is grounded in a fundamental principle: a constant displacement—at times almost imperceptible, at others sharply interventionist—that unsettles the normality of perception and shifts the viewer beyond the expected.
Panayiotis Tofi’s choreographic language is distinguished by its multilayered organization and an almost obsessive precision in structure. Repetitions, subtle deviations, and successive displacements form a dense web—a field of tension—within which movement distances itself from immediate and overt expressivity, emerging instead as a complex morphological architecture.
Yet this rigorous structure, marked by an almost mathematical precision, does not negate emotion. On the contrary, it quietly and persistently relocates it to a more impactful level, where the emotional and the intellectual coexist. Through this process, the subtle fractures of experience are revealed: the faint irony of social constructs and stereotypes, the contradictions of passion, and the primordial nature of desire.
Tofi’s stage choreography unfolds like an alchemical opus, where everything originates from a dark prima materia, within which the following fundamental elements coexist as multifaceted systems, gradually leading toward the complete magnum opus of Art.
Time—expanding, encapsulated, or compressed through its linear, circular, or fragmented trajectories. Through its foldings emerges the sense of a catalytic experience, inscribed within an ongoing discontinuity across present, past, or future.
Space—which does not function as a fixed scenic framework, but is transformed into a protean field of interconnected spatiotemporal actions. Here, boundaries are destabilized, and the stage becomes a threshold toward a horizon of consciousness, revelatory for both spectator and performer.
Finally, the body—as the bearer of the contradictions of human existence—appears simultaneously invulnerable and vulnerable, heroic and defeated, violent and fragile, earthly and ethereal, perishable and eternal. Within Tofi’s choreographic universe, bodies synchronize and desynchronize, moving at times in prolonged suspensions and at others in sudden eruptions, forming a stage experience that does not represent but rather suggests. The visible and declarative coexist with the implied, while the seemingly abstract proves to be deeply experiential.
At the core of Tofi’s choreographic art lies the fact that it does not exhaust itself in a fleeting, spectacular artistic event. It does not seek to persuade, nor does it impose a singular truth. Instead, as E. M. Forster once described the poetry of C. P. Cavafy, it moves us beyond the expected and radically reconfigures the conditions of our perception and the way we understand the world.
And then… there emerges that subtle yet essential shift in focus:
a slight angle to the universe.
AN EXCELLENTLY REALISED AND BEAUTIFULLY PERFORMED CHOREOGRAPHIC WORK
By Tony Thacher
2025
Head of Choreography for the Faculty of Dance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (2003 - 2023)
‘Tormentful Invisibility’ researched, directed and choreographed by Panayiotis TofI in collaboration with his performers, for the 25th Cyprus Choreography Platform (14th-16th November 2025) was an excellently realised and beautifully performed choreographic work, which displayed a high level of erudition and choreographic progression. Its notable atmosphere-laden sound score was complemented by the extraordinary movement vocabulary devised by the choreographer, to produce a consistently elevated, compelling and sustained level of choreographic performance.
To watch ‘Tormentful Invisibility’ was rewarding not only for its unusual movement invention, but also for the depth of collaboration and research between choreographer and dancer, resulting in a deep engagement with choreographic intent. This together with the elevated embodiment of many passages in the piece, for example, much of the solo and trio material, distinguished the work’s collective complexity.
The entrance of the three performers in silence, upper spines bowed, at first disorientated the audience, then with the descent to the floor; the change of light to highlight one figure, amplified the emerging inter-woven experience of space, sound, text and atmosphere. The attendant way in which this opening image was sustained underlined the vivid, atmosphere laden sound score (Andreas Economides) and revealed the troubling, uncanny text, voiced by Anna Yiagiozi; the words of which, modulated so suitably, seemed to penetrate the listeners’ subconscious.
“Silence … In the beginning there was only silence … Silence …And some noises. White. Whispers. Breaths. … In the beginning there were discreet words … Isolated … In between… void. Therefore… I summoned you … Late.”
The mounting sense of expectation invited the viewer to participate in an interchange of attention; both listening and looking, with the recognition perhaps that a suspension of judgement might be required to follow the work’s overall concept.This deeply layered experience complimented by the unusual lighting design of Panagiotis Manousis; and, the otherworldly costume design of Rea Olympiou, provided a distinctly filmic signature to the work.
As the piece progressed the trio of performers conjured a remarkable clarity of line combined with an acute awareness of the importance of rhythmic and spatial proximity. These served as an additional characteristic; a further dimension to their individual dancing, which enhanced the collective physicality of the work; a physicality that was troubling, with its broken phrasing, unexpected relinquishing of stability, collapse, and fragmented gesture. This established the work’s cohesive and distinct choreographic style; and, perhaps more impressively, its ability to sustain sufficient fluidity to successfully produce a seamless and convincing assimilation of vision, interpretation and choreographic statement.
As the atmosphere-laden complexities of the piece gained percussive momentum both subtle and forceful shifts of movement provided depth for solo and trio work. Dynamic spatial relationships effectively provided three-dimensional substance, defying movement logic for Damianos Aggelos Efstathiou, where his sudden sweeps and instants of off-balanced kilter and recovery, pitched toward and twisted away from the horizontal. The assaults upon direct open gesture, created for Panagiotis Tasoulis, seemed either instantly switched on, or unexpectedly projected toward other figures, real or imaginary. The performance of this expressive movement vocabulary communicated a prevailing unease, and an uncanny shifting presence which was subject to unsettling appearance and disappearance throughout the choreography.
All of this became more impressive when one understood the production faltered in the final two weeks of rehearsal where one of the performers, Danae Vassilakakou stepped in at short notice to cover, due to injury, movement material originally devised by another member of the company, Sophia Mouzoura. Her embodiment eloquently matched the depth and prowess of Damianos Aggelos Efstathiou and Panagiotis Tasoulis and her assimilation into the choreography seemed inconceivable when one reflected upon the responsibility placed on her, not only to learn, but also redevelop, such complex movement. Her seamless integration into the collective vision of the piece, alongside her commitment toward maintaining the integrity of the original dancer’s material, elevated the execution of the choreography to the highest level.
For the final scenes of this work I found myself declaring a need for a greater concretisation of choreographic material; together with perhaps, an overlay of movement passage upon movement passage to give greater choreographic compression. This was partly realised for the final trio which highlighted the complexity of the visual / sonic space created by the composer and lighting designer; which effectively established the spectator within a phenomenological site suggesting vulnerability and risk; and, as stated in the programme, the not knowing of living within a consuming darkness which gradually removes light and life.