Daily Archives: June 26, 2014

Greek Australian Phoebe Panaretos to play Fran.

Melbourne season for Strictly Ballroom the Musical confirmed with Phoebe Panaretos as the leading lady.

Baz Luhrmann’s much-loved hit show Strictly Ballroom the Musical will open in Melbourne at Her Majesty’s Theatre in January 2015, with Greek Australian Phoebe Panaretos playing the leading lady Fran.

But it’s not only Phoebe who is leading the Greek surge in this musical; Sophia Katos will play Liz Holt, the role made famous in the movie by fellow Greek Australian actress Gia Carides.

This new production is staged by the original creative team behind the classic 1992 film, including director and co-writer Baz Luhrmann, set and costume designer Catherine Martin, choreographer John ‘Cha Cha’ O’Connell and co-writer Craig Pearce.

“We are pretty excited that there are two Greek girls in the lead, and for me, I am playing the role Gia Carides made famous, so that’s a real privilege for me.”

But what’s it like for Sophia to tackle such a performance?” Sophia Katos told Neos Kosmos.

“She really nailed it, didn’t she?” says Sophia, who confesses she’s been practising her screaming as Gia did in the larger than life role. However, she says that Baz is asking of his cast to not only honour the roles, but bring themselves to the fore as well.

“Baz gives you the freedom to not feel like you have to copy anything,” Sophia explains. “Obviously it has to be those characters and that’s what the audiences love and what I love, but he’s cast it so our natural energies are where they have to be.”

Strictly Ballroom the Musical is the inspiring story of a championship ballroom dancer who defies all the rules to follow his heart. This uplifting and courageous tale originated as a stage play that Baz Luhrmann devised with a group of students at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) back in 1984.

“From a small student play to my first motion picture and now a full-blown theatrical stage musical, Strictly Ballroom has been an almost thirty year journey for me. I have often marvelled at how this story, born so long ago, has been in my life for so many years and has managed to touch, move, entertain and uplift so many different people from so many different backgrounds. I think the simple truth is that, despite all the sequins, outrageous hairdos and classic Hollywood musical plotting, the simple message, that there isn’t only one way to cha cha cha, and that within us all we have the true potential to dance through life with our own steps, is something that appeals to all of us. The message that life doesn’t have to be strictly ballroom is something I hope to have our audiences carry with them as they dance down the aisles,” said director Baz Luhrmann.

source: Neos Kosmos

A DOUBLE from Lionel Messi a day after his 27th birthday inspired Argentina to a 3-2 win over African champions Nigeria and assured them of finishing top of Group F at the World Cup finals.

Nigeria’s defeat — their fourth in four meetings at the finals against Argentina — came with the considerable consolation that they still progressed to the second round as Iran lost 3-1 to Bosnia-Herzegovina in the other group game.

Argentina, who are set to face either Switzerland or Ecuador in the second round, began to turn on the style after low key wins over Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iran.

Nigeria, who will be appearing in the second round for the first time since 1998, are likely to face France next Monday.

“I feel honoured, and happy it’s going our way, I want to thank the players and the fans and some of the media,” commented Nigerian coach Stephen Keshi.

On Messi’s impact he added: “Messi is one heck of a player, he’s blessed, but with due respect to Messi there are other calibre players in Argentina that are very strong, but Messi is from Jupiter.”

Keshi reported that Ukraine-based forward Michael Babatunde’s world Cup was probably over after suffering a broken wrist in the second half.

His Argentina counterpart Alejandro Sabella for his part observed: “As we advance we start improving our structure, in general I saw improvement today.

“We’ve got nine points, but we can always get better.”

On Messi, who came off with half an hour to go, he added: “It seemed to me at 3-2 that we needed Messi to rest — it was agreed beforehand.”

The match got off to a stunning start as Messi fired home his third goal of the finals after two-and-a-half-minutes — the fastest goal of his career — to finally crack a Nigerian defence that had not conceded a goal in their previous two matches.

A telling pass by Fernando Gago found Angel di Maria only for the Real Madrid man’s shot to ricochet off the near post. As the loose ball bounced Messi magically appeared to slam into the roof of Vincent Enyeama’s net.

