The dancers and choreographers Ioannis Mandafounis and May Zarhy met in William Forsythe's company. From it, they have inherited a specific taste for physical dislocation and research.
Just as it is not always possible to explain where poetry comes from, it is difficult to find a logical explanation for the existence of movement. Nevertheless, it exists – it guides us, intrigues us, touches us.
Between dance and movement, between imaginary scenarios and furtive extracts of reality, the duo Pausing by Ioannis Mandafounis and May Zarhy creates an intimate report that invites us to take part in an experience in movement and to touch on the notion of the ephemeral.
Updating: March 2015

Born in Israel in 1984, May Zarhy created her first piece for the National Choreography Biennale Shades in Dance 2001 directed by Neomie Perlov in the Suzanne Dellal Centre Tel Aviv, before moving to the Netherlands in 2002 to study dance at the Rotterdam Dance Academy. In 2005, she assisted William Forsythe in the creation 3 Atmospheric Studies. May was a member in ex.e.r.ce07 in Montpellier France, directed by Mathilde Monnier and Xavier Le Roy. Before working with Ioannis Mandafounis and Fabrice Mazliah she created short pieces which were shown in the ITs festival Amsterdam, Korzo theater Den Haag, Tanzdentenzen festival Greifswald etc.

In 2009 she formed together with Fabrice Mazliah and Ioannis Mandafounis the collaborative trio Mamaza and created together ZERO (2009), Cover Up (2011) and Pausing (2012) which have been shown and co-produced by numerous venues and festivals, such as the Kunstenfestivaldesarts, kunstlerhaus mousonturm Frankfurt, The Forsythe Company, Les Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, PACT Zollverein Essen etc.

May is actually creating her own project with the choreographer Elpida Orfanidou. Parallel to this, May choreographs and teaches contemporary dance and theory seminars.

Ioannis Mandafounis. Born in Athens in 1981, Ioannis Mandafounis studied dance at the National School of Athens and at the Conservatoire de Paris. Before becoming a freelance choreographer, he was part of the Gothenburg Opera Ballet, the Nederlands Dans Theater II and in 2005 became a member of the Forsythe Company where he’s still a guest on a regular basis. In 2004 he formed the Lemurius Company together with Katerina Skiada and Anastasis Gouliaris in Athens with whom he created the pieces Provalondas tin Skia (2005), Anthropines diastasis (2007), Crosstalk (2009) and Yperparagogi (2011), that have been presented in international and national festivals.

He creates P.A.D. (2007), commissioned by the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, and the group work HUE produced by the Forsythe Company, at the Bockenheimer depot in Frankfurt. In 2009 he formed together with Fabrice Mazliah and May Zarhy the collaborative trio Mamaza and created together ZERO (2009) and Cover Up (2011), which have been shown and co-produced by numerous venues and festivals, such as the Kunstenfestivaldesarts, kunstlerhaus mousonturm Frankfurt, The Forsythe Company, Les Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, PACT Zollverein Essen etc.

During the period 2011-2013 Ioannis is named Artiste associated for one year at DeSingel in Anwerp where he shows most of his works and created the project Songs & Poems with the contemporary music ensemble Nikel. He is currently supported by RESO Swiss as well as the modul-dance project from the European Union with the project Pausing that was commissioned by the Théâtre de l’Usine in Geneva and tours around Switzerland and Europe. Finally Ioannis is also supported by the Bundes Kultur Schtiftung (Germany) under the frame of the Doppel Pass Program and is resident artist at Mousonturm Kunstlerhaus Frankfurt from 2012 till the end of 2014.

Parallel to his chorographical work Ioannis teaches improvisation workshops from the point of view of the ancient martial art Budo, as well as making choreographic works for other companies and schools like: Greek National Opera, Ballet Junior de Geneva, P.A.R.T.S. Bruxels, Palucca Schule Dresden, Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt and others.

Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).