Performance Works of Lia Haraki
invites the reader into over two decades of profound artistic inquiry, performance practice-based experimentation, and deep community entanglement. This book is not just a reflection on performance and the process of creating works; it is an unfolding archive of embodied knowledge, collective memory, and the quiet force of an artist who has shaped contemporary performance in Cyprus and beyond. As the editor, it has been a privilege to accompany Lia through this curatorial and intimate re-gathering of her oeuvre. For artists, scholars, and the curious reader alike, this book offers insight into how performance lives, breathes, and endures — both on stage, off stage, and on the page.
- Dr Erica Charalambous, Editor
Idealist for searching for her own ‘truth’ as an artist, for new sensibilities. Idealist in believing in art as a social practice and in dance as a vehicle for spiritual, social and personal empowerment.
— Excerpt from the text ‘As a springboard to conceive the world anew’ by Steriani Tsintziloni (Assistant Professor-Dance, University of Athens Department of Theatre Studies), in the book 'Performance Works - Lia Haraki
‘…Lia mou, I finished reading most of the book: all your texts and all the longer essays about your work and I think it is amazing and really honors the versatility of your work. I particularly like the dialogue with your collaborators at the end. You should be extremely proud about this 20-year journey and how the book documents it in an unique way ..’
Guy Cools x
Images from our book presentations
Contributing authors
Yiannis Toumazis
Erica Charalambous
Lia Haraki
Guy Cools
Vasileia Anaxagorou
Evi Haraki Mahera
Steriani Tsintziloni
Cathryn Robson
Louiza Papaloizou
Views, reviews, reflections by
(amongst others)
Glyn Hughes, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Nona Moleski, Elena Parpa, Dara Milovanovic, Nicoletta Verikiou, Isma Toulatou, Christiana Galanopoulou, Meropi Moiseos, Argiro Toumazou, Christina Skordi, Elena Galanopoulou, Yiorgos Savvinides, Nadia Anaxagorou, Danai Molocha, Yiannis Papadakis, Diana Tzaka, Apostolos Kouroupakis, Giorgos Gerou, Alexandros Diakosavvas, Constantina Markides, Christina Lambrou, PASHIAS, Emiddio Vasquez, Diana Georgiou, Vincent Wijhuizen, Roberto Casarroto, Frederic Vandewiele, Froso Trousa, Clementine Vounelaki, Alexandra Matheou, Dena Anaxagorou, Dimis Michaelides, Linda Yablonscky, Yiorgos Hadjichristou, Despo Pasia, Andria Christofidou, Dimitra L. Milioni, Kestrel Farin Leah, Christis Harakis Arianna Marcoulides, Eleana Alexandrou, Marios Ioannou, Alexis Vassiliou, Yiannis Christofides, Petros Konnaris and others.
Excerpts of texts
‘’…In her 20-year-long career, Lia has reinvented herself often and created a diversity of practices that she both integrated into her own choreographic toolkit and shared with the professional community in workshops and recently also with her audiences in different interactive presentation formats. But in all these transformations Lia went through, two elements remain at the core from beginning to end: giving voice to the multitude of personalities within herself and within society and practicing the body as a musical instrument...’’
— Excerpt from the text ‘Playing the Body as an Instrument’ by Guy Cools (Dance Dramaturg and Scholar)
‘’…Voice is a powerful and probing currency for Haraki. In my capacity as a vocal coach and advisor, I know that whatever I offer her, be it a breath exercise, a vocal resonance or a chain of vowels, she will spin it into gold and make meaning and the meaningful out of it. Something honest, bold and disquieting comes into being through the alchemy that happens when Lia Haraki meets voice.’’
— Excerpt from the text ‘Vocal alchemy and Lia Haraki’ by Cathryn Robson (Vocal Coach and Singer)
‘’…It often becomes hard to grasp but, in a broader sense, opens up what it means to perform the Self in its complexity, ambiguity, and abstraction. Haraki’s commitment to performance and the biographical becomes a vital aspect of contextualising performance art in Cyprus, mainly as she embodies the true essence of the personal that becomes political through an entry into feminist thought as she attests how her life and lived theory can be situated as an experience for the next generation of performers on the island...’’
-Excerpt from the text ‘Performing a Biography: Lia Haraki and the personal that becomes political by Vasilia Anaxagorou (artist and researcher)
From Lia’s Diaries found in the book
Desires
I am in the process of having more of a visual idea rather than a concept. I hear things and I see landscapes. Movement-wise, I am looking for new ways to work, starting from the body as the skin and flesh of the soul. The body is the corporeality we came in, so how can it manifest what is not seen?