Argentina’s lead lasted all of 80 seconds when CSKA Moscow striker Ahmed Musa curled the ball artfully past Sergio Romero into the far post.

Enyeama then did well to keep the scores level when keeping out di Maria’s thunderous low drive from 30m out.

On 38 minutes Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella was forced into an unscripted change of personnel when Sergio Aguero limped off to be replaced by Ezequiel Lavezzi.

As the interval approached Messi struck a peach of a free kick from outside the box, only denied by another fine save from Enyeama.

But the Lille stopper couldn’t perform the same heroics when from a near identical position shortly after another Messi free kick thudded into the near corner for his fourth goal of the tournament.

Musa levelled only two minutes into the second half when, getting the better of Argentine defenders Federico Fernandez and Marcos Rojo, he clipped the ball past Romero.

In an at times breathtaking encounter Rojo bagged his first international goal three minutes later, knocking the ball home with his knee off a corner after Nigeria failed to clear Ezequiel Garay’s header.

With his work done Sabella rested Messi on the hour, Ricardo Alvarez coming on in his place.

Musa had ‘hat-trick’ flashing in front of his eyes in the final quarter of an hour when he cut inside Pablo Zabaleta only for the Manchester City defender to produce a superb tackle to deny him the scoring opportunity.

source: theaustralian.com.au

While household consumption spending had continued to increase.

The wage price index rose by 0.7 per cent in the March quarter and by 2.6 per cent over the year. The year-ended pace of wage growth was 1 percentage point below its long-run average and around the slowest pace in the 17-year history of this series, according to the June monetary policy meeting minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia.

However, household consumption spending had continued to increase, with growth in the volume of retail sales in the March quarter around the same strong pace as in the December quarter. At the same time, a range of indicators of housing construction confirmed that a significant recovery was underway in this sector. Forward-looking indicators of new dwelling investment were at high levels relative to recent years, although building approvals had declined in recent months.

Source: RBA

Ambassador of Greece to Australia, Haris Dafaranos speaks on the Greek economic crisis, From a Country in Crisis to a Country in Recovery.

The Department of Modern Greek Studies of The University of Sydney, invites you to attend a public lecture presented by H.E. Mr Haris Dafaranos,
Ambassador of Greece to Australia, on the Greek economic crisis, From a Country in Crisis to a Country in Recovery.

Ambassador Dafaranos will give a lecture on the Greek economic crisis at the University of Sydney on the occasion of his official visit to New South Wales.

The Ambassador will focus on the origin and causes of the crisis, its European dimension, the remedies and the factor of European solidarity, as well as on the impact on the Greek economy and society and future prospects.

From a country in crisis, Greece emerges as a country in recovery, with a big social cost but with promising and challenging perspectives for the future.

When: Thursday 26 of June at 6.00 pm
Where: The Old Geology Lecture Theatre, Science Rd, University of Sydney (across from Footbridge Theatre, on south side of Parramata Road)

source: Neos Kosmos

The two magistrates leading a criminal investigation into Golden Dawn are set to resume hearing testimonies from MPs of the neofascist party after a judicial council rejected an appeal by detained Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos for them to be dismissed due to alleged bias.

The Council of Appeals Court Judges rejected Michaloliakos’s request, which was based on allegations that the magistrates, Ioanna Klapa and Maria Dimitropoulou, were coercing Stathis Boukouras, a Golden Dawn MP who left the party in March, to testify against Golden Dawn. The council found that the appeal constituted an abusive use of legal tactics aimed at obstructing the investigation.

Unless a new legal complication arises, the magistrates are scheduled to hear the testimony of Eleni Zaroulia, a Golden Dawn lawmaker and Michaloliakos’s wife, and another MP, Constantinos Barbaroussis.

According to sources, Klapa and Dimitropoulou plan to summon the remaining Golden Dawn lawmakers over the coming weeks with the aim of hearing all their testimonies by the end of July. Their goal is for the case against Golden Dawn to go to trial late this year or in early 2015, the sources said.

As the investigation into Golden Dawn’s alleged criminal activities gets under way, a series of photographs surfaced, showing leading party officials performing the Nazi salute in front of flags with swastikas, bolster a wealth of evidence pointing to Golden Dawn members’ Nazi sympathies.

source: Neos Kosmos