Saturday, January 19, 2019 8:00 PM
Power Center
The Great Tamer
Conceived – Visualized + Directed by Dimitris Papaioannou
“…surrealist nightmares are rarely this much fun.” (London Evening Standard)
A surreal masterpiece and surprise hit of many European festivals last summer, The Great Tamer is a visually stunning production of ten dancers that grapples with the meaning of life and the mystery of death. Referencing famous sculptures and paintings by Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Rembrandt, Greek artist Dimitris Papaioannou uses the human body to create vignettes that are at once macabre and beautiful, imbuing life with magic through circus-like stunts and optical illusions.
The ingenious and multi-talented Dimitris Papaioannou creates productions that can be seen as moving still lifes, always with a strong, distinct visual intensity. Papaioannou does not see himself as a dancer or a choreographer, but as a visual artist, a painter on the stage who creates worlds of astounding beauty. While he became widely known as the creator of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, his poetic, wordless allegory on the passage of time is a different kind of spectacle. Between levity and tragedy, Papaioannou sets the bar high and asks all of us to “exhaust our lives” and give everything we can before leaving this world.
Please Note: The Great Tamer contains frontal male and female nudity. Watch the full trailer.
Produced by Onassis Cultural Centre – Athens (Greece)
Co-produced by CULTURESCAPES Greece 2017 (Switzerland), Dansens Hus Sweden, EdM Productions, Festival d’Avignon, Fondazione Campania dei Festival – Napoli Teatro Festival Italia, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, National Performing Arts Center-National Theater & Concert Hall | NPAC-NTCH (Taiwan), Seoul Performing Arts Festival | SPAF (South Korea), Théâtre de la Ville – Paris / La Villette – Paris
Executive Producer 2WORKS
with the support of Alpha Bank and Megaron – the Athens Concert Hall
Free Pre-Performance Lobby Experience: Body of Art (Both Performances)
The Great Tamer uses the human form as a central aesthetic inspiration for its dynamic and compelling stage imagery. To prepare audiences to take a deeper look into the beauty of the human body, there will be a live figure drawing class in the Power Center lobby before each performance from 6:30 – 7:45 pm. Local artist and instructor Nora Venturelli will lead a demonstration on how to capture the intricacies of the human frame featuring four guest models.
Free Post-Performance Q&A (Friday Only)
Where does inspiration come from? What makes an artist tick? Join us for a post-performance Q&A and get a glimpse into the lives and minds of the artists who bring creativity to the stage. Must have a ticket to the performance to attend.
Thank You to Our Sponsors
SUPPORTING SPONSOR
- Jo Wiese Johnson and Timothy Johnson
PATRON SPONSOR
FUNDED IN PART BY
- The Wallace Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation