Colors

Alternative Stage founding donor

The Greek National Opera Ballet returns to the GNO Alternative Stage at the SNFCC with a promising modern dance triptych titled Colors. The new programme choreographed by Diego Tortelli, Eva Georgitsopoulou and Konstantinos Rigos will run for five singular performances on 12, 14, 16, 17 and 18 November 2023.

Colors follows the successful presentation of the triptychs Human Behaviour and Human Nature on the GNO Alternative Stage and brings once more the ensemble’s dancers face to face with the special demands of smaller scale performances and modern dance forms, mixing the musical sensualism of late Romanticism with the rhythmic and timbral wealth of contemporary musical creation.

In the new triptych, the work HOLE IN SPACE by Italian choreographer Diego Tortelli to music by Federico Bigonzetti converses with the works W(ho)man by Eva Georgitsopoulou to music by Sebastian Diakakis Nilo and Les Nuits d’été by GNO Ballet Director Konstantinos Rigos to music by Hector Berlioz, composing an impressive and captivating programme of modern dance that brims with dynamism and energy.

• HOLE IN SPACE

Choreography, set, costumes: Diego Tortelli
Music, drums on video: Federico Bigonzetti
Video graphics: Alessandro Tortelli  
Lighting design: Roman Fliegel
Dramaturgy: Miria Wurm

Dancers: Vangelis Bikos (Dominik), Manes Alberdi (Fabio), Giannis Gantsios (Giovanni), Elena Kekkou (Kasia), Marita Nikolitsa (David), Giorgos Hatzopoulos  (Guido)

“In 1980, artists Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz (K&S) created a "Hole in Space" by linking bigger-than-life displays in New York and LA with a satellite feed. It was the mother of all video chats.  They showed that size and bandwidth matter in communicating presence and emotion.”              

The groundbreaking piece HOLE IN SPACE was created in 2021 by the independent Munich-based company Diego Tortelli & Miria Wurm GbR. Drawing upon the artists Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, who connected two oversized screens in New York and Los Angeles through a satellite in 1980, distinguished Italian choreographer Diego Tortelli and his team developed a new work almost entirely via the internet.

Six dancers from Munich, Berlin, and Milan, one performer from Berlin, a video artist from Munich, and a London-based composer and drummer met with Tortelli during the production phase exclusively via one-to-one videocalls, putting all the pieces of this artistic puzzle together just the day before the premiere. They made use of all the possibilities available through the world of internet to overcome the spatial and physical distance that defined our lives back then, to celebrate the first live moment of their encounter with the uttermost spontaneity and enthusiasm.

Today, the journey of HOLE IN SPACE continues with a new connection that is inspired by the original team and transformed for the Greek National Ballet dancers, while preserving the initial concept of artists Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz: to create connections, surprises, enjoyment, enthusiasm.

• W(h)oman

Choreography, costumes: Eva Georgitsopoulou
Music: Sebastian Diakakis Nilo
Lighting design: Christos Tziogkas

Dancers: Magda Koukou-Ferra, Marita Nikolitsa, Areti Noti, Marta Rivero de Miranda, Zoi Schinoplokaki, Giannis Gantsios, Daniele Pekorari, Giorgos Hatzopoulos, Kaito Takahasi

With the state of readiness experienced by modern femininity as a starting point, the modern dance production W(h)oman to a choreography by Eva Georgitsopoulou and music by Greek-Chilean composer Sebastian Diakakis Nilo, draws inspiration from the bodies, elegance, power and femininity of dancers, to abstractly imitate the innate ability of animals to detect danger and react to it.

Performers collectively explore their ability to adapt through movement and discretely transform their shapes, qualities and trajectories, with the goal of either highlighting their presence or hiding their identity, averting the possibility of being regarded as a prey. “W(h) oman incarnates the poetry of self-protection, creating a refuge for bodies that have mastered the art of vigilance, revealing to us in the most paradoxical way their innate beauty and resilience”, notes Eva Georgitsopoulou.

The work’s music is inspired by Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound and was initially presented by the Oros Ensemble titled as Skliri Syngenia (Cruel Affinity). “The composition is an attempt to watch the Bound Man’s inner struggle”, notes composer Sebastian Diakakis Nilo.

• Les Nuits d’été

Choreography, set: Konstantinos Rigos
Music: Hector Berlioz
Lyrics: Théophile Gautier
Costumes: Deux Hommes
Lighting design: Christos Tziogkas

Tassis Christoyannis (baritone), Sofia Tamvakopoulou (piano)

Performing: Vangelis Bikos, Elena Kekkou, Margarita Kostoglou, Marita NIkolitsa, Areti Noti, Eleftheria Stamou, Marta Rivero de Miranda, Ariadni Filippaki, Despina Chrysostomou, Manes Alberdi, Giannis Gantsios, Giannis Mitrakis, Daniele Pekorari, Stefano Pietragala, Kaito Takajasi, Giorgos Hatzopoulos

The famous Les Nuits d’été cycle is one of Hector Berlioz’ most popular works. The leading French composer writes these six songs for voice and piano, to poetry by Théophile Gautier, striving to musically render, through his delicate melodies, love in its most idealised form.

Based on the song cycle of the same title, Konstantinos Rigos creates together with the GNO Ballet a work about love, loneliness, the quest, the journey. Gestures and shapes create a kaleidoscope of our individual inner summer. “Les Nuits d’été is a work that makes us reminisce of all those nights we love, fall in love, dream, live…. It talks about the fluidity of relationships and how everything can evolve under the moonlight. With references to Romanticism and the classical dance technique, the work’s dancers dive into the black waters of the sea and the black colour of senses and delusions”, notes Konstantinos Rigos. The work is performed by acclaimed baritone Tassis Christoyannis, accompanied on the piano by Sofia Tamvakopoulou.

* Due to an injury sustained by baritone Tassis Christoyannis, the  production Les Nuits d’été  will be presented on 16, 17 and 18 November with the recorded music of the premiere.