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GOLDEN AGE

Konstantinos Rigos

90'

From 01/11/2025

Description

Following its triumphant world premiere at the Belgrade Dance Festival, Golden Age and an astounding reception in the Greek National Opera in May 2025, created by Konstantinos Rigos, will be presentedin 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.”