The “Infinite Affection” that is passing down traditions through generations

Had the Melbourne lockdown not put a stop to plans, 23-year-old Luke Macaronas and 67-year-old Christos Konstantinides would having been bumping in their Melbourne Fringe Festival show Infinite Affection | Άπειρη Στοργή [Part 1] at the Pontian Community Club in Brunswick.

As fate would have it, they have had to shift their piece of art to an online platform, but with a twist. As a passionate dancer and theatre maker, Mr Macaronas was not going to skimp on the finer details.

“We talked and said if we had made the show and we’ve gotten all the way up to October and then there was a lockdown, we said ‘Oh well, you could film it and put it online’. But there are two things. I really don’t want to do that because I think theatre is live and I’m very happy for people to film work and put it online, but I’m not interested in doing that,” he told Neos Kosmos. 

“I think if we’re ever going to have a chance at reviving our live culture, it has to be fighting to be alive and to be together again. So that’s always was always a priority of mine, and therefore anything that I put online or did make online isn’t actually showing that work. It would have to show something else and then as it turned out, we didn’t even have the show because we weren’t able to rehearse for the last two months, so instead we had all my notes and I had all this footage from our rehearsals.”

Infinite Affection explores how dance binds young and old together, passing on tradition and ancestral memory from generation to generation. Part 1 shows the creative process behind the show, sharing the story between two artists, from two different worlds, but with the commonality of their shared heritage.

While the show focuses on Mr Macaronas Greek heritage pulling inspiration from traditional folk music and dances, the idea was initially born when the artist was studying in Tokyo.

“I’m a dancer and I’ve got a lot of training in experimental dance. I was training overseas in Tokyo with a whole bunch of Butoh performers. They had been training together for like 40 years, so I worked with these dancers who were in their 60s and 70s who had just been doing the same stuff again and again and again and so I became really interested in like older bodies and old dancers and how dance changes your body. And then when the pandemic hit and I had to come back to Melbourne, I moved in with my grandma on my mother’s side who’s a Serbian Yugoslavian refugee from from the Second World War,” Mr Macaronas said.

The months he spent by his grandmother’s side were invaluable, giving him the opportunity to record her story, her history and preserve precious memories. With this wealth of inspiration, Mr Macaronas set out to meld together three generations worth of ideas and art, and came across icon of the Greek community in Melbourne, Christos Konstantinides.

Mr Konstantinides has been teaching and performing Greek dance and drama for over 50 years.

You can explore the Infinite Affection | Άπειρη Στοργή [Part 1] webstage up until 17 October by visiting www.melbournefringe.com.au/event/infinite-affection/ and keep up to date with when the in-person performance will be by following the show’s Facebook page.

The production team is always on the lookout for other elders in the community who have experience dancing. If you think you might be able to contribute to the project you can get in touch by emailing through at infiniteaffectionshow@gmail.com