Angelos Grimanis

He was born in Patras in 1906. He began his dance studies with Mary Wigman in Dresden during the 1920s. He continued them in Berlin at the schools of dancers and choreographers Victor Grovsky and Margherita Wallmann and composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann, and then in Paris with Bronislava Nijinska. He made his debut in 1927 in Berlin, in the operetta The Tsarevich [Der Zarewitsch]. He excelled as principal dancer at the Stuttgart State Opera and the Cologne Opera (1929-30), worked with the Deutsches Theater in Berlin in the days of Max Reinhardt (1931-31), the Nijinska ballets at the Paris Opera, the Chemnitz Opera and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in Paris (1932-33). Upon his return to Greece in 1933, he was hired by the National Theatre as principal dancer and choreographer. For thirty years, he collaborated in productions of prose, opera and operettas with practically all the leading figures of theater and music, including: Politis, Rontiris, Katselis, Mouzenidis, Karantinos, Lygizos, Myrat, Fokas, Klonis, Anemoyiannis, Vakalo, Vasileiou, Antiochos Evangelatos. His contribution in the attempt to present ancient drama from the angle of avant-garde directors of the National Theater (1934-37) was decisive. In 1936 he was honored at the International Dance Festival of the Berlin Olympic Games. During the twenty years that he served as a resident dancer and choreographer at the Greek National Opera (1941-1960), he choreographed ballet pieces for about 50 operas and operettas and created original ballets based on works of classical music and new music by Greek composers, such as: The Merchant [O Pramateftis], The Death of the Valliant Woman [O thanatos tis andreiomenis], The Eagle [O aetos], The Tanagran Woman and the Sorceress [I Tanagraia kai i magissa]. In the 1950s he worked closely with Rallou Manou’s Hellenic Choreodrama, participated as a dancer and choreographer in several revues and as a choreographer in a number of Greek films, while he also became active outside the borders of Greece.

Source: Greek National Opera – Educational Virtual Museum