Konstantinos Rigos
Konstantinos Rigos is a Greek choreographer, current director of the Ballet of Greek National Opera in Athens. 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 “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 “Sleeping Beauty”, “Bluebeared”, “The Shipwreck”, “Swan Lake City”, “Cithaeron”, “Winterreise”, “Igor’s room”, “Helidon Idomeni”, “White Noise” and many other highly acclaimed performances.
In 1990 he formed Dancetheatre Oktana, which significantly contributed to the development of contemporary dance in Greece and has gained the interest of the most promising dancers of his generation. The company presented performances “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”, and many other titles.
Rigos choreographies have won numerous important awards in Greece and abroad. He directed plays from Greek and international repertoire (Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler”, Galano’s “Red Lanterns”…), but also many musicals and operas. In all 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… As a visual artist, he 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 Athens 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”.