Maria Nafpliotou

Maria Nafpliotou is a Greek actress.She was born and raised in Athens, where she still resides. She took up dancing while at school. She initially started her dancing lessons at the Rodopi Kouvari Dancing School but continued her studies at the Rallou Manou Professional Dancing School, whence she graduated. After she completed her studies, she started her professional career as a dancer, as a member of Rallou Manou's Greek Chorodram between 1987 and 1992 and a member of the modern dancing group Andromeda between 1990-1992. From 1992 to 1996 she was the lead dancer for the dancetheater group Roes, formed by Sofia Spyratou. In 1992 she made her first appearance on the big screen in the movie Island. In 1993 she was the leading lady of the short-length film From Now On ( Apo do kai pera) by Maria Douza. From 1996 to 1998 she studied drama at the George Kimoulis Modern Theater Of Athens drama school. She had previously had acting lessons at the Giannis Rigas workshop.In 1996 she appeared on television for the first time, taking part in the TV film Niovi Was Dancing Her Life (I Niovi horeve ti zoi tis) by Alexandros Papailiou, while in the season 1998-1999 she became widely known and recognised starring in the critically acclaimed TV series The Room Of The Throne (I Aithousa tou Thronou), under the direction of Pigi Dimitrakopoulou ( Mega Channel). Since then she has starred in selected TV productions, namely Stand by Me (Meine dipla mou) by Reina Eskenazi and 10 again by Pigi Dimitrakopoulou. In January 1999 she made her first appearance on stage as Catherine Holly in Tennessee Williams' Suddenly, Last Summer at the New Stage of the National Theatre of Greece under the direction of Korais Damatis. In the summer of the same year she held the role of Antigone in Euripides' Foinisses, a production of the National Theatre of Northern Greece in Epidavros, Herodion and other ancient theaters She has a remarkable career at theater working mostly at the National Theatre. She has participated at plays such as Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Love's labour's lost, King Lear, Dostoevsky's The idiot, Ibsen’s Ellida in The Lady From the Sea, Molière's Don Juan, Euripides's Iphigeneia in Tauris and The Trojan Women, Aeschylus's Oresteia. She has also participated in two dance theater performances written and directed by Constantinos Rigos. Much of her work has been as a member of the successful Experimental Theatrical Group of the National Theatre of Greece under the direction of Stathis Livathinos, with whom she continued working in Mikhail Lermontov's Masquerade, in J.M.Synge's Playboy of the Western World and in Carmen,an adaptation of Bizet’s opera and Merime’s work. In September 2010 she portrayed Dushanka in Goran Bregovic’s monologue Diaries of a Sad Queen, successfully presented in Herodion. Her movie career includes 3 films: Hariton’s Choir (I Horodia tou Haritona),for which she received a Best Actress Award in the 22nd Alexandreia’s Film Festival, Soul Kicking (I psychi sto stoma-Best Supporting Actress National Award) and Dying In Athens(Pethainontas stin Athina). Maria Nafpliotou, playing an ancient Greek high priestess, lit the Olympic torch for the 2008 Beijing Olympics using the sun's rays, starting the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay‎.^[1] On October 22, 2009, she repeated the performance, starting the 2010 Winter Olympics torch relay.^[2]

References

1. ^ Beijing Olympic torch lit ABC News
2. ^ "Olympic flame lit for Vancouver Games". Russia Today. October 22, 2009. http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2009-10-22/olympic-flame-lit-vancouver.html. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 

External links

• National Theatre of Greece
• National Theatre of Greece-Archive
• National Theater of Northern Greece-Rerformances Archive

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Name	Nafpliotou, Maria
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