Body, remember… | Part III

Body, remember… | Part III

W(h)oman

Choreographer and dancer Eva Georgitsopoulou presents the work W(h)oman to music by Sebastian Diakakis, performed by the Oros Ensemble. Eva Georgitsopoulou notes about the choreography: “Animals recognise the so-called predators as a threat, even if they have never faced them. W(h)oman draws upon the animal survival techniques and uses the dancers’ bodies to set up a tracking system of “predators”, reproducing in an abstract manner the animals’ ability to recognise and respond to any hints of predatory threat. The work focuses on their ability to adapt their movement behaviour, shape, form, texture and trails so as to be able to minimise the evidence of their presence or cover their identity, which marks them as possible prey.”

Butterfly

In his new dance solo, filmed outdoors, outside GNO’s workshops, dancer and choreographer Giorgos Papadopoulos transforms into a… Butterfly. As he notes:”The butterfly and its constant changes and metamorphoses are a wonderful and miraculous teaching for all of us, which gives us inner power. Through its effort to break out of the cocoon, the butterfly reminds us that challenges in life are a necessary condition for the course of our evolution. It carries inside it a centuries-long wisdom and if you are able and willing to listen to it, you will feel you can trust the universe. You will understand that life and death are just a transition and that the soul is never altered. The only thing that is altered is its manifestation through matter.”

Kelifos

Kelifos is a work choreographed by choreographer and dancer Fotis Nikolaou as part of his new collaboration with the GNO Ballet. It features a woman trapped inside a shell who is trying to break free. As he notes: “Fear and loneliness often lead people to build walls, set boundaries and hide, so as to protect their frightened and defenseless dreams and secret desires. They create a vast, lonely structure, a shell to host their fearful and vulnerable souls. Shielded in her shell, a woman looks back on all those things she never dared to share, express or taste. A beautiful wild animal that walks about tortured. A heroine, who wants to get out, into life. A body that wants to let itself go, feel and love. Will it dare to break the shell?

Ministry of Culture and Sports
5th Online Festival of the Greek National Opera

GNO Ballet 

Body, remember…* 

26 Μay – 22 June 2021 | nationalopera.gr/GNOTV

With the Principal Dancers, Soloists, Demi Soloists and Corps de ballet of the GNO

The Ballet of the Greek National Opera presents twelve new original and imaginative choreographies to works by Greek composers on GNO TV as part of the 5th GNO Online Festival titled Body, remember. The Festival, which is under the artistic direction of Giorgos Koumendakis and curated by Konstantinos Rigos,  will be streamed for free from 26 May to 22 June 2021 and will remain available to the public online for 30 days following its premiere. The Festival is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org] to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.

The twelve short stories of dance that will be streamed in four parts feature the Dancers of the GNO Ballet escaping from the theatre’s stage and being transported to unanticipated locations in the city: from the Dome and the parking space of the SNFCC, the GNO workshops and the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus, to the Fund of Archaeological Proceeds at the centre of Athens, hotel corridors, elevators and isolated beaches. Each place is a different experience, a strong memory; each body is a different story, another narrative. Group compositions, duets and solos in an endless journey across memories and the senses.

The Festival opens with Dancing Cloud, a work dedicated to the memory of the distinguished Principal Dancer of the Greek National Opera Ballet, Aleksandar (Sasha) Neskov.

The works are choreographed by Harry Koushos, Thanassis Solomos, Maria Kousouni, Eleftheria Stamou, Fotis Diamantopoulos, Tatiana Papadopoulou, Eva Georgitsopoulou, Giorgos Papadopoulos, Fotis Nikolaou, Persa Stamatopoulou, Michalis Theofanous and Alex Kyriakoulis. The music is composed by Andreas Moustoukis, the Greek anglophone band StarWound, guitarist Yorgos Mouloudakis, who also performs pieces dedicated to himself by Manos Hadjidakis, Nikos Kypourgos and Nikos Mamagkakis,  as well as Sebastian Diakakis, Petros Leivadas, Apostolis Koutsogiannis, Danai Belosinof and Stamatis Pasopoulos. Part of the works is performed by the Oros Ensemble. 

The Director of the Greek National Opera Ballet Konstantinos Rigos notes: “The 5th GNO Online Festival titled Body, remember… is entirely dedicated to contemporary dance, with the GNO Ballet presenting twelve new choreographies to works by Greek composers. The dancers escape from the GNO Main Stage’s black box, although they might sometimes feel like something is holding them back, to discover new spaces, new senses, new steps; to express themselves in a different way in these short stories of dance; to gain thus a new experience and a -literally- new field of action. A cement room, an inspiring ballroom, a grassy yard or a remote beach, a corridor or a closed elevator are only some of the many spaces with which the dancers’ bodies − trapped or liberated− harmonise and which become part of a new narrative. We invite you to enjoy a journey where the body remembers…”.

* The Festival is named after C.P. Cavafys’ poem of the same title.  

The Festival will be streamed for free.
To watch the Festival on GNO TV, go to www.nationalopera.gr/GNOTV and follow the very simple and free registration process. GNO TV is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org] to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach