Giorgos Melogiannidis
Dancer, Choreographer
He was born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1966 and passed away in Athens on 01/04/2004. He studied dance in Tbilisi, Georgia. He debuted in 1983 at the Tbilisi State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, where in 1989 he became a principal dancer and danced there until 1992. He then moved to Greece and participated as a leading dancer in the dance company of the National Theater of Northern Greece. In 1992-93, he became principal dancer with the GNO Ballet. His first role at the GNO was Puck in A midsummer night's Dream (Cassado/Mendelssohn). In the period 1992-99 he danced in about 20 productions and/or revivals of ballet productions. He danced leading and principal roles in 15 ballet performances, such as: John [Zorba the Greek] (Massine/Theodorakis), Basilio [Don Quixote] (De Pian/Minkus), Solor [The temple dancer/La bayadère] (Petipa/Minkus), Bluebird and Prince Désiré [Sleeping Beauty/La belle au bois dormant], Ali [The Pirate/Le Corsaire] (De Pian/Adam), Onesilus [Mythiamvoi] (Sideris/Christodoulidis), Mercutio [Romeo and Juliet] (Van Dantzig/Prokofiev), Sebastian [Sebastian], Prince [Cinderella] (Vinograntof /Prokofiev), Mangiafuoco [Pinocchio] (Armitage/Melocchi) and more. He also appeared in the performance The Birds [Ornithes] (Armitage/Hadjidakis). In addition, he was involved in choreography and choreographed, inter alia, Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance (GNO) and worked with choreographer Leda Shantala in the ballet production The Light of the Shadow (Katina Paxinou Theater). The birds [Ornithes], (as), etc. He has participated in international gala events and in performances of the GNO Ballet outside of Greece. He passed away after a 3-year long hospital treatment due to a suicide attempt.