While sport events are the main dish for any modern Olympics, opening and closing ceremonies are its appetizer and desert - whether the colourful puppets launching the 1992 Barcelona opening show or tearful Misha, the bear, closing Moscow's 1980 games. For the upcoming Athens games, modern dance choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou will be the creative force behind the spectacle, as announced by Athens 2004 Executive Director Marton Simitsek on May 9.
With some 5 billion television spectators watching, the innovative choreographer/dancers show will be in the global spotlight. Details of the proposal that wowed the International Olympic Committee as well as Greece's Prime Minister and Minister of Culture are top secret. But energetic Papaioannou - who has juggled creative and public relations success for over a decade capitalizing on diverse influences - promises a twist. "My task is to update the perception of Greek history in such a way that it expresses modern Greece and promises a bright future," he says.
A painter seduced by dance
Papaioannou, 38, who studied art with painter Yannis Tsarouchis and at the Athens School of Fine Arts, started training in modern dance and theatre in 1983. He studied in New York with La Mamma Experimental Theatre Company and noted choreographer Erick Hawkins and explored the Japanese modern dance discipline Butoh.
Through his twenties Papaioannou made a name for himself as a cartoon artist (taking top prize at the Marseilles Biennale's Comic competition in 1991). Yet the always-in-motion artist is most known for his Omada Edafous Dance Theatre troupe, co-founded in 1986 with dancer Angeliki Stellatou. Groundbreaking duets between charismatic, gesturing Papaioannou and immaculately physical Stellatou became the troupe's trademark. Even the first pieces had international audiences, as The Mountain, Raincoat, Room I and Room II were performed at Youth Biennales in Spain and Italy.
From Medea to Dracula
In 1993 Omada Edafous made its biggest splash with Medea, a poetic, wordless telling of the tragic ancient story. The award-winning (Top State Dance prize) work, the most "classical" of Papaioannou's subjects, may hint at what the Athens 2004 games ceremonies may hold. In sultry Medea's mix of abstract dance and symbolic acting, Papaioannou showed off stylish, minimalist props, ambitious staging, scenery and costuming. Set to the moody music of Vincenzo Bellini, it was located in a nightmarish nowhere-land literally floating on water, where past and present blend.
Omada Edafous subsequent works (about one a year) have drawn from non-Greek tales, such as The Brothers Grimm (1996), and Dracula (1997) or dealt with universal urban emotions. Some of the choreographer's most daring moves include romantic duets between male dancers (in his latest For Ever, a man in a gorilla suite and his partner in a tutu). Papaioannou, who cites cinema as one of his strongest influences, both embraces and toys with romantic pop culture.
As far as music goes, Papaioannou is open to many sources. Johan Sebastian Bach and Cole Porter, for instance, are found side-by-side in For Ever. In many works he has employed original music by long-time collaborator composer Yorgos Koumendakis. Moreover, he has choreographed Manos Hadjidakis' last work The Songs of Sin and shaped a work around Iannis Xenakis' Oresteia, the Aeschylos Suite for the National Theatre of Northern Greece both in 1995.
From opera to live music shows
While his troupe continued performing in many international festivals, spreading its unique dance theatre art, Papaioannou himself has delved into directing a multitude of events. Thus, adding to his credentials, are work with actress Irene Papas, stage director Lefteris Voyiatzis and popular composer Thanos Mikroutsikos among others. Papaioannou has also worked at top local venues, including the Athens Concert Hall, where he directed the staging of Bellini's opera La Sonnambula (2000).
In recent years, the choreographer/dancer has probably reached his largest audiences by choreographing the live shows of popular Greek singers Alkistis Protopsalti and Haris Alexiou.
Olympic warmth and inspiration
His work with large groups in the past has taught Papaioannou the wisdom of "intense detail planning" and "warm human relationships". But nothing really prepares one for the scale of the Olympic ceremonies. For the Sydney games, for example, choreographer David Atkins required dozens of co-choreographers and designers to orchestrate a show of 12,500 dancers, acrobats and fire-breathers.
Papaioannou, who is now trying to recruit artistic collaborators, notes that his life has changed "dramatically". Gone are the days of being involved in many projects concurrently while running Omada Efadous. "I will devote myself," he says, "to this huge project until the end of the Olympics."
While his proposal (complete with a script and music) was accepted without a tender, the Athens 2004 organization is inviting bids from companies for the 49-million-euro projects production and accounting. (Papaioannou and his group are to receive 1.3 million euros for their work).
As for Papaioannou's favourite Olympic ceremonies to date, he notes that circus-loving choreographer Philippe Decoufle's work at the Albertville 1992 Winter Olympics "remains unsurpassed."
