Ministry of Culture and Sports: 5th Greek National Opera Online Festival | Body, remember…| 26 May-22 June 2021 | nationalopera.gr/GNOTV/en

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 directorship of Giorgos Koumendakis and artistically 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 Giorgos 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. 

 

 

5th Online Festival Body, remember…

 

• Body, remember… | Part I
  Premiere 26 May 2021 at 20.00, nationalopera.gr/GNOTV | It will remain online until 26/6

Ι. If I Die… She Said
Choreography: Harry Koushos, Music: Andreas Moustoukis

ΙΙ. Dancing Cloud
Choreography: Thanasis Solomos, Music: StarWound

 

• Body, remember… | Part II
  Choreographic Tribute to Guitar Works
  Guitarist Giorgos Mouloudakis
  Premiere 4 June 2021 at 21.00, nationalopera.gr/GNOTV | It will remain online until 4/7

Ι. Divin
Choreography: Maria Kousouni | Music: Manos Hadjidakis

ΙΙ. The Paths We Take
Choreography: Eleftheria Stamou | Music: Nikos Kypoyrgos

ΙΙΙ. e-exodus
Choreography: Fotis Diamantopoulos | Music: Nikos Mamangkakis

IV. Synchordia
Choreography: Tatiana Papadopoulou, Music: Giorgos Mouloudakis

 

• Body, remember… | Part III
  Premiere 14 June 2021 at 21.00, nationalopera.gr/GNOTV |It will remain online until 14/7

I. W(h)oman
Choreography: Eva Georgitsopoulou | Music: Sebastian Diakakis

II. Butterfly
Choreography: Giorgos Papadopoulos | Music: Sebastian Diakakis

III. Kelifos
Choreography: Fotis Nikolaou | Music: Petros Leivadas

 

 

• Body, remember… | Part IV
  Premiere 22 June 2021 at 21.00, nationalopera.gr/GNOTV |It will remain online until 22/7

 

Ι. Fragments
Choreography: Persa Stamatopoulou | Music: Apostolis Koutsogiannis

ΙΙ. HARPY
Choreography: Michalis Theofanous | Music: Danai Belosinof

ΙΙΙ. Into the Storm
Choreography: Alex Kyriakoulis | Music: Stamatis Pasopoulos

 

 

PROGRAMME OF THE  5th GNO ONLINE FESTIVAL
BODY, REMEMBER…

 

Body, remember… | Part I
Premiere 26 May 2021 at 21.00, nationalopera.gr/GNOTV | It will remain online until 26/6

 

If I Die… She Said

Choreography: Harry Koushos

Music: Andreas Moustoukis

Conductor: Miltos Logiadis

Space arrangement: Marilena Kalaitzantonaki

Costume coordination: Yorgos Mesimeris

Director: Michalis Asthenidis

Photography director: Fotis Zygouris

Dancers: Eleana Andreoudi, Maria Kousouni, Popi Sakellaropoulou, Elena Kekkou, Margarita Kostoglou, Rina Shimada, Danilo Zeka, Vangelis Bikos, Stelios Katopodis, Yannis Gantsios

Musicians Members of the Greek National Opera Orchestra

Dancer and choreographer Harry Koushos creates a choreography to Andreas Moustoukis’ musical composition titled If I Die… She Said shot in a workshop producing exact replicas of classical statues at the Fund of Archaeological Proceeds. The work features the choreographer pondering on mortality and eternity, while conversing with his own raw material, the human body, and the raw material of statues. A harmonious coexistence of the animate and the inanimate, a calm acceptance of the  perishability of the body and materials, the perishability of civilisation itself. Members of the GNO Orchestra perform the music under the baton of Miltos Logiadis.

