The performance NECROPOLIS by Arkadi Zaides at Rialto Theatre, on Saturday 4th of October.

In the framework of the Open House Festival,

 organised by Dance House Lemesos

 Since 1993, UNITED for Intercultural Action, a network of hundreds of anti-racist organizations from all over Europe, has been compiling a list of refugees and migrants who lost their lives on their way to the continent. As of June 2025, when the latest updated version was released, the list included information on 66,519 reported deaths. The total toll is certainly much higher, as many people are neither found nor registered. When scrolling through the many pages of the list one cannot ignore the fact that only a very small number of the deceased are mentioned by name, leaving the vast majority without identifying details.

 NECROPOLIS is an ongoing choreographic and documentary work about unknown bodies - a poignant reflection on the ongoing human tragedy at Europe's borders. By integrating data analysis, choreographic gestures, and documentary practices, Arkadi Zaides and his team delve into the practice of forensics to conceive a new virtual depository mapping the remains of the many whose deaths remain to this day mostly unacknowledged. This archive, revealing a cartography made invisible, stretches across space and time, weaving together the mythologies, histories, geographies and anatomies of those who have found their way to NECROPOLIS. Although there are no bodies to dance with in the city of the dead, it is precisely this absence - the collective body of NECROPOLIS - that Zaides brings to life.

Concept & direction: Arkadi Zaides 

Dramaturgy, text and voice: Igor Dobricic 

Research assistant: Emma Gioia 

Performers: Arkadi Zaides, Emma Gioia 

Sculpture: Moran Sanderovich I 3D modeling: Mark Florquin 

Avatar animation: Jean Hubert | Animation assistant: Thibaut Rostagnat 

Light: Jan Mergaert I Sound design: Asli Kobaner 

In English with Greek surtitles

​The performance is suitable for ages 16+               

Saturday 4 October 20:30 I On Stage I Duration: 50’

Tickets: € 12 / 10 I E-ticket: www.rialto.com.cy

Info/Box Office: 77777745 (Mon-Fri 10:00-15:00 & 90’ prior to the performance).