Ballet / Dance

GOLDEN AGE

Konstantinos Rigos

90'

From 01/12/2025 to 30/04/2026

Description

Following its triumphant world premiere at the Belgrade Dance Festival and its successful performances at the Greek National Opera in May 2025, Golden Age — a co-production of the GNO and the Belgrade Dance Festival, created by Konstantinos Rigos — now available on GNO TV.

With Golden Age, the GNO Ballet Director, Konstantinos Rigos, creates a never-ending party. Inspired by the references, obsessions, and images that have marked him, the dance vocabulary he has made up himself, and the diverse music styles constantly playing in his headphones, he creates a manifesto of a generation that rushes forward to sweep everything away. The performance attempts to map a new age that promises everyone happiness, while also acknowledging that sadness, melancholy, and the struggle for acceptance are always present. Golden Age brings us a new messiah who promises to subvert everything, along with numerous new deities who lay claims over our ephemeral vows.

Golden Age aims to speak about the present and future of dance, while also serving as a reflection of a mixtape of Rigos’ 35-year-long career, where the concepts of irony and nostalgia seem to be identical. From his time at the National School of Dance (KSOT), the spring of Greek dance in the 1990s, and the Dance Theatre Company OKTANA, to his work at the Art Theatre, the National Theatre of Northern Greece, the National Theatre of Greece, the Athens Festival, and the Greek National Opera, Konstantinos Rigos’ iconoclastic imprint transcends the boundaries of dance and converses with the art forms surrounding it. His artistic identity remains restless, subversive, provocative, sharp-edged, and brimming with emotions.

Creative team – Cast

Concept, choreography, set, track selection: Konstantinos Rigos
Music: Ted Regklis
Dramaturg: Erie Kyrgia
Art installation: Petros Touloudis
Costumes: Daglara
Lighting: Christos Tziogkas
Video: Vasilis Kehagias

Dancers (Athens)
Vangelis Bikos
Manex Alberdi, Yannis Gantsios, Stavros Ikbal, Elena Kekkou, Yannis Mitrakis, Elton Dimrochi, Petros Nikolidis, Marita Nikolitsa, Daniele Pecorari, Stefano Pietragalla, Marta Rivero de Miranda, Ariadni Filippaki, Anna Fragou, Yorgos Hatzopoulos, Despina Chrysostomou

Director's note

“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.”

Photos & videos

Photos

Reviews

A rapturous party that emerges from the past and journeys into the future

A wild party that comes from the past and moves toward the future. With selections ranging from reworked compositions by Verdi and Bizet, through classic Greek songs by Chiotis, Loizou, and Mamagakis, all the way to rock and jazz sounds of the ’60s and ’70s, the performance is an exuberant dance party drawing elements from different eras and emotional landscapes.

TO VIMA - Ada Daliaka