To have been so close so many times
music: Giorgos Koumendakis
poetry: Constantine Cavafy
choreography: Patricia Apergi, Eva Georgitsopoulou, Ilias Hatzigeorgiou, Konstantinos Rigos
art installation: Petros Touloudis
costumes: Daglara
lighting design: Nikos Vlasopoulos
percussion coach: John Papatzanis
duration: 70’
premiere: Belgrade Dance Festival, 2026
dancers: Vangelis Bikos, Angelos Antoniou, Yannis Gantsios, Elena Kekkou, Marita Nikolitsa, Stefano Pietragalla, Daniele Pecorari, Yorgos Hatzopoulos, Cecilia Hatziemmanouil, Despina Chrysostomou
musicians: Zacharias Karounis (singer), Angelina Tkatcheva (santoor) Apostolis Koutsogiannis, Konstantinos Zigeridis, Eirini Krikoni, Dimitris Karagiannakidis (Oros Ensamble) & Christos Zenios, Antonis Fotiadis, Theofilos Sotiriadis, Giannis Myralis (Osmosis Saxophone Quartet)
The production is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation to enhance the artistic outreach of the Greek National Opera.
One composer, ten musicians, one singer, ten dancers, and four choreographers in a nine-piece creative composition. In a dark, atmospheric, minimalist performance in scenery and costumes, a table becomes the meeting point, as in a square in a Greek village, for musicians and dancers. Around this table, the dance story speaks about life, death and love. Fates, amenedes based on verses by the famous Greek poet Constantin Cavafy are interpreted by the singer and danced by a soloist. Four generations of choreographers meet to talk about movement, music, theatricality and what might be what unites four creators in the creation of a work that is perhaps shared for the first time. Since we are not talking about a modular performance but about a single work.
Patricia Apergi was born in Athens. In 2006, she founded Aerites Dance Company. Her works have toured widely, appearing at numerous festivals and stages in Greece and abroad. She has also worked as a movement director for the theater, opera, and art installations, and has choreographed pieces for dance and ballet companies around the world. Apergi co-wrote the book “Theatre History – Theatre Studies”. She has been a European Dancehouse Network modul-dance artist, and associate artist at Maison de la Danse in Lyon. From 2020 to 2022, she was part of the Epidaurus Festival Board of Directors.
Born in Athens, Ilias Hatzigeorgiou has been a professional dancer and dance teacher for the last 20 years, and a member of the Aerites Dance Company since 2009. He has served as an instructor in several dance education programs.
Eva Georgitsopoulou was born in Patras. In 2013, she graduated from the State School of Dance in Athens and continued her studies in Israel, with a full scholarship from Rami Beer and his Kibbutz Dance Company. From 2016 to 2021 she worked as a performer with Aerites Dance Company. At the same time, she was a choreographic associate for several productions in Greece and abroad. Since 2019, Georgitsopoulou has been dancing regularly in pieces by the company Sasha Waltz & Guests. She lives in Berlin, and her own choreographic productions have been staged internationally since 2015.
Born in Athens, Konstantinos Rigos studied economics and graduated from the Greek National School of Dance. In 1990, he founded the Oktana Dancetheatre, many productions of which have toured internationally. His shows have been featured in over 40 international festivals in many cities around the world as well as in Greece (Athens Concert Hall, Thessaloniki Concert Hall, National Theatre of Greece, National Theatre of Northern Greece, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Greek National Opera, Cyprus Theatre Organization, Piraeus Municipal Theatre, Odeon of Herodes Atticus, etc). He has been awarded the Greek State Award for Dance (1995, 1996), the Greek State Award for Choreography (1999, 2001) and the Melina Mercouri Award (1997). He was the artistic director of the Dance Theatre of the National Theatre of Northern Greece from 2000 to 2005. He has directed plays from the Greek and international repertoire, musicals, operas, the children’s play “Frutopia” by Eugene Trivizas and multi-disciplinary productions like “Much Ado and Nothing”, “Bossa Nova”, “Titanic”, “Wind” for the National Theatre of Greece, in which he combines all of his capacities. Since 2018, he has been the artistic director of the Greek National Opera Ballet. Since 2019, he has been president of the school from which he graduated, the Greek National School of Dance.