— 20th September 2011
Vesseling – Channeling
Even if Tune In was a solo performance, when I was performing it, I did not feel alone on stage. I felt I was downloading information and even entities from another dimension or realm through my body. In a sense, my vessel was becoming a channel for expressing something my physical body could not understand. The Only way to cope with this sensation during performance time was to blindly trust the energy hosted in my body, tune into it, and become it.
And even though my body was accelerating to crazy fast speeds of movement, I never got injured. Injury needs resistance. How can you get hurt when you are in flow?
— 7th June 2025
A fine worth paying
Eleana was hanging off a tree naked in the middle of the garden as people were having dinner around her. Alexis was a parrot on top of the tree, and Marios was hidden behind the tree, speaking on its behalf. One of the times I thought that I was exactly where I should be in my life path since this felt like a very comfortable moment. Needless to say, we got a complaint filed against us by neighbors in the nearby house for sound disturbance, and ended up paying a fine of 280 euros.
— The Feast in the garden
Nine chapters and an archive index
CHAPTER ONE: On early works
CHAPTER TWO: On themes of biography
CHAPTER THREE: On movement energy
CHAPTER FOUR: The Performance Shop Concept
CHAPTER FIVE: Interactive
CHAPTER SIX: Sound-based
CHAPTER SEVEN: With devised text
CHAPTER EIGHT: Other works
CHAPTER NINE: On the collaborative element
ARCHIVE INDEX
From audience comments found in the book
A pioneer choreography. I was really astonished by the design of the dancer’s movements, which each and every one of them directed us to specific museum figures, figurines, and archetypes.’
— Stelios Georgiades on ‘The Shape of Necessity’
…And I distinctly remember this unraveling at the end. The introduction of the plants and this curtain coming up and seeing this forest. I actually remember feeling or hearing the audience hold their breath, it was a moment of ah.. and it was universal…
— Alexander Michael on ‘Evergreen’
Sharing is always caring when you offer performances as services.
— Panayiotis on ‘The Performance Shop Concept’
Book credits
Author of Works: Lia Haraki
Editor: Dr Erica Charalambous
Book Design & Layout: Despina Kannaourou
Photography Curation: Pavlos Vrionides
Archival Research & Documentation: Erica Charalambous, Lia Haraki
Translations (Greek–English): Erica Charalambous, Lia Haraki
Proofreading & Copyediting: Diamanto Stylianou
Copyediting Support: Natalie Hadjiadamou
Book Production & Project Management: Erica Charalambous
Published by: Lia Haraki, Limassol, Cyprus
Produced by: Projects Embracing Love Motivated Art LTD (PELMA), pelmaprojects.com
Gratitude to the Department of Contemporary Culture of the Deputy Ministry of Culture for supporting the research of making this book through the projects The Bodies We Swore (2023), Reading the Performance and Performing the Book (2024), and The Performance works … and so does the Process (2025)
And with kind contributions from:
Andreas Christou, Kristian Argyridou Christou, Anna Maximou Michailidi, Antigone Mavropoulou, Evis Michaelides, Christina Tirita, Stelios Georgiades and Stella Herodotou.
The book launch events were supported by :
The book is supported by
Media sponsor
How to buy the book:
Online: You can buy the book from our website here and it will be sent to you.
In Nicosia from Moufflon bookshop at Faneromenis 44 Nicosia 1011 Cyprus, Tel: +357 22665155, E-mail: distribution@moufflon.com.cy
In Nicosia from Soloneion book centre at 24 Vyzantiou Street 2064 Strovolos, Nicosia, Cyprus, Tel. +357 22666799, E-mail: info@soloneion.com.cy
In Limassol from K.P Kyriakou Bookshop at Georgiou Griva Digeni 3 Limassol 3030, Cyprus, Tel +357 25747555, E-mail: info@kpkyriakou.com
In Limassol from THE SHOPKEEPER & CO at 92 Gladstonos street, 3040-Limassol, Cyprus, Tel: 357 25 811146, E-mail: info@theshopkeeperandco.com
In Paphos from Kyriakou fullpage bookshop at Efkleas Building,
30 Ellados Avenue, 8020 Pafos, Tel: 26 822 850, E-mail: fullpage@kfbooks.com
“ My works are soundscapes made visible and choreographies made audible’’
— Lia Haraki 2017
Book presentation events
Presentations of the book by Lia Haraki and Erica Charalambous are happening throughout the year, where they share stories, moments, and readings from the book, on how performance lives, breathes, and endures — both on stage, off stage, and on the page.
Admission is free – Copies of the book will be available at the events.
2026
Larnaca, January 25th at 18.00, Vassileia Anaxagorou studio
2025
Nicosia, Theatro Polis, December 17th at 19.00.
Limassol, Rialto theatre, December 22nd at 19.00.
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