 

Dancing Cloud

Choreography: Thanassis Solomos

Music: StarWound

Text: Mina Lambropoulou

Costume coordination: Yorgos Mesimeris

Lighting: Dimitris Koutas

Director: Michalis Asthenidis

Photography director: Fotis Zygouris

Dancers: Fotis Diamantopoulos, Michalis Kriebardis, Yorgos Hatzopoulos

Dancing Cloud is a work dedicated to the memory of the distinguished principal dancer of the Greek National Opera Ballet Aleksandar (Sasha) Neskov, choreographed by Thanassis Solomos and set to music by the Greek anglophone band StarWound. Thanassis Solomos notes about the choreography: ”There are many moments that have been deeply engraved in our mind and soul. Journeys in time and space, paths that were different but converged at times, unite them creating a strong relationship. They are there! They move, they complete each other, they become one, they detach from each other and then become one again. The carve out with their bodies what unites them. Their marks are there and will remain indelible.“ Petros Bouras, the member of StarWound who wrote the lyrics, adds: “I was in Karpenisi when I heard about Sasha’s tragic loss. The spring there was in full bloom and in total contrast to the loss of such a remarkable and young man. The next day, Dancing Cloud was written - a fairy tale in which Sasha embraces Spring and they both dance together in heaven, but Spring, being the most ephemeral time of the year, abandons him, leaving him alone like a cloud. A year later, the fairy tale is brought to life…”

 

Body, remember… | Part II

Choreographic Tribute to Guitar Works

Guitarist: Yorgos Mouloudakis

Premiere 4 June 2021 at 21.00, nationalopera.gr/GNOTV |It will remain online until 4/7

 

Divin

Choreography: Maria Kousouni

Music: Manos Hadjidakis

Costumes: Dimitris Petrou

Costume coordination: Yorgos Mesimeris

Lighting: Dimitris Koutas

Director: Michalis Asthenidis

Photography director: Fotis Zygouris

Dancers: Maria Kousouni, Anna Frangou, Elena Kekkou, Rina Shimada, Stratos Papanoussis, Yannis Gantsios, Yorgos Hatzopoulos  

GNO Ballet Principal Dancer Maria Kousouni choreographs Divin, a work based on a suite written by Manos Hadjidakis for guitarist Yorgos Mouloudakis. In Divin everything begins with music. Maria Kousouni notes: “(Everything begins) With notes that are clear like water, from Yorgos Mouloudakis’ performance of two pieces from Manos Hadjidakis’ Magnus Eroticus; two pieces so famous, that you can’t help but hum. Through a Cretan dance that takes form for the first time… they release emotions. These music choices have incredible power. They inspired in me clear, lucid images. I sought simple, unadorned lines that could give “space” to music and narrate the grandeur of woman, the grandeur of love and romantic love in an abstract way, simply and symbolically, exactly as they are. In the heart of their being.”

The Paths We Take

Choreography: Eleftheria Stamou

Music: Nikos Kypourgos

Costume coordination: Yorgos Mesimeris

Director: Michalis Asthenidis

Photography director: Fotis Zygouris

Dancers: Margarita Kostoglou, Eleftheria Stamou, Yorgos Hatzopoulos

 

The Paths We Take is a work choreographed by GNO Ballet dancer Eleftheria Stamou and based on the music written by Nikos Kypourgos for guitarist Yorgos Mouloudakis. Inspired by the sweet melancholy of Nikos Kypourgos’ score, Eleftheria Stamou creates a work that talks about loneliness, the paths we choose, the people we meet and all that we leave behind. The choreographer notes: “On a path that is so unknown yet also so familiar I connect with people and connect trails. And everything is lost again and you end up alone.”

e-exodus

Choreography: Fotis Diamantopoulos

Music: Nikos Mamangakis

Costume coordination: Yorgos Mesimeris

Sound design: Antonis Palaskas

Director: Michalis Asthenidis

Photography director: Fotis Zygouris

Dancers: Areti Noti, Elton Dimrochi

 

E-exodus is both a story of confinement and an escape towards the light conceived and choreographed by Fotis Diamantopoulos to music by Nikos Mamangakis, performed by Yorgos Mouloudakis. It is a ten-minute journey from the dark depths to the open horizon. Fotis Diamantopoulos notes about the choreography: “Confinement means being restricted to a certain space; it is the opposite of freedom. Just like the social confinement that all of us experience nowadays as a loss of our everyday life and freedom. Such a loss as well as the lack of connection bring about feelings of anger, fear, insecurity and sadness. But is there any escape window? Yes, there is, and any one of us can open it by facing our present, the present moment with honesty and love. Then and only then can we reconnect with ourselves, the other and nature.”

