Christos Papadopoulos: Dance as a Metaphor for Life

This autumn, we’re celebrating the euphoria of being alive with My Fierce Ignorant Step, a captivating new work by internationally renowned choreographer Christos Papadopoulos.

A Language Emerges

The Greek choreographer is making his way to Montreal for the first time—at the invitation of Danse Danse—to present his latest creation, My Fierce Ignorant Step.

“We like to invite choreographers who have singular, unconventional styles,” explains Pierre Des Marais, Executive and Artistic Director of Danse Danse. “And Christos Papadopoulos has truly succeeded in creating his own language.”

Born in a small village in the Peloponnese region of southern Greece in 1982, Christos Papadopoulos has charted a unique artistic path over the last decade.

His academic background bears witness to a mind nurtured by eclecticism: he first studied theatre, then political science, before turning to dance and choreography at the prestigious SNDO (School for New Dance Development) in Amsterdam. This multidisciplinary training shaped an approach in which movement becomes an instrument for observing reality and human behaviour.

From the outset, Papadopoulos established himself on the contemporary scene with a minimalist, repetitive, and rigorously precise aesthetic.

Nature also stands out as one of his main inspirations, depicted through a multitude of subtle rhythmic variations through which he transforms the body into metaphors for natural phenomena—the flow of water, flocks of birds, underground fungal networks.

This aesthetic quest is resoundingly reflected in Larsen C, a show that premiered in 2021, cementing the choreographer’s reputation. Inspired by the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula, which broke off in 2017, the work has been seen in over 25 European venues and festivals, earning Papadopoulos the very first Rose International Dance Award presented by Sadler’s Wells in London in 2025.

When Memory Becomes a Heartbeat

“I think the Montreal audience will really like My Fierce Ignorant Step,” says Pierre Des Marais. “The piece begins slowly, with repetitive gestures, but the music and dance build up, and at the end it’s as if we join the dancers in a joyful trance.”

For the artistic director of Danse Danse, there is a kinship between Papadopoulos’s work and that of the Israeli choreographer and dancer Sharon Eyal. “With her too, the group always moves together. Even if some dancers break away, they always return to the spirit of the collective. Sharon Eyal’s dance, like Papadopoulos’s, functions like a living organism that unfolds on stage.”

My Fierce Ignorant Step also draws on the choreographer’s sonic memories of childhood, reviving the intrepid joy of invincible youth.

Driven by an original musical score by Kornilios Selamsis, the piece develops an ecstatic sonic and physical world in which the dancers pulsate as a single organism. Walking the line between meditative energy and collective euphoria, it invites the audience on a striking sensory journey.

My Fierce Ignorant Step, at Théâtre Maisonneuve in Place des Arts, October 28 to 31, 2026.