Importance of journey in dance show
“Winter Traveler,» Constantinos Rigos’s latest work and a co-production of the State Theater of Northern Greece Dance Theater and the OKTANA dance group, opened yesterday at the Hora Theater and will run to February 15. The production premiered last spring at Thessaloniki’s Vassiliko Theatro. It was then performed at the same venue during the fall and at the end of November the show was staged, for two nights, at the Montenegro National Theater. In the show, 13 dancers go through different stages of loneliness, in a public or private place. The production’s title, a reference to Schubert’s lieder compositions («Winterreise / Winter Journey»), is rather deceptive, since, according to Rigos, the traveler and his or her experiences are more important than the journey itself. The show is set in wintertime, while time varies between the seasons. The costumes are very important since, unlike Rigos’s previous work, they explore how far a body can be covered. The sets are by Dionysis Fotopoulos and the music by upcoming composer Dimosthenis Grivas. Dancers include Elena Topalidou, Costas Gerardos, Panayiotis Kontonis, Amalia Bennett and others. «Winter Traveler» will be staged in Belgrade on April 17 and will then return to Thessaloniki’s Vassiliko Theatro on May 5. In October 2004, it will be performed at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv. Apart from «Winter Traveler,» other activities of the State Theater of Northern Greece Dance Theater for 2004 include the presentation of Arthur Honegger’s and Paul Claudel’s «Joan of Arc at the Stake,» directed by Thomas Moschopoulos, at the Athens Concert Hall on February 26 and 27, and the Dance Marathon on April 29, an event that lasts an entire day. The group will also perform the show «Swan Memory» at the Singapore International Festival on June 9 and 10, as well as in Lyon, in the context of the Biennale Dance Europa, in September. Other events include the opening of «The Nutcracker,» choreographed by Rigos, in December, which will complete the trilogy that also consists of «Sleeping Beauty» and «Swan Memory.»
