Human Nature

Three internationally renowned choreographers collaborated on dance triptych Human Nature, which is coming to the Greek National Opera this March. Harris Gkekas, Gentian Doda, and the GNO Ballet Director Konstantinos Rigos present their works as a direct continuation of the very successful 2021 dance triptych, Human Behaviour, which was streamed live on GNO TV.

In Eclipse, Gkekas draws inspiration from depictions of erotic unions found on woodcut illustrations of 15th-century alchemists, drawings that came with allegories on the transformation into an ideal hermaphrodite. Speaking about his work the choreographer notes that: “When two persons come together, it is as if a work of art is completed, the most admirable form of communication.”

Rigos presents Lieder ohne Worte, a choreography based on three works by acclaimed composer Dimitris Terzakis and inspired by the legacy of Greek antiquity and modern Greek history; Words in the Wind (2009) consists of ten short haikus for violin and piano; Resonance of Hell I (1992) reflects on Terzakis’ memories of the German Occupation of Greece in WWII during his childhood; and work for solo viola Songs Without Words (1994/2017) is a celebration of ancient Greek music principles. 

Finally, in his first collaboration with the GNO Ballet, Albanian dancer and choreographer Doda presents The Hill, based on music by his collaborator César Aliaj. The question “how far is the past?” is central to Doda’s work. His starting point is a quote by sculptor Alberto Giacommeti who describes the past as a series of hills: “But those hills, those constructions, were complex, surrounded by resonances, and I felt that they were gestures, sounds of voices, movements, stains, sensations from another era, far from each other in time”.