DIMITRIS PAPAIOANNOU

Director, choreographer and performer Dimitris Papaioannou blends experimental physical theatre, contemporary dance, visual and performance arts in surreal, dreamlike and hybrid performances. He has full command of the artistic vision including set, costume, sculptural installations and lighting design. Born in Athens in 1964, he studied under the renowned Greek painter Yannis Tsarouchis and at the Athens School of Fine Arts, and went on to publish numerous comics and graphic novels, the first of their genre in Greece to include punk and hardcore homoerotic images. Papaioannou founded the Edafos Dance Theatre which performed in an underground squat from 1991 to 1992. The Edafos Dance Theatre re-shaped the Athenian contemporary performative arts scene. He was commissioned the Athens 2004 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, becoming the youngest artist to direct the largest and most technically challenging global show. Papaioannou’s more than 30 productions range from mass spectacles with thousands of performers to intimate pieces.
Primal Matter (2012), commissioned by the Athens Epidaurus Festival, and Still Life (2014), produced by Onassis Culture, marked a milestone as his first internationally touring works. This led to international co-productions of the works The Great Tamer (2017), Since She (2018), INK (2020), Transverse Orientation (2021), which toured extensively in Europe, Asia, Australia, North and South America. They were the first works by a Greek auteur to be presented to prestigious venues and festivals, such as Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, the Festival d’Avignon, Sadler’s Wells in London, BAM in New York and UCLA in Los Angeles. With the work Since She (2018) for the Tanztheater Wuppertal, he became the first artist to work with the company after Pina Bausch’s passing.
He was nominated for Emmys in 2015 for both ‘Outstanding Directing’ and ‘Outstanding Art Direction / Set Decoration / Scenic Design’; was the first Greek to be awarded a Europe Theatre Prize in 2017; and was nominated for an Olivier Award in 2019 and 2022. The works Birthplace and Origins were awarded the Emmys in 2005 and 2015 for ‘Lighting Design’. In 2023 his work Transverse Orientation was awarded the Bessie Award for ‘Outstanding Visual Design’. He has received the Golden Cross of the Order of Honour, awarded by the President of the Hellenic Republic for outstanding artistic achievement for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies – Athens 2004 Olympic Games.