The Greek National Opera Will Join 32nd Kalamata International Dance Festival
Two dance productions will be featured as part of the festival.
The Greek National Opera is travelling to Kalamata with two special dance productions to join the Kalamata International Dance Festival, which will be held for the 32nd consecutive year in the capital of Messenia, from the 17th to the 26th of July 2026. The new GNO Ballet production, To Have Been So Close So Many Times, centred on Giorgos Koumendakis’ new piece, will be presented on the 25th and 26th of July 2026 at the Main Hall of the Kalamata Dance Megaron. Furthermore, on the 18th of July 2026, audiences will have the opportunity to enjoy the performance Metamorphosis by the GNO Professional Dance School. The GNO’s tour across Greece is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.
The new GNO Ballet production, To Have Been So Close So Many Times, crafts a multidimensional stage universe, where contemporary dance and music theatre unite in a visceral symbiosis—an eternal conversation. Three chamber music works by Giorgos Koumendakis engage in dialogue with four poems by Constantine P. Cavafys, which are set to music in the amanes style, creating a deeply inward, reflective, and constantly shifting soundscape. Three distinguished choreographers—Patricia Apergi, Ilias Hatzigeorgiou, and Eva Georgitsopoulou—approach the material through diverse aesthetic and movement languages. The body is brought to the fore as a carrier of memory, desire, and loss, while movement hovers between group coordination and personal deviation. Nine dancers move through an environment of constant transition, where time seems to slow, repeat, and take on an almost ritualistic dimension.
The sculptural installation by visual artist Petros Touloudis turns the stage into a moving soundscape, functioning as a mechanism that produces and conveys sound, and transforming the stage into a space where emotions do not scream but instead echo across time, allowing room for imagination. The production features a unique performance by Zaharias Karounis, accompanied by Angelina Tkatcheva on the santoor, the Oros Ensemble, and the Osmosis Saxophone Quartet. John Papatzanis is in charge of percussion coaching and performs a wide range of percussion on stage, alongside the dancers. This performance does not tell a linear story; instead, it plunges the audience into an immersive, emotional experience, an inward ritual.
The Professional Dance School of the Greek National Opera presents the performance Metamorphosis under the guidance of its Head of Studies, Yorghos Matskaris. The School’s students will be tested on a demanding diptych of contemporary dance featuring choreographies by Cyril Baldy and Jesús Rubio Gamo. The internationally acclaimed French dancer and choreographer Cyril Baldy revisits his choreography With Love and All That, which was first performed at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris. With Love and All That – ACT II explores the essence of dance, drawing on classical ballet as a foundation to shape thoughtful, carefully constructed choreographic landscapes. Originally conceived as a three-act work, ACT II focuses on dynamic group formations in which structure, momentum, and shifting spatial patterns drive the choreography. The piece seeks to reconnect with the raw, expressive power of movement, offering a contemporary take on ballet’s timeless beauty. The internationally acclaimed Spanish choreographer Jesús Rubio Gamo stamps his mark on the revival of an excerpt from his choreography Gran Bolero. Awarded the MAX Prize (Spanish awards for the performing arts) for Best Dance Show in 2020, Gran Bolero is a powerful piece. It’s an ode to hope and to dance itself. Lightness fights with gravity on the very thin line between pleasure and exhaustion. It is a dance celebrating the time and space we share.