Synchordia

Choreography: Τatiana Papadopoulou

Music: Yorgos Mouloudakis 

Costumes: Celia Kritharioti

Costume coordination: Yorgos Mesimeris

Director: Michalis Asthenidis

Photography director: Fotis Zygouris

Dancers: Eleana Andreoudi, Maria Kousouni, Christina Makridou, Danilo Zeka, Vangelis Bikos, Stelios Katopodis 

In collaboration with the Municipal Theatre of Pireaus

Choreographer, dancer and artistic director of “Dancers of the North” Tatiana Papadopoulou choreographed Synchordia, a work composed and performed by Yorgos Mouloudakis. She notes: “Two bodies crossing each other are recognised by their vibrations. Not all vibrations match with all bodies. Only if they meet at the right time, at the right place. When they embrace each other, then their heartbeats cooperate like notes. Every muscle fiber produces music as if it were a string. Music like a love call, like a dialogue/response. Fascination embraces the bodies and leads them to union or rejection; to uplift or elimination.”

 

Extra stream: Yorgos Mouloudakis’ Recital

The programme also includes Yorgos Mouloudakis’ Recital of the guitar works that inspired the choreographies of the second part of the 5th GNO Online Festival.

Director: Michalis Asthenidis

Photography director: Fotis Zygouris

 

The recital will feature excerpts from the works:

Music: Manos Hadjidakis, Suite for guitar (I love you, Cretan Dance, Who is frenzied with love?)

Nikos Mamangakis, Praise to Manos Hadjidakis (Aretousa, Hasapiko)

Nikos Kypourgos, Nine Musical Images for Guitar (Praying Mantis, Chase for Three, The Pathway Home)

Yorgos Mouloudakis, Nocturnal Flight and Little Blue Buggy from the suite The young man and the owl), In the living room (from the cycle Clocks), Strange train

It is a selection of guitar works dedicated to Yorgos Mouloudakis by Manos Hadjidakis, Nikos Kypourgos and Nikos Mamangakis, accompanied by four of Yorgos Mouloudakis’ own works. As he notes: “Dance, as perceived by the post-war generation – namely as a celebration and ritual that strengthens community bonds – is the dominant feature here, interrupted only by strands of lyricism. Orchestration in these works draws upon the tradition of polyrhythms that has been absorbed into the urban fabric, the same tradition that gave birth to the Greek urban folk song (rebetiko) and Greek dances. The new performance of the works for the Greek National Opera showcases the balance between the Dionysian and the Apollonian, a balance whose primary nature we recall through the guitar – an instrument of celebration and confession. It is on the solid canvas of this musical material that the choreographies of Maria Kousouni, Eleftheria Stamou, Fotis Diamantopoulos and Tatiana Papadopoulou are built. These choreographies underline, in the parallel world of movement, those elements that we have in common with the true mentality of that generation. Thus, little independent bridges are built between the two centuries, and the question of continuity, of the unbreakable body of expression in our country, arises once again.”

 

Body, remember… | Part III

Premiere 14 June 2021 at 21.00, nationalopera.gr/GNOTV | It will remain online until 14/7

W(h)oman

Choreography: Eva Georgitsopoulou

Music: Sebastian Diakakis

Costumes: Dimitris Parthenis

Costume coordination: Yiorgos Mesimeris

Director: Michalis Asthenidis

Photography director: Fotis Zygouris

Dancers: Marita Nikolitsa, Areti Noti, Marta Rivero de Miranda, Rina Shimada, Zoi Schinoplokaki, Yannis Gantsios, Ángel Martínez Sánchez, Yorgos Hatzopoulos   Music performed by Oros Ensemble

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

Choreography: Giorgos Papadopoulos

Music: Sebastian Diakakis

Costume coordination: Yorgos Mesimeris

Director: Michalis Asthenidis

Photography director: Fotis Zygouris

Dancer Yorgos Papadopoulos 

Musicians Oros Ensemble

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

Choreography: Fotis Nikolaou

Music: Petros Leivadas

Concept: Fotis Nikolaou, Nikos Nikolopoulos

Director, director of photography: Nikos Nikolopoulos

Costume coordination: Yorgos Mesimeris

Unit production manager: Alexandros Koromilas

Dancers: Eleftheria Stamou, Michalis Kriebardis, Kristian Luce

With the participation of: Liliana Alonso Torres, Antonis Antoniou, Antonis Vlachos, Fotis Nikolaou, Julian Rizek

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?