The Ballet of the Greek National Opera will present the dance performance The Golden Age, a work created by Konstantinos Rigos, in a co-production with the Belgrade Dance Festival. The premiere will be given at the Belgrade Dance Festival on 12 April 2025, followed by performances at the Stavros Niarchos Hall of the GNO at the SNFCC on 9, 10, 14, 16, and 17 May 2025. The co-production with the Belgrade Dance Festival and the international tour are made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org] to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.
Konstantinos Rigos creates a new modular dance performance titled The Golden Age. In it, he tries to summarise the references that have left a mark on him, the obsessions that accompanied his coming-of-age process, the images that have defined him, the dance vocabulary he has crafted, his unique interpretation of stage performance, and the diverse music styles always playing in his earphones.
The Golden Age –a reference to the legendary Bossa Nova performance he presented at The National Theatre of Greece in 2008– does not point to a specific time period. Instead it could be described as an emotional mixtape of Rigos’ 35-year journey in the world of dance, where the concepts of irony and nostalgia emerge as identical. From the National School of Dance (KSOT) to the peak of the Greek dance scene in the 1990s and the Oktana Dance Theatre, The National Theatre of Northern Greece, The National Theatre of Greece, the Athens Epidaurus Festival, and the Greek National Opera, Konstantinos Rigos’ iconoclastic artistic imprint transcends the confines of dance, sparking a dialogue with the other art forms intersecting with it. His artistic identity remains restless, subversive, provocative, poignant, but at the same time also corny and nostalgic.
Looking back on the performances he has created from 1990 to the present day, Rigos notes: “A golden age, a new wave will sweep everything away, images from the past or the future, thoughts about love, faith, absence, and abandonment. The person and the place. Are we dressed or naked, like the emperor? Are we free or besieged? Are we God’s marionettes or travellers into the winter, always carrying inside of us the summer nights? Within a ring, we fight with our own selves or our own shadows, in both dark and clear blue lakes. Do we live in the Neverland, utopian Arcadias, enchanted Cithaerons, utopias, or in invisible cities? Events that have left a lasting impact on our lives and humanity, a mixtape of music and songs played on gramophones, reels, record players, Walkmans, and boomboxes, along with a small orchestra accompanying, just like in Titanic, the perishing humanity. A musical Babel. Are we looking for peace or a piece of “America”? What is this white noise surrounding us? Perhaps, it’s a wind that blows away these 35 creative years, exceeding the boundaries of thought, movement, performance, and physical constraints. Besides the body remembers! Once I had encountered a sad scuba diver. He talked to me about wild happiness that resembles the sleeping beauty lying within us, ready to burst forth after an abrupt release in a hotel where the seasons drift past us. And finally we go back to the initial question: Are you coming along on the excursion? Happy End.”
The performances of The Golden Age will be fully accessible on the 9th & 10th of May 2025, providing an inclusive audiovisual experience for all audiences in collaboration with ATLAS E.P. In this context, there will be designated seats for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing and use Greek Sign Language, places for those who rely on captions (CAPS) covering the entire audio channel, as well as seats for individuals who are blind or have limited access to the visual channel of communication and use the audio description (AD) service. Guide dogs for the visually impaired will also be permitted.
Audience members who wish to use the accessibility services are requested to purchase their tickets at the GNO Box Office, over the phone at 2130885700, or via email at boxoffice@nationalopera.gr. If you need assistance with your reservation, you can also contact ATLAS E.P. at 6993507553 or via email at askatlasep@gmail.com.
The full accessibility services for this production are funded by the Ministry of Culture, as part of the project“SUB.1.1.6 Attracting 65+ individuals and persons with disabilities to events of the Greek National Opera”. This project is implemented as part of the “Greece 2.0 – National Recovery and Resilience Plan” with funds from the European Union-NextGeneration EU.
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