The Artist
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Konstantinos Rigos is a Greek choreographer and director. Over the years, he has signed a number of dance productions and has been responsible for various innovative creations. He was born in Athens and studied Finance at the National and Kapodistrian University and dance at the National School of Dance.
Accepting the invitation by Stefanos Lazaridis, the Greek National Opera’s artistic director back in 2007, he choreographed the plays Les Sylphides and A little piece peace for America, while in 2017 he directed Erotokritos, by composer Dimitris Maramis, the first musical commissioned by the GNO Alternative Stage.
He served as an artistic director for the dance department of National Theatre of Northern Greece (2001-2005) for which he choreographed the following plays: Sleeping Beauty, Bluebeared, The Shipwreck, Swan Lake City, Cithaeron, Winterreise, Winter Journey, Joan at the stake, Igor’s room, Helidon Idomeni, White Noise and Free Besieged.
In 1990 he formed Dancetheatre Oktana, which significantly contributed to the development of modern dance in Greece and has gained the interest of the most promising dancers of his generation. The company presented the plays: Les noces, Room 5, See you through the years – The garden, Daphnis & Chloe, the Athlete, 5 Seasons, Hotel Orpheus, Icarus –Explosive Decompression, La dame aux camellias, Alkistis, The Boxing ring, Crazy happiness, Utopia, Winterreise, Winter journey, Free Besieged –Draft b, Dressed/Undressed, Nutcracker, Neverland, Emperors new clothes, Arcadia etc.
Rigos choreographies have won multiple awards (Choreography award of the Municipality of Athens 1990 -Second Award, 1992- First Award, National dance award 1995 and 1996, National Choreography award 1999 & 2001, Melina Merkouri award 1997) and have been very well received by various international dance festival worldwide (Portugal, Usa, France, Italy, Sweden, Great Britain, Holland, Bosnia, Colombia, Germany,Venezuela, Egypt, Poland, Montenegro, Serbia, Singa-pore, Israel, Brazil, Spain etc) and are even taught at the National School of Dance to aspiring young dancers.
He directed plays from Greek and international repertoire (Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, Galano’s Red Lanterns, Elena Pegka Plays etc.), musicals and operas (Vesalii Icones by P.M. Davies, Cabaret by Fred Ebb & John Kander, Rocky Horror Picture Show by Richard O’ Brien, Erotokritos by Dimitris Maramis), children’s theatre Frutopia by Eugene Trivizas and plays which combine several arts (Much Ado about nothing, Bossa Nova, Titanic, The Wind for the National Theatre). In these productions he combines all his expertise in a range of fields, diverse kind of shows, live concerts and video clips.
His productions have been performed in 40 international Festivals and in Athens Concert Hall, Thessaloniki Concert Hall, National Theatre, National Theatre of Northern Greece, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Greek National Οpera, Cyprus Theatre Organization, Piraeus Municipal Theatre etc. As a choreographer he has choreographed many performers in films and plays from the greek (ancient and contemporary) and international repertoire. Moreover, he has collaborated with many directors of different styles ( G. Houvardas, M. Marmarinos, Andrei Serban, G. Lazani, M. Kougioumtzi, T. Bandi, St. Fasoulis, Th. Moschopoulos, M. Karamaggioli, V. Arditis, D. Iliadi, N. Panagiotopoulos, L. Lazopoulos, N. Diamantis, V. Nikolaidis, G. Smaragdis, S. Tsakiris etc). As a contributing artist and photographer he has collaborated with magazines (Vogue, Marie Claire, Athens Voice, Cool, Soul,Free etc). As a visual artist, Konstantinos has participated in exhibitions at the State Museum of Contemporary Art, Nicosia Municipal Art Center, Antonopoulou Art Center, Arsakeio Lyceulm of Patras during European Capital of Culture, Greek Film Archive, Art Athina 2007, etc.
Since 2018, he is the Greek National Opera Ballet Director. The first choreography that he presented in his new position was the Swan Lake.