As part of the Greek National Opera’s tours in Greece, the GNO Learning & Participation department will present two arts workshops for the whole family at 8 stops across Greece: Dad… shall we dance? and Rigoletto.

The dance-play workshop that fathers and children have taken to heart, Dad… shall we dance?, is an invitation to a thoroughly joyful dance. Fathers dance with their children, balance on ballet shapes, test the limits of their balance, and talk to their partners through movement and dance. Movement activities, improvisations and games reveal rhythm, and the movement of the body, as a way of living and a necessary part of everyday life. The workshop has already been held in Nafplio and on Paros.

Tour programme:
1 November 2025 – Main Stage of the Kalamata Dance Megaron
Orestiada
Didymoteicho
Soufli
Alexandroupoli

Rigoletto, created within the Pocket Opera & Ballet programme, is an original multisensory experience designed especially for babies and young children aged 1 to 3 and inspired by Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto. It builds a multimedia world of sound, image and movement so that children can meet opera through sensory exploration and active participation. Starting from the aria “La donna è mobile” and drawing on natural landscapes, especially the remarkable world of birds, ideas such as change, transformation and climax are approached through experience. In a purpose-built visual space, moving images and colours shift, accompanied by natural soundscapes, while adapted themes from Verdi are played live by the company’s musicians. This creates an open learning environment, rich in sound and image, in which the young spectators and the adults with them are encouraged to take part, interact and express themselves freely as they watch the changing landscapes and patterns.

The activity does not follow the usual form of a theatre performance. Instead it sets up a space open to free expression, imagination and play: an invitation to a lively, interactive conversation with the world of opera.